Dutch Reformed theology and renegade authors

Our topic tonight seems to lead us a little off the main track of this conference. To cover our four novelists, we have had to broaden the theme from "Dutch theology" to "Dutch religious background," for most of the time these writers do not address theological points directly and when they do, when they are tempted to preach like the dominees of their youth, their fiction suffers. Secondly, not one of these authors professes to believe Reformed theology; instead, they began and to some extent made their mark as "rebels" against a community which took that creed as foundation and norm.