David Onnekink appointed Special Chair in Ecological Theology at TU Kampen

Associate Professor of History David Onnekink has been endowed with the Martine Vonk Special Chair for Ecotheology at the Theological University of Kampen-Utrecht. "I would like to provide a green history," Onnekink says in the Nederlands Dagblad. "Where are our roots? This will help us think about what we should do now and where we are going." - Martine Vonk. The Martine Vonk Chair of Ecotheology, officially the Chair of Christian Ecological Thought, is an initiative of the Theological University Kampen-Utrecht and the Martine Vonk Foundation. The special chair is named after Martine Vonk (1974-2019), an ecologist who saw responsible ecological practice as a key aspect of Christian beliefs. Over the next five years, Onnekink will build on Vonk's ideals to further the understanding of theology as connected to ecological issues, as he aims to re-examine the history of Western Christianity in relation to nature. "It's a shame that it never came to a good contact between broad groups of Christians and the environmental movement," Onnekink says in the Nederlands Dagblad.