This article addresses the question of the role of theology and theologians in a secular environment, such as a university. Due to social changes theology is no longer the self-evident ‘Queen of the Sciences’, but is challenged to review its position among sciences, which often look with suspicion at its purposes. Instead of calling to reclaim the throne, and drawing on the historical figure of the Fool, it is argued that theology (or, rather theologians) should redress themselves as ‘Clowns of the Sciences’. By way of a conversation with the propositions of James McClendon and Stanley Hauerwas, a comic framework is set out that makes fun of the Queen, and thereby allows theology to participate by its oddity. Towards the end, and with the assistance of the prophet Jonah, a preliminary outline is made of the Clown’s Speech.
A re-experiencing of the wilderness ideal is taking place in the Netherlands. This is expressed in the attention that is being devoted to projects in which agricultural land is transformed into nature. One of these projects is central to this article: the island Tiengemeten. We aim to study the experiences of visitors to this project in order to gain insight into the extent to which there are layers of depth visible in these experiences. For a lot of respondents going into in nature in general and making a visit to an island such as Tiengemeten in particular are ways of escaping from their day-to-day existence. It is noticeable that the words and images that the visitors use to describe their experiences fit in mainly with the wilderness view of nature. The wilderness view of nature is connected with experiences of the sublime; so in this article we also ask the question as to what the shift to the wilderness view of nature means for the religious landscape of the Netherlands.
