“Act like a Christian, and everything will be fine”

Ruben grew up in an “evangelical environment” until his parents decided to move to a more liberal congregation. There, the family converted to the Christian Reformed denomination, an orthodox form of protestantism. Ruben says he wasn’t consciously engaged with his faith as a teenager. “We didn’t talk about it much at home, and I grew up more freely than most Christians. For example, on Sundays we went to the zoo just as often as we went to church.”

After a gap year and a degree that didn’t suit him, he began searching for answers to life’s big questions and found some in faith. This sparked his interest. “I really made room for faith in my life, with friends and the church. My relationship with God has become much more personal as a result.” He explains that for many people, prayer is akin to submitting a kind of wish list. “But for me, it is a moment to talk with God and ask what God wants me to want.”

As an example, he mentions his church’s volunteer trip to Malawi, in Africa. It was supposed to be an exchange programme with a church there. At first, he didn’t feel like going at all, but in the weeks leading up to departure, many people asked him to go anyway. He turned to God. “I was told that I should give it a try and see what it would bring me.”

He returned to the Netherlands after two weeks. “It was a great experience,” he recollects, and not just because of that hike to the top of a hill to enjoy the sunset. It was mostly about the people he met there, how kind they were, and how they treated each other. 

It had been his childhood dream to join the army, but he had doubts about it before leaving for Malawi. The trip ended up being a deciding factor. “While writing my application letter, I realised that my heart wasn’t in it. I want to dedicate myself to doing good in the world, and I wasn’t sure if a job in the military would contribute to that.” Now, after completing his bachelor’s degree, he plans to pursue a master’s program in Conflict Studies and Human Rights.

History and faith
During the three years Ruben has spent studying History, he has encountered faith in all sorts of ways — more often negative than positive. The Christian Church was often the villain of the story. Even so, he does not subscribe to the idea that faith is inherently bad. “As a Christian, you simply have to acknowledge that not everything is or was perfect. But to me, that doesn’t mean that faith isn’t perfect; rather, that social circumstances and society in general are to blame.”

Although it is often said that science and faith do not go well together, Ruben takes a different view. “They go together perfectly well,” he says. However, he adds that it is easier to do this in the Humanities than in other disciplines. “People always conduct research from a certain starting point, and I think a Christian perspective of love is a good basis for research.”

Ruben also believes there is room for improvement within the History programme. “Religion should play a role in historical analysis more often. I think it’s important to find out why things were written down and what those people believed in.” He says that many students and lecturers set aside religion and matters of faith in historical research, yet the proportion of believers in History is much greater than it is today. “For a long time, faith was a fundamental part of people’s lives. I’m not saying it never happens, but academia should take it into account more.”

Student life and faith
Faith has also changed Ruben’s student life. At first, he got a good taste of stereotypical student life, drinking a lot and sleeping very little at his parents'. After a while, however, he realised that this wasn’t for him. “It actually gave me very little,” he says. Today, he takes it a bit easier, still having plenty of fun, but with fewer excesses. He doesn’t miss his old student life, as it didn't suit him in hindsight. "It didn’t feel like something that was forbidden to me, because I didn’t want it anyway.”

In these turbulent times of geopolitical unrest and societal polarisation, Ruben finds solace in his faith. “You only have to switch on the news for a moment to see so much misery.” It doesn’t make him despair, though: “When I look at it through the lens of my faith, I know that one day all this injustice and all these bad things will go away.”

He says this hopeful feeling also brings him peace. Not only because he trusts that things will turn out all right, but also because he knows that everyone here can do their share. “As a Christian, I believe very strongly in caring for people and doing so out of love.” He believes that if everyone did that, Christian or not, the world would be a better place. “The most important thing is not to talk like a Christian, but to act like a Christian.”

This article is part of our Deep Dive series. We asked our readers to choose the topic they wanted our journalists to approach more deeply. In this edition, readers chose the following question: "How can young people stay hopeful about the future?"