Events Announcement
The 54th International Karl Barth Conference, Harmut Rosa Event, and the 2025 Barth Conference
The 54th International Karl Barth Conference titled “Spiegelungen von Humanität. Christliche Existenz heute” will take place on July 15–18 at St. Chrischona in Switzerland. Plenary speakers include Gregor Etzelmüller (Osnabrück University), Lisanne Teuchert (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg), Ralph Kunz (University of Zürich), William Schweiker (University of Chicago), and Silvia Volkart-Baumann. For more information, including registration, visit the link below.
A great cultural shift seems to be happening to Protestant congregational life and pastoral identity. But recognizing what is actually changing can be difficult to name, and misdiagnosing the challenges we face can happen easily.
On September 23 and 24, the Center for Barth Studies and Luther Seminary invite you to join us at Princeton Theological Seminary in a unique conversation between internationally-recognized practical and constructive theologians, and renowned sociologist Hartmut Rosa. Rosa is considered to be one of most important big-idea sociologists in the world. Rosa particularly names how the acceleration of human life has alienated us from the world, keeping us from social connection in our most important relations and fraying our social fabric. Over the two days of this hybrid conference, participants are invited into a conversation with Rosa about the future of congregational life and pastoral identity through critical theological engagement with his ideas and their implications for ministry in the present. We believe this event will hearten and inspire all those who care about the future of the church by clarifying the challenge before us and directing our attention toward the ways God is leading in the here and now.
Attendees can register to attend either in-person or virtually.
Save the date for the 2025 Karl Barth Conference on June 15–18 at Princeton Theological Seminary! The theme of the next conference will be “The Incarcerated God: Engaging with and beyond Barth on the Prison System.” The conference is co-presented by the Prison Studies Program at Duke Divinity School, The Drew Partnership for Religion and Education in Prisons at Drew University, and The Calvin Prison Initiative at Calvin College. The conference can be attended in person or virtually.
This conference aims to challenge perspectives concerning the current US prison-industrial complex through engagement with Barth’s theology. Karl Barth was a person with a criminal record, who, late in life, visited prisons for a decade, and his theology was shaped by that experience. He engaged incarcerated people in a way that went against the status quo through powerful sermons, still widely read, and the provision of pastoral care. The conference will reflect theologically on the ways that the God revealed in the life and death of Jesus Christ was intimately familiar with what it means to be a criminal and unjustly prosecuted by the powers of his time period. The conference will also discuss the history of religious institutions in relation to the carceral system and identify often-unnoticed posture towards it so that attendees can start discussions that will continue long beyond the week of the conference. Other topics explored at the conference will include the ostensible purpose(s) of incarceration, America’s difficult history in relation to its prison complex, the responsibilities of citizens and leaders towards the institutional practice of justice, and the wildly disparate impact on different ethnic, gender, and racial, groups, of America’s policing, legal, and carceral systems.
Stay tuned for more information to follow soon!