The election defeat of the Christian coalition in 1905 is partly caused by contradictions in its own circle. Many orthodox members of the Dutch Reformed Church resented Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper for having legally regulated the position of the Free University at Amsterdam, but had done nothing for the rights of the Dutch Reformed Church in the theological faculties at the universities of the state. The reformed theologian Hoedemaker even aroused a preference for a liberal rather than an anti-revolutionary candidate. Kuyper’s party lost nine seats, the coalition lost three seats to the majority.

The Dutch universities founded in the 16th and 17th century were public state universities with theological faculties. During the 19th century the debate about the status of theology as an academic discipline resulted in the so-called duplex ordo arrangement: the public state university followed the design of religious studies and the ‘ecclesial chairs’ in the university (systematic and practical theology) followed a Christian perspective. In the last two decades a major shift has taken place: many faculties of theology were closed and new arrangements for the academic education of the ministry were created. This article describes these developments.

In 2005 and 2006 three state-funded Islam- and imam training programs started at Amsterdam Free University, Leiden University and Hogeschool Inholland, after more than two decades of political and public debate. These confessional programs were to educate a Dutch ‘polder imam’. Recently however, the closure of two programs was announced.
This article places the establishment as well as the closure of these programs in a historical perspective. It explores two striking parallels between the motivations in favor of an imam training and the ways the Dutch state has dealt with the institutionalization of religious plurality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The introduction of the separation of Church and State had far-reaching consequences for the Roman Catholic Church. Important changes were: the development of an own Ius Publicum Ecclesiasticum, a more central position of the Pope in the Church and a greater uniformity in the Church community than ever before. In the same time in most Western countries Roman Catholics started an emancipatory process both individually and as a group, participating in political life, (re-)establishing religious communities and catholic associations. All these juridical developments really transformed the Church making also new theological reflection possible resulting in the Second Vatican Council.

This article sketches the relationship between the churches and the State since the end of the reign of the Stadtholders (1795). The decision of the Batavian Republic to recognize independence and equal rights of each church (1796) appears to be effective not before the midst of the 19th century, under influence of liberal policy. It opened the way to co-operation between church and state, aimed at a democratic society. The churches should not be reluctant in implementing their freedom to act as free partners in the social debate.