Van 'God als apostel' naar religieus-humanisme: Het godsbeeld van zes sociale generaties lidmaten van het Apostolisch Genootschap

In the past century, many different developments have taken place in what is nowadays the Apostolic Society – a Dutch religious denomination founded in 1951. The oldest members of this religious community have experienced lots of changes in beliefs, practices, rituals, and liturgy. Also, the belief in God underwent a series of changes. In this article, I will look at how members of the Apostolic Society used to relate to God and how they relate to God nowadays – and which differences have taken place in the course of time. I will do this by analyzing data gathered from interviews with 18 members of the Apostolic Society. The data will be presented according to the six different social generations to which the interviewees belong. None of the interviewees currently have a theistic image of God: some of them see God as a creative force whereas others see it as a loving power between people

Belonging without Believing: Life Narratives of Six Social Generations of Members of the Apostolic Society

This article addresses the religious beliefs of members of the Apostolic Society –a Dutch religious community wherein the oldest living members were raised with very different beliefs than those upheld today. Currently, the Apostolic Society is the largest liberal religious community of the Netherlands, consisting of roughly 15,000 members. It is characterized by its close-knit community life and the importance of its apostle: the spiritual leader who writes a weekly letter around which the Sunday morning service is centered. The society sees itself as ‘religious-humanistic’, inspired by its Judeo-Christian roots without being dogmatic. Only a century earlier, the beliefs of the religious community revolved more strongly around the Bible, the apostle is a link to Christ. Also, the community believed in the return of the Lord, resonating with the millenarian roots of community in 1830. Thus, the oldest living members have experienced fundamental changes in beliefs and rituals, yet remained members. This article reveals how members experience(d) their religious beliefs and feelings of belonging to the community, how these may or may not have changed over time, and what role the Apostolic Society played in their lives. The article presents a qualitative research approach based on two main pillars. First, life narrative interviews were conducted, to work inductively and allow different interview topics to emerge. Second, it uses generational theory, in three ways: 1) to select respondents; 2) to guide the interview methodology –by being sensitive to differences in socio-historical context and events experienced during formative years of interviewees of different social generations, and 3) to analyze and contextualize the qualitative interview data. The data were gathered from 27 respondents, belonging to six social generations. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed, using the Atlas.ti software program. First, the elder generations talk about growing up with the Apostolic Society being absolutely central in their daily and spiritual lives. They spent most of their time with fellow members and dedicated their free time to Apostolic activities. The central beliefs of the Apostolic Society were clear and strongly upheld, and they experienced strong belonging. Although they now see the set of central beliefs to be more individually interpretable and are relieved to not have to spend all that time to Apostolic activities anymore, they still regularly attend services and speak longingly of the past with its strong belief and belonging. Second, the younger generations speak of growing up in a non-dogmatic, religious-humanist set of beliefs, but still with a very strong belonging to the religious community. They now go irregularly to services, and talk about belonging, but not as strong as the elderly generations do. Third, across the generations, members spend more time outside of the Apostolic Society than within. The way they speak about their religious beliefs is fluid and differs as much within generations as between: for example, there is no central view on what God is. It seems the experience of members of the Apostolic Society across different generations can now be characterized as belonging without believing

Social generation as a lens:A qualitative take on generational theory

This article explores the utility of generational theory in conducting and analysing qualitative interviews investigating individual religious experiences. We used generational theory in three ways: first, to select respondents; second, to select the interview method; and third, to analyse and contextualize the interviews. We interviewed six members of the Apostolic Society, a Dutch religious denomination, each belonging to a different social generation, and the interviews used life narrative techniques. In line with generational theory, experiences during their formative years were discussed as being influential on their individual (religious) experiences within the Apostolic Society; these experiences were then related to larger societal developments. Our findings suggest that generational theory offers an additional lens through which to perform and analyse qualitative research on religion, which may complement other fieldwork research methods in religion

Unraveling institutional complexity in engaged education practices:Rationales, responses, and roles of individual practitioners

Despite the growing trend to integrate engaged education activities in (Higher) Education Institutions ((H)EIs), their adoption responds to diverse and often conflicting rationales. These rationales are shaped by institutional logics at both the field and organizational level, and their conflicting nature is a manifestation of the institutional complexity that arises when organizations and the individuals within them are confronted with divergent prescriptions from multiple institutional logics. This study examines how engaged practitioners in (H)EIs experience institutional complexity and how they respond to such complexities. We conducted research at the intersection of field-level and organizational-level logics, and individual responses. Our findings show that engaged practitioners who initiate engaged education that follows the principles of the dominant market and corporate logics do not experience institutional complexity, and we therefore refer to them as compliers. Conversely, those whose intentionality follow the minority state logic take different roles in their response to the underlying institutional complexity. Those roles may refer to the adherence to multiple conflicting logics while keeping them apart (compartmentalizers), the (selective) combination of elements of dominant and minority logics (combiners), or the (partial) rejection of the dominant logic to protect the minority logic (protectors). The implications of our study offer valuable insights into the change process in (H)EIs concerning the integration of engaged educational processes and activities