Spreken bij volle maan. De kerk en het nieuwe heidendom

Samenvatting

(1)This article investigates the question how the church should relate to the many new religious
forms and movements, which achieve great success in Europe these days. It is often argued, that the new religious revival brings opportunities for the church to connect with this new sensitivity for religious affairs. In this article it is argued, that this is much too optimistic. In this variety of new religious movements the old paganism comes up. We are naturally heathen. Christian faith never fully becomes one’s one. The Christian faith in Europe peeled off like a coat of paint and beneath it you can see paganism, that had never gone away.
(2)New religious movements exist in different forms. Some want to return to old Germanic paganism. Others formulate forms of pantheism. Special attention is given to the belief that there seems to be ‘Something’, an all-pervading but not knowable Secret (Ietsisme). This is interpreted as a modern form of pantheism.
(3)The church should be prepared to be a spiritual and cognitive minority in the midst of many
alternative ways of living and believing. In order to be prepared, reorientation on the sources of the Bible and the Early Church is necessary, as well as the development of spiritual strength. If the church regains new joy and wonder, as reactions to the salvation in Jesus Christ, she can be preserved from a fearful and reactionary response.