The Dutch Evangelical Movement The social and cultural influences on its growth Arjan Schoemaker S0991023 Leiden, January 2015 Master: Religion, Culture and Society Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion Supervisor: Dr. Willem Hofstee Second reader: Prof. Dr. E.G.E. van der Wall The Dutch Evangelical Movement The social and cultural influences on its growth Leiden, January 2015 Photo front page: cip.nl Content Preface ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 4 2. Social theories and the Evangelical movement ................................................................................... 8 2.1. The evangelical movement as a New Religious Movement ......................................................... 8 2.2. The evangelical movement and secularization .......................................................................... 10 2.2.1. The attritionist theory ......................................................................................................... 11 2.2.2. The atrabilious theory ......................................................................................................... 11 2.3. The evangelical movement and the Rational Choice Theory ..................................................... 13 2.4. Religious individualism ............................................................................................................... 15 2.5. Evangelical Religion as lived and subjective ............................................................................... 17 2.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 19 3. The Netherlands 1945-1980 .............................................................................................................. 20 3.1. A time of reconstruction (1945-1950) ........................................................................................ 20 3.2. The civil fifties 1950-1959 .......................................................................................................... 22 3.2.1. The Cold War and the American connection ...................................................................... 22 3.2.2. Pillarization in the 1950’s .................................................................................................... 24 3.3. The Sixties ................................................................................................................................... 26 3.3.1. Growing prosperity and education...................................................................................... 26 3.3.2. The world opens up: Television ........................................................................................... 28 3.3.3. Youth culture ....................................................................................................................... 28 3.3.4. De-pillarization and re-pillarization ..................................................................................... 29 3.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 30 4. Developments in the Evangelical Movement 1945 - 1980................................................................ 31 4.1. The dawning period of the Evangelical Movement 1945-1965 ................................................. 32 4.1.1. Youth for Christ: a youth movement ................................................................................... 32 4.1.2. Billy Graham: the Christian Kennedy ................................................................................... 35 4.1.3. Tommy Lee Osborn: a faith ‘healer’ .................................................................................... 38 4.2. Towards a movement (sub-pillar) – 1965-1980 ......................................................................... 39 1 4.2.1. Ben Hoekendijk: an evangelical entrepreneur .................................................................... 40 4.2.2. Mission Organizations ......................................................................................................... 41 4.2.3. Evangelical broadcasting company ..................................................................................... 43 4.2.4. Evangelical Higher Education .............................................................................................. 44 4.3. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 45 5. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 47 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 51 2 Preface In the four and a half years I have been working for EA-EZA (a merger of the Evangelical Alliance and Evangelical Missionary Alliance) I have seen many evangelical organizations that celebrated their fortieth or fiftieth anniversary. I have asked myself the question many times, why so many evangelical organizations started in the period roughly from the mid-fifties till the mid-seventies of the twentieth century. This research looks into the cultural and social factors that stimulated the growth of the evangelical movement after the Second World War in The Netherlands. This thesis contributes also to the answer of the question: how the religious landscape in The Netherlands has changed in the second half of the twentieth century and how these changes and the growth of the evangelical movement are connected with each other. There are several people I want to thank for their support while conducting the research. First of all my thanks goes to Dr. Wim Hofstee for guiding me through the process of writing this thesis, with his useful remarks and insides. At the same time my thanks goes to Prof. Dr. Ernestien van der Wall for reading the thesis as the second reader. I also want to thank Tim Herbert who did an excellent job in correcting the English. Special thanks goes to Otto de Bruijne, Hans Keijzer, Peter Vlug, Ben Hoekendijk, Koos van Delden, Evert van de Poll and Bert Doorenbos who were more than willing to share their perspectives on the growth of the evangelical movement in the Netherlands and answered many of my questions. In this context I also want to thank Laura Dijkhuizen who gave valuable suggestions. I also want to thank my directors at EA-EZA Adri Veldwijk and Jan Wessels for the possibility to arrange my working schedule in a way I could complete this thesis. Last but definitely not least I want to thank my lovely wife Simone and my children, Tom, Tirza and Thijs for having patience with me and for giving me the opportunity to study at the university and to finish this thesis. 3 1. Introduction Dutch religious landscape has changed tremendously after the Second World War. The 1947 census (Volkstelling 1947, 1947, p. 5) shows that eighty three percent of the population claimed to belong to a Christian denomination. In 1979 this number had decreased to fifty seven percent. (Dekker, Hart, & Peters, 1997, p. 12). In over thirty years the percentage of people not adhering to a church had more than doubled. This decrease in church adherence and attendance had already started at the end of the nineteenth century but accelerated significantly in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century. The American Professor of History at the free university of Amsterdam, James Kennedy, points out that the religious developments in post-war Netherlands can be divided into three periods: The first twenty years, 1945 – 1965, were the heydays of pillarization in Dutch society. The following twenty years, 1965-1985 can be characterized as religion as engagement and solidarity. These years were followed by a return to spirituality from 1985 (Kennedy, 2005, pp. 33-39). As often with classifications, this division of years might lead people to think that changes happened overnight. This ‘fortunately’ did not happen, as church attendance kept decreasing during the whole period. But although there is a decrease of adherence in the traditional churches like the Catholic and Dutch reformed church, a new Christian movement started to appear after the War whose influence is felt in many churches today: the Evangelical and Pentecostal movement. Many evangelical foundations, which still exist, were established in the sixties or seventies, as there are the Evangelical Bible School, The Evangelical Broadcasting Company, The Evangelical Alliance, and The Evangelical Missionary Alliance, and many other para-church organizations, to name just a few. The Evangelical Address Guide (Evangelische Adressengids)1 published by the Revival foundation (Stichting Opwekking) notes 1200 churches, 286 mission organizations and many others; from health care to evangelical holiday organizations. How is it possible that, in a time of decreasing church adherence and church attendance, these organizations were founded, at the end of the sixties and in the beginning of the seventies and that the number of evangelical churches, mostly independent,