It’s clear that the influence of religious faith in the Netherlands is dwindling. But there are still students for whom faith plays an important role. What does the life of a religious student look like on a not very religious Campus? Vox gauges the mood of the religious student.

No matter what figures you consult, the trend is abundantly clear. Very few young Dutch people are still members of a church or religious community.  ‘Religious youngsters in the minority,’ read the headline of a press report by Statistics Netherlands as early as 2011. And the figures continue to drop. By 2017, only 32.8% of Dutch people aged 18-25 were members of a church or religious community. And the percentage is probably even lower among highly educated youngsters.

Have all Nijmegen students turned atheist then? No. A small band of religious associations continue to bravely resist the invasion. Nijmegen is home to no less than six religious student associations, jointly good for 363 members, all of them Radboud University students. What role does faith play in their lives? And what is life like for religious students on a not very religious campus?

Like-minded people

VGSN-TQ, Ichthus, Quo Vadis – these are unfamiliar names for many students. The religious associations are clearly less well-known than Carolus or Ovum. But they do play an important role for religious students. The associations offer a space to meet like-minded people. And this is very valuable when there are so few fellow students with whom you can talk about faith.

‘What about sex before marriage and acceptance of homosexuals?’

Albert Rijs (23) is President of KSN, the Katholieke Studenten Nijmegen, with 32 members the smallest Christian association. Fellow students look surprised when he tells them he’s a member of the Catholic association. ‘I’m often asked the usual questions, like: What about sex before marriage and acceptance of homosexuals? I understand why people ask questions like these. And I see it as an opportunity to enter into dialogue with one another.’

Like other associations, the religious associations offer a combination of conviviality and more serious activities. They organise get-togethers, pub quizzes and cantus sessions. Many Christian associations work with so-called ‘circles’: small groups of members who meet on a weekly basis to pray and discuss Biblical texts.

‘Usually, a circle member prepares a topic, which we then discuss based on the Bible,’ explains Jari Holtrop (23), assessor at VGSN-TQ. The topic could be anything, for example a problem that a circle member is experiencing in his or her personal life. Holtrop: ‘The Bible contains relevant passages on pretty much any topic you can think of.’

Prejudice

Both Rijs and Holtrop are regularly confronted with prejudice. Rijs: ‘At the introduction market, we were drinking a beer next to our stand. Passers-by would call out: “I thought you guys weren’t allowed to drink beer…”‘ Holtrop has heard similar stories. ‘Some fellow students make stupid jokes about it. If I tell them I’m hung-over after a VGSN party, they ask: ‘Is God OK with that kind of thing?’ But these are exceptions. Most people are rather surprised to hear that we don’t just sit around drinking tea and discussing the Bible, but that we also drink beer, that people sometimes end up kissing, and that kind of thing. After all, we’re students too.’

Holtrop understands the prejudices very well. He used to think that way too, before he converted to Christianity in his second year of studies and joined VGSN-TQ. ‘I had the idea that everyone in this kind of association was expected to live by the same rules. But you get all the space you need to experiment and find out which rules you want to follow, how you want to give your faith shape. This is important, because your student time is a time of growth and development.’

Proof

Nobody knows how many Nijmegen students are religious. There are simply no figures. Statistics Netherlands does collect data on religious faith in the Netherlands, but has no specific data on Radboud students. The University itself doesn’t keep track of whether students belong to a particular faith. The Health Monitor of GGD Gelderland Zuid does reveal that relatively few highly educated Nijmegen inhabitants view themselves as members of a church or religious community: 17% versus 41% of low-skilled inhabitants. But this may also have to do with age, emphasises religion researcher Joris Kregting. ‘These highly educated Nijmegen inhabitants are probably mainly students. And students are young, and therefore less religious than average.’

‘Students are young, and therefore less religious than average’

Kregting is affiliated with Kaski, the Radboud University research centre for religion and society. Faith plays a modest role among students and Kregting has devoted a number of publications to the reasons why. ‘In particular among highly educated people, scientific rationalism plays a strong role,’ he says. ‘The idea that for every assertion, you ask: ‘Yes, but do you have any evidence for this?’ Add to this the fact the Church used to provide social security. Now you have all kinds of social security legislation, but in the old days, if you got sick, you were in trouble. You only had the Church to turn to for support.’ This led to a decline in the importance of church membership particularly among the often wealthy highly educated population.

Prayer room

And yet the religious community continues to care for those in need within the Nijmegen student community. At VGSN and KSN, the circles offer a safety net for students who are experiencing problems, explain Rijs and Holtrop. And then there’s student café Perplex. Every Tuesday night, approximately twenty students gather in the building of religious association De Verwondering for a free meal, prepared by the Perplex team. ‘All students are welcome, also those with a different or no religious background,’ explains initiator Denise Kluit (26).

On Mondays and Tuesdays, Perplex organises prayer hours in the prayer room they set up at the back of the café. But faith doesn’t play a prominent role during the Perplex meals. Sure, prayers are said beforehand. And dessert represents an opportunity for Kluit or a team member to throw in a question which the students can then debate. ‘But these questions are not necessarily of a religious nature,’ says Kluit.

Kluit sees that the current generation of students is suffering from psychological problems: loneliness, stress, and depression. This was her motivation for launching Perplex.

Kluit: ‘On the Vox website, it stated that housing association SSH& is getting more frequent reports from students who find themselves confused and unhappy. My heart broke when I read it. It’s sometimes so hard to feel at home in a new city, to really feel seen, known and appreciated. Perplex is a place where you always feel welcome when you need it.’