Een vrijzinnige 'meneer'. <i>De Hervorming</i> als toonaangevend en representatief persorgaan van de modern-godsdienstige richting in Nederland (1873-1934)

Abstract

De Hervorming, issued as a weekly between 1873 and 1926, and as a monthly from 1927 to 1934, was one of the most important religious magazines in the Netherlands. It wanted to promote the interests of so-called 'Protestant modernists' or 'liberal Protestants', whose community of faith was characterised by differences between members of the Dutch Reformed Church and members of other denominations, between church-goers and non-churchgoers, between 'monists' and 'dualists', between political liberals and socialists, and between laymen and 'religious professionals' such as theologians. This article investigates how the editors of De Hervorming dealt with the multiformity of Dutch liberal Protestantism, and how they attempted to do justice to all - often conflicting - opinions and convictions that existed among modernists, and to be opinion leaders themselves at the same time. A systematic and complete analysis of all sixty-two volumes of De Hervorming not only sheds light upon the thematic preoccupations of Dutch Protestant modernists, but also shows how the magazine's editors tried to create a strong sense of unity among liberal Protestants, without harming the varicoloured character of the modernist community.