Real faith

"Faith is... well, for a relationship it takes two and you have to be open for that [...] and after that, you are with the two of you. And that's how it really is," Ted (60) explains. Leonie (28) adds: "Knowing God and being Christian means much more than just a God far away. You can have a real relationship with God and that makes it much more interesting."

Having a personal relationship with Jesus is about real contact with God and about real peace, it is about Real Faith. But how to understand this real faith they are talking about?

This practical theological research investigates into the meaning of having a personal relationship with Jesus in the practice of daily life. The research concerns evangelicals in traditional churches and aims at understanding their relationship with Jesus and its embodiment in practice and experience.

Ilonka Terlouw (1980) is an enthusiastic theologian, who weekly takes the pulpit in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and regularly speaks at (youth)conferences. She co-authored the popular publication Geloven in seks (Having Faith in Sexuality, 2010). This study is her PhD-thesis.