The Monthly Roundup
A recap of July 2024 from Kait Dugan
Notes from our Editor-in-Chief
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Greetings from Basel, Switzerland! The month of July has been quite eventful for many of us, to say the least. In the last two weeks alone, since I left the United States to travel to Basel, there was an assassination attempt on the former President of the United States in my home state of Pennsylvania. Yesterday afternoon (at the time of writing this), the current President of the United States announced that he is stepping down as a candidate for this upcoming presidential election. And a new potential candidate will eventually enter the race. There is an incredible amount of anxiety and uncertainty in the world right now, and even among the Swiss to whom I have spoken, they are nervous about what the outcome of the upcoming US election will mean for the world more broadly.
There are other issues that seem to be ever-present in public discourse, including the concern about the oppressive heat many are experiencing this summer and the imminent climate disaster that seems closer to our personal horizons than once thought. Amid everything just mentioned, the ongoing war in Palestine continues to take countless lives, and many now fear the real possibility and risk of a broader conflict in the Middle East.
As an elder millennial, I wish I could say that all of these anxiety-inducing world events are foreign to me. But as most my age know, we have lived through several historic moments for more than two decades that deeply impact our sense of present security and hope for the future. I find myself oscillating in the midst of these historic events between a sense of self-preservation and wanting to unplug from the news for the sake of my mental health. On the other hand, there have been moments in the last several years when the collective action and organizing witnessed in societies both locally and abroad compels me to continue to hope and act for a new possible world.
Perhaps this is why Karl Barth’s last words to his best friend, Edward Thurneysen, comfort me. On December 9, 1968, the night Barth died, he spoke to Thurneysen on the phone. This well-known story circulates on social media occasionally, but it is worth repeating here. Thurneysen expressed his concern—and most likely anxiety—about the world's current situation to Barth. The late 1960s were rife with conflict, including the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (and the broader civil rights movement), and the Vietnam War. In response to Thurneysen, Barth said:
Indeed, the world is dark. Still, let us not lose heart! Never! There is still someone who reigns, not just in Moscow or in Washington or in Peking, but from above, from heaven. God is in command. That’s why I am not afraid. Let us stay confident even in the darkest moments! Let us not allow our hope to sink, hope for all human beings, for all of the nations of the world! God does not let us fall, not a single one of us and not all of us together! Someone reigns!1
Lesser known is the phone conversation Barth had the same evening with his nephew and grandson, Ulrich Barth, who was a Swiss farmer. Ulrich Barth recalled his last conversation with his grandfather that same evening:
Yes, and then there was the remarkable evening of December 9, 1968—for my part, in response to the question ‘How are you doing?’ [came] a somewhat disconcerting and less than hopeful answer—and then after that came something quite incomprehensible and overwhelming, a call and exhortation that dissipates all disarray: ‘Ueli, don’t lose heart!’2
Don’t lose heart. These are difficult words to absorb when everything around you seemingly witnesses to a world that God has forgotten and abandoned. There could be a temptation to take Barth’s words here as triumphalist or enthusiastic in the face of the current state of the world. Or these words could be interpreted as a way to justify world events under the umbrella of divine providence. But I think there might be another possibility: there is an ever-present need to remind oneself, in the haze and struggle of the present, that God will be faithful to God’s promises that God loves the world and all things will be made new.
Wherever you might find yourself in these troubling days, whether resigned to anxiety and despair or engaging in hopeful and expectant action, I hope these words from Barth, echoing Jesus’ words in John 16:33, will be comforting for you. The words “don’t lose heart” are worth repeating to yourself every day, again and again, as we attempt to remain faithful as witnesses to the liberative gospel of Jesus Christ.
— Kait Dugan, Director
Conferences and Events
Last week, the 55th International Karl Barth Conference convened on July 15–18 in Bettingen, Switzerland, just outside Basel. The conference explored the theme of theological existence today and the Christian life. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend parts of the conference this year and connect again with various colleagues working in Switzerland, Germany, and beyond. The conference includes multiple working groups that meet to discuss either a particular text from Barth each day of the conference or another topic/text(s) of interest. These working groups enable a kind of community across vocational differences that one might not typically encounter at an academic conference. The 56th International Karl Barth Conference will occur on July 14–17, 2025, on the theme of Christian Hope in Crisis. If you can attend next year, don’t miss it!
July Highlights
We had many engaging and thought-provoking contributions in July. Here are a couple of highlights for you to read in case you missed them:
Ludwig Wittgenstein's Pastoral Theology
"In writing these words of religious comfort for this particular moment, Wittgenstein neither removes himself from nor attempts to give an exegesis of his theoretical thought (as if one would need to understand his philosophy to understand his counsel). He speaks words from the ground of his thoughts to someone close at hand. In this, his words evince a way of inhabiting theology and the world together, not acting as though our abstract theological reflections exist in a world other than the one where we are lucky enough to say 'good night' to one another."
The Proclamation of Free Grace, Pt. 2
"Importantly, the worry for the church’s future wanes once we understand that God’s free grace can work through the frail, struggling, sinful, and broken church. The difficult and challenging circumstances of the church are no hindrance to the God who works salvation for all through Jesus of Nazareth."
Writing as Protest
"When events unfold, the church must not simply evaluate from the sidelines but take a central role in advancing the cause of justice. Karl Barth emphasized the importance of timely engagement by the church and warned against tendencies to intervene only when the risks were minimal. This principle applies equally to Christian journalism and writing, whether conducted under the church's formal authority or independently."
Don’t forget to sign up for our upcoming event with Harmut Rosa this September. Will Israel and Hezbollah go to war? The new age of American exorcisms. An alternative to the Bonhoeffer Option. Newly top-rated laptop bags. The decimation of Gaza’s academia is “impossible to quantify.” Some tips for how we can harness social media for good. 10 films to watch in August. What is a church’s money for? How Zionism’s dreams of liberation became entangled with colonialism. A new book that looks fascinating: The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America.
God Here and Now is an online magazine and newsletter from the Center for Barth Studies.
Eberhard Busch, Barth in Conversation, Volume 3, 1964–1968 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 379.
Busch, Barth in Conversation, Volume 3, 379.
What a nice word and timely reminder. Thank you, Kait!