Van ‘God als apostel’ naar religieus-humanisme

Het godsbeeld van zes sociale generaties lidmaten van het Apostolisch Genootschap

Samenvatting

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.