January 16, 2017
‘Luther’ and ‘Populism’ are two words we will encounter frequently this year. In this 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation, populists are expected to influence elections in some fifteen European nations. Inevitably, the claim will be repeated that Luther was a populist. So, was he? That depends on what we mean by ‘populism’. […]
January 9, 2017
How can we bring hope into a year that offers few prospects for optimism? A daunting task seems to await us, given the following scenarios: • growing populist influence across Europe and some 15 elections this year in European countries, including France (March), the Netherlands (March) and Germany (September?), promoting politics of fear, blame, polarisation, […]
January 2, 2017
Spectacular displays of fireworks welcomed the New Year in yesterday around the world from Auckland’s Skytower to London’s Big Ben, a tradition originally believed to chase away demons. If only ghost-busting was that easy. For New Year predictions include the return of the old demons that have haunted Europe’s past, spirits unfamiliar to unsuspecting postwar […]
December 19, 2016
The lights of the towns and villages on the Turkish coastline just twelve kilometres away from the Greek island of Lesbos are clearly visible in the evening. Tourists can travel there by fast ferry in less than an hour for a mere €10. But for those travelling from Turkey towards Lesbos, desperately seeking refuge in […]
December 12, 2016
Most people would not quickly associate the European Parliament with prayer. Yet for the past eighteen years, members of the European Parliament have gathered with invited participants from other European institutions for an annual prayer breakfast, seeking relationship around Jesus and his teachings. Last Wednesday, I attended this year’s event in the European Parliament building […]
December 5, 2016
Last Thursday evening was a wake-up moment on Dutch television. Social media reports went viral and journalists scrambled on every side to respond. On a popular live prime-time talk show with millions watching, former politician Jan Terlouw (85) hit a deep nerve nation-wide as he compared today’s society with that of fifty years ago. ‘There […]
November 28, 2016
Let’s get some facts straight about migration. In the Brexit debate and the recent US elections, ‘post-truth’ campaigns played on the feelings and fears of voters with distorted facts and straight out lies. Widespread misconceptions about migration boost the popularity of continental populists and feed antagonism towards migrants. These distortions hinder the development of migration […]
November 21, 2016
Although Europeans and Americans have much in common, often they have seen things differently. One area where Americans got it right was the separation of church and state in their constitution. Many on this side of the pond have understood that church-state separation meant that the proper place for religion was in the closet, not […]
November 14, 2016
Remember these women? If not, you’re probably too young to recall them from Steven Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which came out the year the Berlin Wall fell. (Coincidentally, precisely 27 years to the day the world celebrated the Wall coming down, November 9, we have a new wall-builder on the […]
November 7, 2016
As Americans go to the voting booths tomorrow to choose the candidate they hate the least, we in Europe need to brace ourselves for the outcomes. Until now, we have avoided this topic in Weekly Word as our focus in this column is Europe. But as the outcome is now imminent, we need to face […]
October 31, 2016
Some say he loaded the cannon that Luther fired. Others claim he laid the egg that Luther hatched. Whichever analogy we may prefer, the great ‘Humanist’ scholar, Erasmus of Rotterdam, certainly played a catalytic role in unleashing the Reformation for better or for worse across Europe. Today is Reformation Day, commemorating Luther’s nailing of 95 […]
October 24, 2016
He described himself as a man of paradox. He was a dissident playwright who became president of Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. His name was Vaclav Havel. A political activist, he never wanted to become a politician. A writer about literature, he was not a literary critic. A playwright, he didn’t enjoy going […]
