In 1854, a Theological School () was founded by the
Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands, a church resulting from a
schism in 1834 from the mainline Reformed Church in the Netherlands (Hervormde Kerk), to provide for education for its
ministers. The name was changed to Theological College ("Theologische Hogeschool") in 1939. In 1892, a large part of the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands merged with another group split from the mainstream
Dutch Reformed Church to form the
Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which founded a new
Calvinist university in
Amsterdam: the
Vrije Universiteit. This university also has a theological
faculty, but the Theological School at Kampen remained a separate institution. In 1944, another schism within the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands occurred, called the Liberation (), which resulted in the
Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated). This new church also had a need for its own ministerial education institute, and so a new Theological College of the Reformed Churches (Liberated) was founded from parts of the Theological College. In 1986, both colleges became universities when a change in the Dutch
university/
polytechnic system was carried out. Notable faculty of the seminary in the past include systematic theologians
Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) and
Klaas Schilder (1890–1952), and more recently the New Testament scholar
Jakob van Bruggen (born 1936). In 2021, the
Minister of Education, Culture and Science approved the intention of university's board to move the study programs to
Utrecht in process of establishing a Theological University there. The decision was followed by a positive advice from the Higher Education Efficiency Committee giving the board six months to make a final decision to establish the university in Utrecht. ==Notable people==