[gpvos]

Free University is a perfectly fine translation, just not much used because of the high chance of misunderstanding. The "free" does stand for free as in freedom, just a different kind of freedom than you'd think of. The Vrije Universiteit was founded as a Reformed protestant christian university, to be free from state control. By the time Tanenbaum worked there, the religious character was much watered down, and barely noticeable in the computer science department.

[skissane]

> The Vrije Universiteit was founded as a Reformed protestant christian university, to be free from state control

Abraham Kuyper was a dissenter from the state church (Dutch Reformed), whom he believed had gone astray – after founding VU, he left the state church and founded his own conservative breakaway denomination (the Doleantie) – so although he did want VU to have a Reformed Protestant ethos, he also wanted it to not be controlled by any particular Protestant denomination. As such, the Vrije was meant to denote independence, not just from state control, but also independence from the church control

Somewhat ironically for someone who desired independence from state control, Kuyper later went on to control the state (as Prime Minister)

[gpvos]

Thanks for the added nuance which I missed. As far as I knew, there has always been a strong association, even though not formal, between Kuyper's denomination (the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (GKN)) and the university.

Also ironical that within the GKN, one aspect of his theology was imposed by the synod, leading to a schism - again people fleeing from church control. (And one schism further led to the church I grew up in.)

[skissane]

> (And one schism further led to the church I grew up in.)

If you don't mind me asking, which church is that? Church schisms is just one of those topics that may seem very dry to most people, but I personally find fascinating

[gpvos]

Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerken. We actually re-merged last year with the Gereformeerde Kerken (vrijgemaakt), which were in turn a result of the first schism I described. I find the underlying emotions and personalities (usually the most important!), doctrine and to some extent also the organizational issues quite interesting.