De schuldverklaring ‘Erkenning en verantwoordelijkheid’ van 8 november 2020 in theologisch licht

Samenvatting

This article critically evaluates statement in the Protestant Church of the Netherlands’ Declaration of Recognition and Responsibility (November 8, 2020) that the church authorities “often lacked the courage to stand up for the Jewish inhabitants of our country.” The analysis focuses (1) on the belief that the church was guilty with regard to the Jews and (2) on the role played by the understanding of the nature of the church, and concludes that that declaration is untrue as a totalizing statement and implies a gross disregard of the courage that was often shown. Furthermore, the Declaration does not take into account the difference between the past lived experiences and present judgments of that time, especially in terms of the understanding of the nature of the church. The Declaration one-sidedly identifies the concept of church with its leadership of the church and fails to appreciate the church’s local experiences, and how its expresses those by means of its office-bearers.