Stromingen en hun sympathisanten binnen de Protestantse Kerk

Samenvatting

The Protestant Church in the Netherlands, also known as the PKN, is a pluriform church, meaning that multiple religious currents, such as orthodox and evangelical but also liberal and traditional, are united in this church. Some of these currents are more or less institutionalized. The former Dutch Reformed Church, which is also part of the PKN, identified these institutionalized currents as modalities (modaliteiten). In this article we have estimated the size of these currents. We have found that the Gereformeerde Bond (an orthodox current of the PKN) is the largest institutionalized current, with over 8.000 official members. Like all currents the Gereformeerde Bond has more sympathizers (people that contribute to or feel affinity with the statements of that current) than official members. We have found that the confessional (confessionele) current has 470.000 sympathizers, the mainstream (midden-orthodox) current 360.000, the orthodox current (the earlier mentioned Gereformeerde Bond) 290.000, and both the liberal (vrijzinnige) and evangelical (evangelische) currents have 145.000 sympathizers. The orthodox current has the highest participation levels (church attendance) in combination with a relatively young population. We have found these figures by re-analyzing a study, by Kaski, on several currents in the PKN and their social and cultural activities. According to us, this is the first systematic calculation of several religious currents in the PKN.