2018 International Barth Conference

Parallel Speakers

Michael Bartholomaeus

Michael Bartholomaeus is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Otago in New Zealand under the supervision of Christopher Holmes and Murray Rae. He received a Masters degree from Tabor College in Adelaide, Australia. Michael’s research interests include Karl Barth’s doctrine of sanctification, Barth’s understanding of the relationship between judgment and grace, and what Barth can teach us about preaching. He currently lives in Dunedin where he attends a Baptist church and serves in the young adults ministry.

Blair Bertrand

Rev. Dr. Blair D. Bertrand teaches at Zomba Theological College and with Theological Education by Extension Malawi (TEEM) both in the central African country of Malawi. Rev. Dr. Bertrand has a PhD in Practical Theology (PTS) and is an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Recently he has completed editing Conflict and Consensus: Practical Theology for Congregations in the Work of Richard R. Osmer (Pickwick, 2018) and is at work on a manuscript called How To Be a Missionalary: Ministry in a Globalized, Secularized, Post-Colonial World.

Hendrik Bosman

Hendrik Bosman did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Pretoria, where he was awarded the Hons (Philosophy) in 1978 and a DD in Old Testament in 1983. During his academic career, he was initially (1979 to 1990) appointed as lecturer, senior lecturer, associate professor, and professor in Old Testament at UNISA. In 1991, he became a professor in Old Testament at Stellenbosch University. He was head of Old and New Testament from 1998 to 2011 and acting dean for the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University from 2013 to October 2017.

Hendrik has authored numerous books and journal articles as well as contributed to make theological dictionaries and encyclopaedias. He has twice received the Andrea Murray – Desmond Tutu prize for theological publications. He served as co-editor of Scripture from 2000-2017.

Hendrik’s research interest has been in the field of Old Testament ethics and theology with special attention to the exodus as a narrative concerned with origin and migration and constitutive of religious identity. An additional perennial interest in theological hermeneutics has led to an ongoing reflection on how the interpretation of the Bible is influenced by different modes of theologising and anthropological presuppositions. In 2018, he formed part of a research group of twelve scholars at the Centre for Theological Inquiry (Princeton NJ, USA) concerned with issues related to “Religion and Migration”.

When not attempting to photograph birds, he usually reads topics related to 19th century British and German imperialism and sometimes finds solace in making wine.

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.

Yaqian Chen

Yaqian Chen is an editor in the editorial department of Fudan Journal, a prestigious academic journal in China. She is also a PhD student at the University of Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Perrier Buelher. In 2001, she received her PhD from Fudan University in Shanghai, China with a dissertation focused on Hegel’s conception of the unhappy consciousness. Her research interest previously focused on German Idealism and Kierkegaard. She encountered Barth’s Church Dogmatics in the summer of 2006 in Hong Kong. Since then, she has become more and more fascinated with this great work. Her second dissertation will center on Barth’s concept of Gegenstaendlichkeit.

Khegan Delport

Khegan is a Ph.D candidate in Systematic Theology at the University of Stellenbosch working under the supervision of Professor Robert Vosloo. His postgraduate studies have been focused on the theology of Rowan Williams and Donald MacKinnon with a special interest on the inter-connections between Christian metaphysics and philosophies of the tragic. His work has been published in the Stellenbosch Theological Journal, Studia Historia Ecclesiasticae, and The Heythrop Journal.

Wim Dreyer

Wim Dreyer is a senior lecturer in Historical Theology at the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria.

Before starting his academic career in 2010, Wim Dreyer served for 22 years in ministry. During 2005 he was appointed as general secretary of Mission and Ecumenical Relations of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika (NHKA). He served four terms (2001 – 2013) on the Moderature of the NHKA, also as moderator. He also served as editor of Die Hervormer, official newspaper of the NHKA from 1995 to 2001.

During 1995, Wim Dreyer completed a doctoral thesis in Church History on the relation between church and state in South Africa. In 2011 he completed a PhD in Practical Theology in which he explored new approaches to ecclesiology in a dissertation on ‘Practical Ecclesiology’.

With assistance from the University of Pretoria, in association with the Johannes à Lasco Library (Emden) and the Hardenberg Fellowship Programme, Wim Dreyer started a research project ‘Church and Justice’. The main focus is on the contribution reformed theology made to social, economic and political justice in different contexts. It also explores the contribution reformed theology and churches could make in promoting fundamental values such as justice and human dignity on the African Continent and specifically South Africa. This research also links to the Accra Declaration of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. His teaching responsibilities include courses on reformed theology.

Wim Dreyer is the author of two monographs, 7 chapters in books, 35 articles in theological journals as well as more than a hundred popular articles in various newspapers and magazines.

Mark Edwards

Mark Edwards earned his Ph.D. at Princeton Theological Seminary in 2013 with a dissertation on Barth’s treatment of time and eternity. He works as a full-load adjunct professor of philosophy and ethics at The College of New Jersey, as an occasional adjunct professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary & Fuller Seminary, and as a youth pastor at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, NJ. This is his third time to the African continent and his first time in South Africa.

David N. Field

David N. Field is the academic coordinator of the Methodist e-Academy, a project of Methodist Churches in Europe providing supplementary and continuing education for Methodist pastors from across Europe based in Basel, Switzerland. He is a South African with Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town focusing on eco-theology. He is the author of two books Bid Our Jarring Conflicts Cease: A Wesleyan Theology and Praxis of Church Unity and Our Purpose is Love: The Wesleyan Way of Being the Church, and the co-author with Ernst Conradie of Rainbow over the Land: Equipping Christians to be Earthkeepers, as well as articles dealing with eco-theology, political and public theologies, the theology and ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theology and migration, and the ethics in the Methodist tradition. His present research focuses on political and public theology in dialogue with decolonial and postcolonial thought, theological ethics in the Methodist tradition, and theologies of migration.

David Haddorff

David Haddorff is Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at St. John’s University, New York. His principle research interests include the fields of social and political theory and ethics, and the theology and ethics of Karl Barth. He is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America, and also serves in various capacities in that denomination. His doctorate is in historical theology from Marquette University, where he studied modern theology and ethics. In addition to historical studies, he’s published in the fields of systematic theology, Christian ethics, and Karl Barth studies. His published books include: Dependence and Freedom: The Moral Thought of Horace Bushnell; a 70 page monograph: “Karl Barth’s Theological Politics” in the reprint of Karl Barth’s Community, State, and Church: Three Essays; and most recently, Christian Ethics as Witness: Barth’s Ethics for a World at Risk, where he provides a detailed study of Barth’s theological ethics and applies to the current ethical issues in politics, economics, and the environment. He is currently working on the book: Trinitarian Politics: A Political Theology of Divine Action, in which he brings together studies in trinitarian theology and political theology, particularly in light of Barth’s theology.

Yoshua Harahap

Yoshua Budiman Harahap received his MTh from Jakarta Theological Seminary and ordained as a pastor at Christian Churches of Java, Indonesia. As a pastor-scholar, his focus intertwined between ecclesia, academia, and societa which challenge him to articulate and doing theology “here and now.” Constructive public theology, post-traumatic theology, sosio-pastoral theology, social theology, and religion and culture are some of his field. His publications include, “Liberatio Communio: The ecclesiological identity of Sadrach’s Javanese Community” International Bulletin of Mission Research 41.3 (July 2017) and “Mending the Memory? A Socio-Pastoral Approach to Re-experiencing the Peaceful Religion through Ruwatan” in Mending the World (Wipf and Stock, 2017). He also actively engaged in interreligious dialogue in the Interfaith Youth Dialogue (PELITA) in South Tangerang, Banten and served as the Head of “Kabar Baik” Institute of Research and Development (LPPKB), a non-profit R&D institution focused on dialectical relation between church mission and Indonesia pluralistic society, especially around Jakarta, Bekasi, Depok, Bogor, and Banten.

Tim Hartman

Tim Hartman, Assistant Professor of Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, holds a B.A. from Stanford University, a M.Div from Princeton Theology Seminary and a PhD in Theology, Ethics, and Culture from the University of Virginia. He is currently completing a manuscript that constructively engages Karl Barth and Ghanaian theologian Kwame Bediako.

Rachel A. Heath

Rachel A. Heath is a PhD student and a Theology and Practice Fellow in the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN, USA). Her research interests and publications center on the confluences of multiple religious belonging, theologies of multiplicity, queer and feminist theories and theologies, multifaith chaplaincy, and interfaith praxis. She holds an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School and a certificate in Religion and the Arts through the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Prior to doctoral studies, she worked in various capacities at the University of Chicago. She has served on the executive committee (2015-2017) for the National Association of College and University Chaplains (NACUC) and was a 2011 seminary fellow with the Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE). She currently serves on the leadership council for the newly emerging Association for Interreligious/Interfaith Studies (AIIS).

Stephen Kapinde

Stephen Asol Kapinde is a doctoral assistant at the faculty of Theology (Extra-European Christianity), University of Basel, Switzerland. He is also an assistant research fellow at Centre for African Studies, Basel. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Religious Studies from Pwani University, Kenya with an emphasis in church-state relations. His current research works on ‘Prophetic Church Leadership in Kenya’s Democratic Processes between 1982 and 2002’. He combines an interdisciplinary work in his writings that cuts across history, religion, theology, and politics. Currently, he is working on his PhD thesis entitled ‘Political Sermons towards Democratic Governance in Kenya between 1986 and 2010’ with reference to Anglican clerics. In this work, he conceptualized ‘prophetic preaching as doing theology’, which he refers to as Critical Pulpit Theology (CPT). Prior to joining Basel, he served as an adjunct assistant lecturer at Pwani University and as a consultant on counter violent extremism in Mombasa, Kenya. Stephen is dedicated to research and the pursuit of academic excellence.

Manitza Kotzé

Manitza Kotzé is senior lecturer in Dogmatics at North-West University. She received her PhD in Systematic Theology and Ethics at Stellenbosch University, after which she completed a postdoctorate and lectured at the University of the Western Cape for three years before joining North-West University in 2016. She is primarily interested in how Christian doctrine can assist the ethical reflection on matters pertaining to biotechnology, and she is working on human biotechnological enhancement at present, in particular questions it raises around inequality.

Petrus Paulus Kruger

Dr. Petrus Paulus Kruger was born in Pretoria, South Africa, on the 17th of July 1940. After completing graduate and post-graduate studies at the North West University and at the Free University of Amsterdam (under prof. G. C. Berkouwer) he served as Minister in various Reformed congregations for nearly 40 years. He also served as an Accredited Lecturer of the North West University, being the first head of the Department of Systematic Theology, at the Mukhanyo Theological College (KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga) for more than 16 years. He holds the degrees of BA and ThD (NWU) and Theologiae Doctorandus (Free University).

At the moment he is involved in the work of the Unit for Reformed Theology and Development of the South African Society, Faculty of Theology at the North West University, as a Research Fellow.

Kindled by his Amsterdam studies and his doctoral thesis that centered on the ecclesiology of the Roman Catholic renewal-theologian Hans Küng, his research on ecumenical relations and convergences between post-Vatican-Two Rome and the Reformation continues. Furthermore, during the past decade a growing appreciation for an emerging ‘Theodramatic’ approach to theology has manifested itself intensively in his research, especially focused on dogma-historical, ecological and land debates.

Martin Laubscher

Martin Laubscher studied theology at the University of the Stellenbosch and the Free University Amsterdam. He was for six years a minister in a congregation, and since 2012 he teaches full time homiletics and liturgy at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein. He is currently busy with a PhD on the prophetic office in Barth’s theology, entitled “Public Theology as Prophetic Theology? A Critical Examination of the Socio-ecclesiological Implications of the Threefold Office in the Theology of Karl Barth.” His other areas of interest includes theologians as preachers; South African theology; prophetic preaching; public theology; and liturgy and life.

L. Maria Mudimeli

Dr L. M. Mudimeli is currently a lecturer at the University of Venda, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Prior her appointment as a lecturer, from June 2002 to September 2016, she served as a chaplain in the South African Police Service. It was there where she received a commendation as a hard worker due to her commitment to effective service delivery. In addition, she also served as a chaplain in the department of Correctional service between 2016 and 2017. Maria Mudimeli is also serving as a senior pastor of Grace Missionary Chapel at Tshituni tsha fhasi. She has been a pastor who served the church in several congregations for more than 20 years. She received her Master of Theology degree from the University of Venda and proceeded to Unisa where she completed her Doctor of Theology in Systematic Theology under the supervision of Professor Christina Landman.

Jantine Nierop

The Rev. Dr. Jantine Nierop teaches at Heidelberg University and serves as an academic director of the Center of Gender Issues of the Protestant Church in Germany. Dr. Nierop has a PhD in Practical Theology (Leiden University) and is an ordained minister with the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. She published articles on homiletics, pastoral care, and pastoral theology.

Anlené Taljaard

Anlené Taljaard is a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University. Her research focuses on Christology with an emphasis on the office of the priesthood of Christ in the reformed tradition among the works of John Calvin, Karl Barth, and Thomas F. Torrance. Her christological interests, alongside her awareness of the contributions of African public theologians, enables constructive research engagements concerning the significance of the gospel for society in the South African context. Anlené is the author of a number of published articles engaging the reformed tradition, and she was formerly a Lecturer of Systematic Theology and Ethics at the University of the Free State. She is an ordained minister of the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa

Jan van der Westhuizen

Rev. Jan D N van der Westhuizen is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Venda, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Prior to his appointment (January 1983) as a Lecturer at the University of Venda, he worked at the University of Pretoria and UNISA from 1978-1980. From 1981-1982 he served as a chaplain in the South African Defence Force. Jan also served as a part time pastor in various Dutch Reformed congregations for 23 years. He is currently completing his doctorate.

Michelle Wolff

Michelle Wolff is an assistant professor of Religion at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois where she teaches courses on ethics, race, and religion. Wolff is the author of “Madonna and Child of Soweto: Black Life Beyond Apartheid and Democracy” in Political Theology (2018). “God’s Baby, the Church’s Maybe: A Trans Grammar Lesson with Sally Gross,” is under review at Transgender Studies Quarterly, and “Beyond Barbie, Bombs, and Boredom: Do Sex Robots and Drones Promise a Transhuman Future?” co-authored with Kara Slade is forthcoming in Christian Bioethics. Duke University Press is currently soliciting Wolff’s book on Sally Gross.

Derek Woodard-Lehman

Derek Woodard-Lehman is a Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religion at University of Otago (New Zealand) where he also serves as Wellington Programme Coordinator for the Centre for Theology and Public Issues. He works broadly in the moral and the theological traditions of Western Christianity, with an emphasis on Karl Barth’s contributions to debates about the relationship between reason and revelation, the role of social practices in scriptural interpretation and ecclesial confession, and the nature of freedom in church and society. His recent and forthcoming publications include “The Law as the Task of the Gospel: Karl Barth and the Possibility of an Apostolic Pragmatism” (Journal of Jewish Ethics, 2016), “The Radical Autonomy of Karl Barth: Modern Moral Philosophy and the Ethics of Divine Command” (Oxford Handbook of Karl Barth, 2018), and Liberating Barth?: From a Theological Critique of Idolatry to a Political Critique of Ideology” (T&T Clark Companion to Political Theology, 2018). He is currently revising a manuscript entitled Confessing Freedom: Karl Barth and the Spirit of Democracy.