iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 8h

In less than 2 weeks about 120 friends and colleagues from around the world arrive at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for the the Global Network for Public Theology! I collected the ‘Stroopwafels’ for their conference bags! See the updated program here: www.gnpublictheology.net/amsterdam-2026

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Our new book is out! 📚 Faith in Public: Theological-Political Dialogues between Brazil and South Africa, co-edited with my dear friend Rudolf von Sinner, grows from nearly 20 years of South-South friendship and conversation. Grateful to all our wonderful contributors! 🙌🙏 doi.org/10.52779/978...

doi.org

Faith in Public: Theological–Political Dialogues between Brazil and South Africa by Prof. Dr. Dion A. Forster, Prof. Dr. Rudolf von Sinner - Books on Google Play

Faith in Public: Theological–Political Dialogues between Brazil and South Africa - Ebook written by Prof. Dr. Dion A. Forster, Prof. Dr. Rudolf von Sinner. Read this book using Google Play Books app o...

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Morgen preek ik in Baptistengemeente De Rank in Utrecht. We beginnen aan een serie over de profeet Micha met als thema: ‘Zwaarden, ploegscharen en de weg die wij kiezen.’ Ben je in de buurt? Van harte welkom om mee te vieren! derank.org

derank.org

De Rank

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I am grateful to give an input at the 40th anniversary conference of the Confession of Belhar. It takes place at the PThU in partnership with colleagues from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and TUU. You can read more about the conference here: www.pthu.nl/actueel/agen...

pthu.nl

40 jaar Belijdenis van Belhar. Heilzame verwerking van christelijke uitsluiting en racisme - Protestantse Theologische Universiteit

Veertig jaar na de Belijdenis van Belhar staan we stil bij een indringend en actueel thema: de heilzame verwerking van uitsluiting en racisme.

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Not at all a dictatorial move… hmmm… Lord have mercy!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My latest article, “Sawubona: The witness of the Church in a time of misrecognition,” is out in Kerk en Theologie. On migration, dignity & the Church’s calling to truly “see” the stranger. research.vu.nl/en/publicati... #PublicTheology #Sawubona #Recognition #Migration #Theology

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Please see www.dionforster.com/sawubona ‘Sawubona: (Mis)Recognition and the Task of Public Theology’ The lecture is scheduled to take place on: 🕰️ Friday, 23 October 2026, at 15.45 CET 📍 The Aula of the University’s Main Building 🤝 The lecture will be followed by a reception

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The program for the next meeting of the Global Public Theology Network is now available online. Check it out: www.gnpublictheology.net/amsterdam-2026 I am so looking forward to sharing this time with friends and colleagues from around the world! @vuamsterdam.bsky.social

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Today is the feast day of St Augustine of Hippo. Let us leave a little room for reflection and silence.

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Today this legend, Liam, starts his first day of University! Bachelor of Economic and Management Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam! We are so grateful! Many blessings and much success Liam! Mom, Courtney and I are rooting for you! We are very proud of you!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I am back at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam today! Megie, Liam, and I had an amazing ‘stay-cation’ in Amsterdam! DIY, family visits, touring the Netherlands. I am very grateful for the new academic year! Welcome back to colleagues and students! We have wonderful people and amazing work to do!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Here is the cover of our new book! Prof Rudolf von Sinner and I edited this collection of essays on Public Theologies in South Africa and Brazil many of our dear friends contributed! We will share the news when it is available. It is is fruit of more than a decade of collaboration and friendship.

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

We are on our way to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grandprix F1 qualifiers!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This remains one of the most important texts I have written. Prof. Tracy wrote a very thoughtful response to each chapter - I am so grateful! My chapter is entitled, ‘Theology in the Public Realm? David Tracy and Contemporary African Religiosity‘. See: amzn.to/3E1Q1n8

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

“Do not fear the one who can kill the body,” says Christ in the Gospels, “but the one who can destroy body and soul.” The assault on Arday was an assault on his soul. - Rowan Williams magazine.newstatesman.com/2026/08/19/t...

magazine.newstatesman.com

The shaming of Jason Arday

A young man has died. Where was the possibility of absolution?

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

8 years ago I gave the Fernley Hartley Trust Lecture at the Oxford Institute for Methodist Studies. It is one of the highlights of my academic career to date. I dedicated the lecture to my dear senior colleague, Prof Anthony Reddie. See: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Very grateful!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Sawubona, we see you! 🇿🇦🙏 ha ha! It is a beautiful thing to be seen, and a vocation to see and resist un-seeing. I will speak about this in the inaugural lecture for my new Chair, 23 October 2026, 15h45. Please join us in the Aula @vuamsterdam www.facebook.com/share/v/18QZ...

facebook.com

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Liam, Megie and I are leaving the knowledge economy to earn REAL MONEY 💴 in NL 😂🤣 It only took a few hours to remove and replace our old garden gate 🚪

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

My darling, Megan, and I came to Naarden Vesting (the fortress) by Vespa. The perfect spot for a sundowner! Loving the LONG European summer evenings!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

We folded our bicycles, jumped on the train, and visited beautiful Nijmegen, Radboud University, my Alma Mater, and enjoyed the last day of the #Vierdaagse A beautiful family, summer, day!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

When does political power stop borrowing sacred language and start claiming to be sacred itself? New piece on Brazil, South Africa, and the Netherlands, and the four questions I think help us tell the difference. open.substack.com/pub/digitald...

open.substack.com

When politics begins to speak like God

Discerning divine presence amid sacralised power

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

16 years ago we went to the Fan Walk in Cape Town to share in the vibe and excitement of the FIFA World Cup. Our beautiful children have grown up since then, and so have we 🤣👋❤️ Such a wonderful memory! I am very grateful.

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

It is going to be an amazing sporting weekend!!!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Today I had a meeting at the Theologische Universiteit Utrecht, in beautiful Utrecht! I rode my little Vespa! It was stunningly beautiful!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

#oldmanrunning with the young man! Liam is training for the Amsterdam marathon. He let me tag along for a few KM’s!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

“We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us.” - Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

‘God of Mighty Truth, make us people of true speech, obedient speech… give us the courage to trust you, knowing you would never call a people to you who would prefer lies to truth. Amen.’ - Stanley Hauerwas, The Truth That Reveals Lies (from Prayers Plainly Spoken).

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Please join me in congratulating Dr Ahmed El Assal who successfully defended his PhD at the International Institute of Social Studies yesterday. It was a beautiful afternoon. You can read about it here: www.iss.nl/en/events/ph... Dr El Assal, well done! Many blessings for the road ahead!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Multimodal!! I have to speak at an event in Utrecht and then one of my PhD students is defending his doctorate in The Hague, so I have my professor’s gown on my Brompton, heading to the station! Ha ha! Ik ben echt ingeburgerd!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at the IRTI Summer School - a wonderful group of scholars from around the world reflecting on opportunities and challenges for Reformed Faith in various publics. Amazing people! They even welcomed this Methodist!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Happy Interdependence Day. In a world obsessed with illusions of isolation, fueled by hatred and greed, let us remember: no one is free until we all are free. My humanity is bound up with yours. May we find life not in separation, but in the sacred work of solidarity. Happy interdependence day!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Such a stunning day with dear colleagues at the #EUARE2026 a rich series of papers and discussions. I am very grateful! Then my friend Javier and I walked to St Peter’s Basilica. Stunning!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Rome, you beauty! It is HOT! I am waiting for my bus to LUISS University of Rome for our panel from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on Discerning God: In difference. #EUARE2026

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

This weekend we said farewell to Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and Lungi. It has been an immeasurable joy and blessing to have them with us for the last three months. We have learned about hope, justice, and beautify, for all of creation (both human and non-human). Safe travels!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Bafana Bafana! 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦 You beauties!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

With this rise of populist xenophobic appeals in South Africa, a nation in which close to 86% of persons claim to be Christian, I ask on what grounds some Christians feel that they can call for the suspension of humanity. Naturally, I argue against it. open.substack.com/pub/digitald...

open.substack.com

Can Ubuntu be “suspended”?

Christian decency, migrant dignity, and the moral danger of South Africa’s xenophobic populism

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Today I had the privilege of attending the GROW PhD conference where our colleague Nycholas Oliveira from VU Amsterdam (together with the cohort of African PhD candidates, working on research in Development Studies) presented workshops on their work. Inspiring and informative!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Megie and I rode to Amsterdamsebos for an impromptu picnic! It was amazing! So beautiful, and so lovely to spend time with my darling!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Bafana Bafana!! 🇿🇦🙌⚽️❤️

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Hup Holland! ⚽️🇳🇱🧡 I am loving my #pilsjamas 🤣😝👆Dreaming of a South African or Dutch World Cup win! 🏆

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Congratulations, to my dear friend Dr Khegan Delport for the publication of his book ‘Philosophical Theologies in South Africa: Genealogies, Traditions, and Speculations’, (Open Access!)! It was so great to see you, thanks for the book! ujonlinepress.uj.ac.za/index.php/uj...

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Nandos with my darlings! What a blessing!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

##oldmanrunning hills, hills, and hills edition 🤣⛰️🏔

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

AI is not only a technical question, it is a deeply human one. In this new Substack post, I offer a first theological engagement with Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas and ask what it means to remain human in an age of AI. open.substack.com/pub/digitald...

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I am working remotely this week while visiting the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University, I have some human and non-human co-workers this morning! ❤️🐶 My doggies would love to visit the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam when I am back! #RemoteWork #Coworkers

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

‘The proportions of good and evil in any society depend partly upon the proportion of consent to that of refusal and partly upon the distribution of power between those who consent and those who refuse.’ - Simone Weil, Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation.

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Somerset West you beauty! I only ran slow to take in the view 🤣👆 My old running route was amazing!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Cape Town you beauty! Ah, such a blessing to be with our friends and family in Somerset West!

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Dion Forster @digitaldion.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Every scholar speaks from somewhere. Good scholarship learns to listen from elsewhere. I’d value your thoughts on my latest Substack article on interculturality and contextually on Theology and Religion research: open.substack.com/pub/digitald...

open.substack.com

From where do we speak?

Why contexts, critical self-awareness, interculturality and the decolonising of the archive matter for theology and the study of religion

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