2018 Annual Karl Barth Conference

Speakers

Andrea White

Andrea C. White is Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Her forthcoming volumes are The Back of God: A Theology of Otherness in Karl Barth and Paul Ricoeur; The Scandal of Flesh: Black Women’s Bodies and God Politics; and a future edited volume with Fortress Press entitled Feminist and Womanist Theologies. She is Executive Director of the Society for the Study of Black Religion and co-chair of the American Academy of Religion Black Theology Group. She serves on the Karl Barth Society Advisory Board and several editorial boards, including the Journal for the American Academy of Religion. She earned a Ph.D. in theology from The University of Chicago and M.Div. with a concentration in philosophy of religion from Yale Divinity School.

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Brian Bantum

Dr. Brian Bantum is Associate Professor of Theology at Seattle Pacific University and Seminary where he has taught since receiving his doctorate from Duke University in 2009. His research centers on theology, race, and culture, including African American literature and art, expressions and experiences of mixed race identities, and how they animate Christian thought and practice. In addition to numerous articles and chapters, Dr. Bantum is the author of two books, Redeeming Mulatto: A Theology of Race and Christian Hybridity (Baylor UP) and The Death of Race: Building a New Christianity in a Racial World (Fortress). He is a regular contributor to The Christian Century and currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Literature and Theology. His current research explores the possibilities of theology as a literary genre as well as iconicity, visual art and artists as theologies/theologians of visuality, anthropology, and Christian embodiment.

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Faye Bodley-Dangelo

Faye Bodley-Dangelo obtained a ThD from Harvard Divinity School. Her dissertation, “Veiled and Unveiled Others: Revisiting Karl Barth’s Gender Trouble,” is a critical and constructive analysis of the heteropatriarchal constraints of the sexually differentiated agent in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics. Her research engages the doctrines of the trinity, christology, theological anthropology, and gender theory. She is the managing editor of Harvard Theological Review and Harvard Divinity Bulletin.

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Raymond Carr

Dr. Raymond Carr is an Assistant Professor of theology and ethics in the Religion and Philosophy Division at Pepperdine University. His research interests are theologically ecumenical, historically sensitive, and radically inclusive. Dr. Carr received his Ph.D. from Graduate Theological Union in Systematic and Philosophical Theology. He teaches courses on the theology of Martin Luther, Theology Born of Struggle, and the Old Testament in Context. He is currently working on a theological aesthetics, Theology in the Mode of Monk: Barth and Cone on Revelation and Freedom, which combines together his research interests and uses the music of Thelonious Monk as a form of parabolic suggestiveness. Previous publications include “Merton and Barth in Dialogue on Faith and Understanding: A Hermeneutics of Freedom and Ambiguity,” The Merton Annual: Studies in Culture, Spirituality, and Social Concerns 26 (2013), 181-194.

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Meehyun Chung

Meehyun Chung is a Professor of systematic theology at the United Graduate School of Theology of Yonsei University, Seoul, and serves as the University Chaplain of Yonsei University in Seoul. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK). She holds a doctoral degree in theology from Basel University in Switzerland. In 2006, Chung received the Karl Barth Prize from the Union of Protestant Churches within the EKD for her doctoral thesis. She was awarded the Marga Bührig Award in 2013 for her book Reis und Wasser. Prior to her current position, Chung served as Vice President for the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) and as a Board member of Alumni Association of University of Basel, Switzerland. Between 2005-2013, she also worked as the head of the Women and Gender Desk at Mission 21, Protestant Mission Basel in Switzerland. Personal website: www.credo.or.kr

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David Clough

David Clough is Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chester, UK. His first book, Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth’s Ethics (Ashgate, 2005) argued that Barth’s mature ethical thought remained radically open to the crisis of God’s command. After setting out an account of Christian pacifism in a 21st century context in Faith and Force: A Christian Debate about War (Georgetown UP, 2007), co-written with Brian Stiltner, he has focussed on the place of animals in Christian theology and ethics, and is now completing the two-volume monograph On Animals (T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, vol. I 2012, vol. II, forthcoming). He is President of the UK Society for the Study of Christian Ethics, co-chair of the Animals and Religion group of the AAR, and a Methodist lay preacher.

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Willie James Jennings

Willie James Jennings is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. His book The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Yale 2010) won the American Academy of Religion Award of Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Constructive-Reflective category the year after it appeared and, in 2015, the Grawemeyer Award in Religion, the largest prize for a theological work in North America. Englewood Review of Books called the work a “theological masterpiece.” Jennings is also the author of Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. He is currently working on a major monograph provisionally entitled Unfolding the World: Recasting a Christian Doctrine of Creation. Writing in the areas of liberation theologies, cultural identities, and anthropology, Jennings has authored more than 40 scholarly essays and nearly two-dozen reviews, as well as essays on academic administration and blog posts for Religion Dispatches. Jennings is an ordained Baptist minister and has served as interim pastor for several North Carolina churches. He is in high demand as a speaker and is widely recognized as a major figure in theological education across North America. A Calvin College graduate, Jennings received his M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in religion and ethics from Duke.

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Paul Dafydd Jones

Paul Dafydd Jones is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and co-director, with Charles Mathewes, of The Luce Project on Religion and its Publics. He is author of The Humanity of Christ: Christology in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics (T&T Clark) and over two dozen articles, chapters, and essays. He is completing two major projects at present: The Oxford Handbook of Karl Barth (Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2018), coedited with Paul Nimmo (University of Aberdeen), and a constructive work entitled Patience: A Theological Exploration.

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Hanna Reichel

Dr. Reichel earned her ThD and MDiv from Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, holds a B.Sc. in economics from Fernuniversität Hagen and a BA (Vordiplom) in theology from Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. Reichel’s published work includes articles on Karl Barth and the mission of the church, and a monograph titled, Theologie als Bekenntnis. Karl Barths kontextuelle Lektüre des Heidelberger Catechisms (FSÖTh, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), eng. Theology as Confession: Karl Barth’s Contextual Readings of the Heidelberg Catechism. Her theological interests include Christology, scriptural hermeneutics, political theology, constructive theology, poststructuralist theory, and the theology of Karl Barth.

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Luis N. Rivera-Pagán

Luis N. Rivera-Pagán is the Henry Winters Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. He received his Doctorate in Philosophy (Ph. D.) at Yale University, in 1970, and is the author of several books, among them: A la sombra del armagedón: reflexiones críticas sobre el desafío nuclear (1988), Senderos teológicos: el pensamiento evangélico puertorriqueño (1989), Evangelización y violencia: La conquista de América (1990), A Violent Evangelism: The Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas (1992), Los sueños del ciervo: Perspectivas teológicas desde el Caribe (1995), Entre el oro y la fe: El dilema de América (1995), Mito exilio y demonios: literatura y teología en América Latina (1996), La evangelización de los pueblos americanos: algunas reflexiones históricas (1997), Diálogos y polifonías: perspectivas y reseñas (1999), Fe y cultura en Puerto Rico (2002), Essays From the Diaspora (2002), God, in your Grace… Official Report of the Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (2007) [Editor], Teología y cultura en América Latina (2009), Ensayos teológicos desde el Caribe (2013), Peregrinajes teológicos y literarios (2013), Essays from the Margins (2014) and Voces teológicas en diálogo con la cultura (2017) [Editor].

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Graham Ward

Professor Graham Ward is the Regius Professor of Divinity at Christ Church, Oxford University. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. Ward is the editor of three book series including Radical Orthodoxy (Routledge), Christian Thought in Context (Oxford University Press), and Illuminations: Religion and Theory (Blackwell). He has written a number of publications including Unbelievable: Why We Believe and Why We Don’t (I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, 2014), The Politics of Discipleship: Becoming Postmaterial Citizens (Baker Academic, 2009), Christ and Culture (Blackwell, 2005), Cultural Transformation and Religious Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2004), True Religion (Blackwell, 2002), Cities of God (Routledge, 2000), Theology and Contemporary Critical Theory (Macmillan, 1996, 2nd edition 2000), and Barth, Derrida and the Language of Theology (Cambridge University Press, 1995). Ward’s research interests include theology, philosophy, and cultural Studies, along with the nature of religion and its relationship to anthropology, sociology, politics, gender theory, and contemporary science. He is currently writing a three volume work developing a culturally engaged systematic theology.

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Concurrent Speakers

Dorothy Chang

Dorothy Chang is a third-year PhD student studying historical theology at Fordham University. She received her MA from Columbia University and a BA from Rutgers University in Religious Studies. Her research focuses on theories of vision and light in the middle Byzantine and highmedieval periods and what these say about the human person. She is also interested in liberation theology and critical theory. Born and raised in New Jersey, Dorothy now lives in Chinatown and enjoys the food there

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David Chao

David C. Chao is a Ph.D. candidate in theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has degrees from Yale University (BA), Regent College (MDiv), and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThM). He has published in Zeitschrift für dialektische Theologie, is co-editor of a three-volume work on Karl Barth’s conversations (1959-1968), and taught at Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University. He is currently completing a dissertation on the relation of nature and grace in Karl Barth’s doctrine of providence. His research interests include Protestant and Catholic dogmatics (especially as they pertain to issues of nature and grace), Reformed theology, and Asian American theology.

Christopher Choi

Christopher Choi is a PhD student in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He received his MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary and BA from Nyack College. His work focuses broadly on modern thought, including twentieth century theology, Enlightenment thought, and critical theory. He is particularly interested in attending to the discursivity of Karl Barth, exploring how figures and forms of language in his theology both take up and respond to issues and critiques of modernity.

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Ashley Cocksworth

Ashley Cocksworth is Assistant Professor in Theology and Ministry at Durham University, UK. Previously he lectured in systematic theology at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, UK, where he was also involved in ministerial formation. After studying theology in Edinburgh, doctoral research in Cambridge led to the publication of his first book: Karl Barth on Prayer (T&T Clark, 2015) and a further volume on prayer: Prayer: A Guide for the Perplexed (T&T Clark, 2018). He is currently working with W. Travis McMaken on a volume on Barth for the Classics of Western Spirituality series by Paulist Press. He is the Treasurer of the Society for the Study of Theology.

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Tyler Davis received his MDiv from Princeton Theology Seminary and is currently a third-year PhD student at Baylor University. As a student in theology and ethics, he focuses on constructive theology, liberation theology, and theologies of history. His research explores the convergence of eschatology in nineteenth and twentieth-century theology with US racial regimes and abolitionist resistance to them. He lives in Texas with his partner and dog, and does not spend too much time watching vintage Allen Iverson highlights.

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Michael DePue

Michael DePue is a PhD student in Theological Ethics at Boston College. Working broadly in political theology, his research interests are Christology, social theory, and moral formation with particular attention to the relationship between soteriology and political theory. As a member and church educator in the Presbyterian Church (USA), he is also interested in the intersection of Augustinian/Reformed theologies with theologies of liberation. He currently lives in New England with his wife and two children.

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Daniel Lee

Daniel D. Lee was appointed director of Fuller Seminary’s Center for Asian American Theology and Ministry in 2016 and assistant professor of theology and Asian American ministry in 2017. Serving in various leadership roles since 2010, he has been the key force behind the center and the Asian American Initiative before that. Dr. Lee’s research areas focus on the Reformed tradition and contextual theologies, and he brings broad ministry experience to his work. Ordained in the Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad (KPCA), he has served in pastoral roles in both New Jersey and Southern California. He was previously a chaplain and, for several years, a field staff member for the campus outreach Servants Ministry in Virginia. Lee is author of the book Double Particularity: Karl Barth, Contextuality, and Asian American Theology (Fortress, 2017) as well as several articles. He serves as contributing editor for Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture and editorial board member for Prophetic Voices: API Christian Perspectives for Church and Society. He is a member of the Association for Asian American Studies, American Academy of Religion, Karl Barth Society of North America, and Association of Asian/North American Theological Educators.

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Jules Martinez

Jules A. Martinez-Olivieri is a Professor of Theology and Religion at Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico and serves as a teaching minister in San Juan. His research interests are in Christology, Latin American Liberation theology, trinitarianism, and theological ethics. His first book, A Visible Witness: Christology, Liberation, and Participation (Fortress), challenged Protestant theology in Latin America to develop a theodramatic Christology in order to see the work of salvation as the work of the triune God, and to relate Christology and pneumatology in ways that fundamentally shape the praxis of the church. His current research delves into the catholicity of christologies in the Majority Word.

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Lisa Powell

Lisa D. Powell is Associate Professor of Theology at St. Ambrose University, where she also teaches in the Women and Gender Studies program. Her current research explores disability, embodiment, and Christology, particularly in relationship to the identity of Jesus in the triune life of God. Previous publications include Inconclusive Theologies: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Kierkegaard, and Theological Discourse (Mercer University, 2014) and “The Infertile Womb of God: Ableism in Feminist Doctrine of God” CrossCurrents Journal 64.1 (Spring, 2015). Dr. Powell is the first-place winner of the 2011 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza New Scholar Award for her research on Sor Juana. She is the book review editor for the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. She earned her M.Div. and Ph.D. in systematic theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.

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Alberto La Rosa Rojas

Alberto La Rosa Rojas earned an BA from Trinity Christian College, an MDiv, Western Theological Seminary, and he is currently pursuing a ThD at Duke Divinity School. Alberto’s experience as an immigrant from Peru, living inthe United States, informs and drives his academic pursuit which wrestles with the ethical and theological dimensions of migration. Broadly speaking, Alberto’s work seeks to reflect deeply on the practices of homemaking and pilgrimage as rich christological and creational motifs that are also uniquely expressed in the lives and experiences of immigrants. Through this theological reflection, he aims to provide an account of how migrants, particularly undocumentedimmigrants, can flourish and contribute to the flourishing of others in light of the political, economic, and socio-cultural conditions surrounding immigration.

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John Sheveland

John N. Sheveland is Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA., USA, where he teaches a variety of courses in Christian theology, interreligious dialogue and comparative theology, and the religions of India. He received a Master of Arts in Religion (M.A.R.) from Yale Divinity School in 1999 and a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Systematic and Comparative theology from Boston College in 2006. Current teaching and research interests center around comparative theology responsive to violence, the theology of Karl Barth, and Asian theological method. At Gonzaga he organizes the annual lecture series entitled ‘Being Religious Interreligiously’. John received in 2013 a Faculty Diversity Leadership Award and in 2015 an Exemplary Faculty Award from Gonzaga University. He serves on the board of directors of the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies and on the steering committee of the Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion.

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Ry Siggelkow

Ry O. Siggelkow teaches theology at the University of St. Thomas and Bethel University, and serves as a pastor at Faith Mennonite Church in Minneapolis. He earned a Ph.D. in Theology (Christian Ethics) from Princeton Theological Seminary (2017), and an M.A. (2009) and B.A. (2006) in Theology from the University of St. Thomas. His areas of specialization are theological ethics and systematic theology with a special interest in the relationship between eschatology, racial politics, and theologies of black power and liberation. His current work focuses on the theme of “apocalyptic” in twentieth-century crisis theology, specifically in the theology and ethics of Ernst Käsemann, Paul Lehmann, and James Cone. Most recently, he is co-editor (with Nancy J. Duff) of the forthcoming volume, The Revolutionary Gospel: Paul Lehmann and the Direction of Theology Today (Lexington Books). Ry lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Marcia, and their three children, Owen, Aleida, and Wendy.

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