Members Cardinal Willebrands Research Centre

Karim Schelkens is Associate Professor of Church History and Research Program leader at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology. His research field is the contemporary history of Catholicism, with a focus on movements of reform and ressourcement, such as the ecumenical movement. He is the director of CWRC.

Albert Denaux is professor emeritus of Bible Studies at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the Catholic University of Leuven and former dean of Tilburg School of Catholic Theology. His teaching and research is focused on the Gospel of Luke, Biblical Greek, and ecumenism. He was a member of the International Theological Commission (Rome) and of the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC).

Annemarie C. Mayer is professor of Systematic Theology and the Study of Religion at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the Catholic University of Leuven. Her teaching and research is focused on the interrelation of theology, religion and contemporary culture as well as on ecumenical hermeneutics and (the history of) interreligious dialogue.

Leonhard Hell is Professor of Dogmatic and Ecumenical Theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz (Germany). His research fields are history of early modern theology and of the ecumenical thought.

Marcel Poorthuis teaches interreligious dialogue at the Tilburg School of Theology. His dissertation dealt with the French-Jewish philosopher Immanuel Levinas. He published about Catholicism, Judaism, Buddhism and recently about Dutch perceptions of Islam. (Van harem tot fitna, Nijmegen 2011). His study on the relationship between mgrs. Ramselaar and  cardinal Willebrands attracted major attention. He is co-editor of the international series  Jewish and Christian Perspectives (Brill Leiden) and chairman of the foundation Pardes for Jewish wisdom. His recent publications deal with the Jewish and Christian sources of Islam.

Vefie Poels is Vice-Director and Specialist in Catholic Heritage at the Catholic Documentation Center of the Radboud University Nijmegen. Her field of historical research is 19th-20th century Dutch Catholicism with a main accent on mission history and the history of religious institutes. She is engaged in writing the biography of the Dutch Cardinal Willem Marinus van Rossum C.Ss.R. (1854-1932).

Marcel Sarot (*1961) was director of the Netherlands Research School for Theology and Religious Studies (NOSTER) from 2005-2009 and Professor in the History and Philosophy of Religious Studies and Theology from 2005-2012. In 2012 he became Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology (TST), and since 2014 he has been dean of TST. He is President of the Board of the (Dutch) Catholic Association for Oecumenics St Willibrord & St Athanasius. His publications in the field of ecumenics focus on ecclesiology and spirituality.

Prof. Dr. Cornelis van der Kooi (1952) serves as Full Professor of Systematic Theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Together with G. van den Brink he published a new handbook on Christian doctrine, Christian Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 2017),  originally in Dutch (2012, five prints).  Among his major publications are As in a Mirror. John Calvin and Karl Barth on Knowing God. A Diptych (2002/2005) and Tegenwoordigheid van Geest (2006). He was the editor of the critical  edition of  Barths second commentary to the letter to the Romans (2010) and in 2014 he delivered the Warfield Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary, now published as This Incredibly Benevolent Force. The Holy Spirit in Reformed Theology and Spirituality (Grand Rapids; Eerdmans 2018). He  is also one of the founders of the Herman Bavinck Center for Reformed and Evangelical Theology at the VU.

Henk P.J. Witte is professor-emeritus of the Xaverius-chair, an extraordinary chair on ignatian spirituality and theology, and associate professor-emeritus of dogmatics at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology. His teaching and research was and still is focused on ecclesiology, ecumenism, Vatican II, ministry and leadership, and Catholic identity.

Fokke Wouda is a PhD candidate at the Tilburg School of Theology. His research focuses on sharing the Eucharist in ecumenical communities. His supervisors are prof. dr. Johannes Först (Würzburg, ius promovendi at Tilburg University) and prof. dr. Johanna Rahner (Tübingen).