I don’t know about you, but I can hardly believe that Christmas is almost here. In light of this busy time of year, I am thankful for the new reflections that were posted here this week: I appreciated reading Sara Mannen’s timely reflections on Christmas, Nancy Duff’s incisive piece on the inane nature of US Christmas culture wars, and Chris Boesel’s second installment in a powerful year-long series on Barth, James Cone, and white supremacy. I hope you enjoy these reflections!
— Kait Dugan
God Here & Now is the online magazine of the Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary
Sara Mannen, An Ordinary God?: As I look at my Christmas to-do list, I want to reevaluate my motivations for everything on that list. I want to align my desire to create special, extraordinary moments for my family with what corresponds to and reflects the extraordinary love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. I do not want to rush through and dismiss the ordinary because of my idol of the “extraordinary.” I want to savor small, ordinary moments to love my family and friends. I do not want to miss out on recognizing “ordinary” moments where the extraordinary and surprising God is present.
Nancy Duff, “Happy Holidays” and the “War” on Christmas: I have to wonder, if Christians genuinely want to protect the integrity of their faith, why would they want "Merry Christmas" to be said to someone who does not celebrate Christmas or worship the Christ child? Does it not cheapen the Christian meaning of the greeting if it is addressed to everyone, no matter what their faith, and if everyone is expected to say it in return? And do not Christians have far more serious matters to occupy their attention during Advent and Christmas than how a multi-billion-dollar coffee company chooses to decorate its disposable cups or how store clerks greet customers?
Chris Boesel, God Takes Sides—Against Whiteness: Jesus was no human-being-in-general. Far from it. In Jesus, through the Spirit, God shows up in a dung-filled manger, not a princely palace; God chooses table fellowship at the margins of the colonized, not at the full tables of comfortable citizens of the realm; God is executed as a threat to the law and order of empire, not the executor of the law and order of empire. Barth’s own affirmation of the “cause Dei”—of God’s cause in the world—is an affirmation that God takes sides.
Would it be lonely to be God? Ted Smith gives a short but moving talk about living for things that die. Check out the call for papers for the 2024 Scottish Dogmatics conference. Is there a “crisis of masculinity”? Learn more about the Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. Is it possible to “queer” Barth? The 2024 Winners of the Lautenschlaeger Award have been announced here. You can now pre-order a long anticipated commentary on the book of Romans. A new issue of the Stellenbosch Theological Journal discussing the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been released (open access!). Theologizing with Theolonius Monk and Karl Barth. Have you left the church? Consider offering your experience in this research survey. Esau McCaulley reflects on why he is still a Christian. And what books do you wish you would have read earlier in your life?
God Here and Now is an online magazine and newsletter from the Center for Barth Studies. If you would like to support our work, you can donate to the center here. All donations are tax-deductible. Questions? Ideas? Email us: barth.center@ptsem.edu