Lina Toth
Making life worth living. Theology, history & other stories
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I am a Senior Research Fellow and doctoral supervisor at the IBTS – a collaborative centre within the Faculty of Religion and Theology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. IBTS has a strong communal ethos and doctoral supervision is done in teams. Working together with another supervisor allows for an even more vibrant and enriching process for all involved, and especially for the PhD candidate.
I have been involved in the field of education for most of my adult life – first as a language teacher, and later as a theologian. Teaching, for me at least, is first and foremost a privilege of participating in the transformation of others – and, inevitably, of myself.
I prefer to work in small institutions, which meant that over the years I’ve taught a whole range of subjects. Sometimes I’ve been cross with myself for saying ‘yes’ to teaching in an area outside of my immediate specialisms, but by the end of the process I’ve always been grateful for that spur to delve into yet another fascinating field of study.
Here, then, is a list of the main areas:
- Baptist History
- Spiritual Formation
- Theology and Academic Skills
- Theology and Practice of Preaching
- Theology and Practice of Worship
- Theology and Practice of Leadership
- Theology and Christian History of Marriage and Singleness
- Sermon on the Mount: Text–History of Interpretation–Ethical Implications
- Theology and Environment
- World Religions
- Ethics
Doing a PhD is a long journey – often longer, more transformative and more challenging than a doctoral student envisions at the start of their studies! My role as a supervisor is to accompany them in this journey: to offer advice and feedback, to help them to keep going, and, perhaps most importantly, to listen to them really attentively so that I can help them discern what would be at the heart of their project. This is especially important in the early stages of the doctoral journey, when a student is juggling and wrestling with too many ideas and questions, but it can play a key role later on, too, as their work develops and matures. Needless to say, I learn a lot from and with each of my PhD students.
Completed PhD projects:
- Christian Peacemaking in the context of Convictions, Scripture and Conflict
- Traditional Worship in Baptist Churches in Belarus: Formation, Features, and Internal Conflicts
Current PhD projects:
- Inviting Response(ability): Developing a Learning-Centered Homiletic
- Free Church Identity & Conversion: Exploring Danish free church ecclesial identity through recent converts life stories in an urban context
- Listening Well: Pastoral Ethnography as Baptist Congregational Discernment
- Liturgical Reform in Post-Soviet Russian Baptist Churches