Programme now available: GNPT Amsterdam Interim Meeting 2026
The programme for the GNPT Amsterdam Interim Meeting, Public Theology in a Fractured World: Voices, Visions, and Vulnerabilities, is now available to download
The Global Network for Public Theology is pleased to announce that the programme for our 2026 Interim Meeting in Amsterdam is now available.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Public Theology in a Fractured World
From 19 to 21 October 2026, public theologians from across the world will gather at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam around the theme:
Download the programme
The complete conference programme, including presentation times, venues and practical information, is available here:
Public Theology in a Fractured World: Voices, Visions, and Vulnerabilities
Our world is marked by deep social, political, ecological and economic fractures. These include violent conflict, democratic decline, migration, racism, gender-based exclusion, technological disruption and the growing consequences of climate change. The meeting asks how public theology might respond with intellectual depth, moral courage and spiritual imagination, while amplifying voices that call for justice and healing, attending to vulnerability, and cultivating new visions of the common good.
The programme includes 80 papers presented across five working groups, together with keynote lectures, plenary conversations, regional meetings, opportunities for informal exchange and the GNPT business meeting.
Keynote speakers
We are honoured to welcome three keynote speakers:
Dr Shadaab Rahemtulla, University of Edinburgh
Revd Prof Jerry Pillay, World Council of Churches
Prof dr Katja Tolstoj, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Five working groups
The papers and conversations will take place in five working groups:
Group A: Political Power, Democracy, and Conflict in a Fractured World
Group B: Justice, Economy, Labour, and the Conditions of Life
Group C: Embodiment, Gender, Sexuality, and Vulnerability
Group D: Land, Soil and Water: Healing Fractures, Making Home
Group E: Public Theology Beyond the Echo Chamber: Communication, Culture, and Critique
Across these groups, participants will engage questions of democracy and political power, economic and ecological justice, embodiment and belonging, gender and sexuality, land and displacement, artificial intelligence, migration, nationalism, public communication and the responsibilities of theology in divided societies.
Additional activities
The main meeting concludes on Wednesday, 21 October. Optional cultural and theological excursions in and around Amsterdam are planned for Thursday, 22 October, with further details to be shared with participants.
Sawubona: (Mis)Recognition and the Task of Public Theology
On Friday, 23 October at 15:45, those remaining in Amsterdam are also warmly invited to attend Dion Forster’s inaugural lecture as Professor of Public Theology and Ethics in the Aula of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Registration is closed
The meeting has reached its available capacity, and we can no longer accept additional participants or registrations.
Please also note that this is an in-person interim meeting. Hybrid or an online participation option will therefore not be available.
The next regular GNPT Consultation will take place in 2028. Further information will be announced in due course.
We look forward to welcoming registered participants to Amsterdam for three days of scholarship, conversation, renewed friendship and shared public-theological reflection.