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Luther Seminary · Center for Barth Studies

The Church, the Pastor, and Resonance in an Accelerated Age

Theological Conversations with Hartmut Rosa

September 23–24, 2024 · Hybrid Conference · Theron Room, Princeton Theological Seminary

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Days
Hours
Minutes

The Church, the Pastor, and Resonance in an Accelerated Age

Theological Conversations with Hartmut Rosa

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, we invite you to join us 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 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.

Please note that the location of the lectures has been moved to the Theron Room in the Theodore Sedgwick Wright Library. The address is 25 Library Pl, Princeton, NJ 08540.

Sponsors

Speakers

Gerardo Martí

William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowed Professor of Sociology, Davidson College; President, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

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Gerardo Martí

Dr. Gerardo Martí is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowed Professor of Sociology at Davidson College and President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. A prolific and award winning author, Dr. Martí’s current research is funded generously through the Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative and focuses on churches actively confronting racial injustice. His next book is under contract with Oxford University Press.

Andrew Root

Professor and Carrie Olson Baalson Chair of Youth and Family Ministry, Luther Seminary

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Andrew Root

Andrew Root, PhD (Princeton Theological Seminary) is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary. He is most recently the author of four volume Ministry in a Secular Age series (Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Congregation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, and Faith Formation in a Secular Age), and The End of Youth Ministry?.  He has also authored Christopraxis: A Practical Theology of the Cross (Fortress, 2014) and Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker (Baker, 2014).

Root puts together theology and storytelling to explore how ministry leads us into encounter with divine action. His book  The Relational Pastor (IVP, 2013) as well as a four book series with Zondervan called A Theological Journey Through Youth Ministry (titles include Taking Theology to Youth Ministry, Taking the Cross to Youth Ministry, Unpacking Scripture in Youth Ministry, and Unlocking Mission and Eschatology in Youth Ministry) break new ground in this direction. In 2012 his book The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry (with Kenda Creasy Dean, IVP, 2011) was Christianity Today Book of Merit. He has written a number of other books on ministry and theology such as The Children of Divorce: The Loss of Family as the Loss of Being (Baker Academic, 2010), The Promise of Despair (Abingdon, 2010), Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation (IVP, 2007) and Relationships Unfiltered (Zondervan/YS, 2009). Andy has worked in congregations, parachurch ministries, and social service programs. He lives in St. Paul with his wife Kara, two children, Owen and Maisy, and their dog. When not reading, writing, or teaching, Andy spends far too much time watching TV and movies.

Hartmut Rosa

Professor of Sociology at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena; Director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies

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Hartmut Rosa

Hartmut Rosa is professor of sociology at the Institute of Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. He has worked with the New School for Social Research in New York and the universities of Augsburg, Duisburg-Essen and Manheim, among others. Often considered a leading representative of the new critical theory, his research interests include the sociology of time and identity formation. Notable among his publications are Social Acceleration (Columbia University Press, 2015), The Uncontrollability of the World (Polity Press, 2020), and Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World (Polity Press, 2021).

Rahel Siebald

Lecturer for Systematic Theology at Theologisches Seminar Adelshofen

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Rahel Siebald

Rahel Siebald moved from Germany to Scotland in 2020 to pursue postgraduate research in Theological Ethics at the University of Aberdeen. Her doctoral thesis “A Forgotten History of Leadership” investigates how the development of human resource management has changed the understanding of pastoring and ecclesial structures in contemporary churches. Rahel is interested in questions about history and repentance, ethical questions around economics, and the intertwinement of sociology and theology. Her master thesis (Giessen, Germany, 2019) was particularly concerned with a theological perspective on Hartmut Rosa’s work on Social Acceleration. Rahel has taught ethics to undergraduate students and facilitated a postgraduate seminar on questions surrounding abuse in theology and church. From July 2024 she will take up a new role as lecturer for Systematic Theology at Theologisches Seminar Adelshofen in Germany.

John Swinton

Professor and Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen

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John Swinton

John Swinton is a consulting faculty member at Duke Divinity and professor in practical theology and pastoral care and chair in divinity and religious studies at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. For more than a decade he worked as a registered mental health nurse. He also worked for a number of years as a hospital and community mental health chaplain alongside of people with severe mental health challenges who were moving from the hospital into the community. In 2004, he founded the University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability. He has published widely within the area of mental health, dementia, disability theology, spirituality and healthcare, end of-life care, qualitative research, and pastoral care. Swinton is the author of a number of monographs including his recent book, Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of People With Mental Health Challenges (Eerdmans 2020), which won the Aldersgate book prize for interdisciplinary theological research, and his book Dementia: Living in the Memories of God, which won the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Ramsey Prize for excellence in theological writing. Swinton is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was recently elected as a fellow of the British Academy.

Miroslav Volf

Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology, Yale University; Founding Director, Yale Center for Faith & Culture

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Miroslav Volf

Professor Volf is the founding Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. His books include Allah: A Christian Response (2011); Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (2006), which was the Archbishop of Canterbury Lenten book for 2006; Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (1996), a winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award; and After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity (1998), winner of the Christianity Today book award. A member of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and the Evangelical Church in Croatia, Professor Volf has been involved in international ecumenical dialogues (for instance, with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) and interfaith dialogues (on the executive board of C-1 World Dialogue), and is active participant in the Global Agenda Council on Values of the World Economic Forum. A native of Croatia, he regularly teaches and lectures in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and across North America. Professor Volf is a fellow of Berkeley College.

Claudia Welz

Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Religion, Aarhus University

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Claudia Welz

Claudia Welz is Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Religion at the School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark. Her research interests include theological anthropology in an interreligious context, existential philosophy, hermeneutics, phenomenology, environmental ethics, and philosophy of psychology.

She is heading the collective interdisciplinary research project “Epistemological Aspects of ‘Dialogue’: Exploring the Potential of the Second-Person Perspective” (2021-2024) and is the co-founder and co-director of the Research Unit for Kierkegaard Studies at Aarhus University.

She has authored the research monographs Love’s Transcendence and the Problem of Theodicy (Mohr Siebeck, 2008), Vertrauen und Versuchung (Mohr Siebeck, 2010), Humanity in God’s Image: An Interdisciplinary Exploration(Oxford University Press, 2016), and the essay collection SinnSang: Theologie und Poesie (Nordpark-Verlag, 2019).

Currently, she is preparing the following manuscripts: (1) Traumatized Memory and Hopeful Imagination: Ethics, Theology, and Arts-Based Research; (2) Gehör für das Unsichtbare: Die Stimme der Stille und die Sprache des Gebets; (3) Vox peregrina: A Phenomenology of Listening to What Cannot be Heard.

Philip Ziegler

Professor of Christian Dogmatics, University of Aberdeen

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Philip Ziegler

Philip G. Ziegler was born and raised in rural south-western Ontario, Canada. After undergraduate studies at the Royal Military College and the University of Toronto, he pursued ministry and theological education at several of the constituent colleges of the Toronto School of Theology, culminating in a Th.D. from Victoria University / University of Toronto. He was ordained to the Order of Ministry of the United Church of Canada in 1996. After holding a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Princeton University’s Centre for the Study of Religion in 2001–2, he served for several years as Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at the Atlantic School of Theology before joining the Divinity department of the University of Aberdeen in 2006, where he is currently Professor of Christian Dogmatics. His published work includes Doing Theology When God is Forgotten: The Theological Achievement of Wolf Kroetke <(2007) and Militant Grace: The Apocalyptic Turn and the Future of Theology (2018). In March 2024 he delivered the Annie Kinkead Warfield Lectures under the title “God’s Adversary and Ours: A Brief Theology of the Devil.”

Moderator

David Wood

Co-Director, Lilly Endowment project “From Relevance to Resonance: Exploring the Practices of Transcendence in Ministry and Congregational Life”

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David Wood

David served as the Senior Minister of Glencoe Union Church from 2009–2023. He is now retired and lives in Waldoboro, Maine with his wife, Jennifer. In 1984, David was ordained into the Christian ministry by the American Baptist Churches, USA, and served congregations in Maine, Kentucky, France, and Connecticut. He also served as the Associate Director of The Louisville Institute (1998–2001), as the national coordinator of the Lilly Endowment’s Transition into Ministry Program (2002–2009), and, for several years, as a consultant to the John Templeton Foundation in developing programs intended to cultivate a more robust conversation between religion and science in the life of congregations. Currently, he serves as the Co-Director of a four year Lilly Endowment project, “From Relevance to Resonance: Exploring the Practices of Transcendence in Ministry and Congregational Life.”

Register

Attend in Person

We are delighted to welcome conference attendees to the Princeton Theological Seminary campus. Please note that the location of the lectures has been moved to the Theron Room in the Theodore Sedgwick Wright Library (25 Library Pl, Princeton, NJ 08540). Attendees may purchase lunches at Mackay Campus Center. Light refreshments will be available throughout the day. In-person registration is $50, not including meals or lodging.

In-person registrants will also be added to Airmeet for access to the event replays.

Attend Virtually

The conference will be streamed on Airmeet, where virtual attendees can not only view lectures but also participate via live chat and Q&A. The event footage will be available for registrants to view after sessions are concluded, so feel free to register even if you aren’t able to attend all the sessions live! Virtual registration is $7.50.

Financial Aid

If you are in need of financial aid to attend the conference, please reach out to Hank at hank.spaulding@ptsem.edu for a discount code.

Register Today

Attend Virtually

The conference will be streamed on Airmeet, where virtual attendees can not only view lectures but also participate via live chat and Q&A. In addition, the event footage will be available for viewing for a few weeks afterward. If you are unable to attend the conference in person, click the button below to register and reserve your seat on Airmeet. 

Attend in Person at Princeton Theological Seminary

We are delighted to welcome conference attendees to the Princeton Theological Seminary campus. Lectures will be held in […].

Register below!

Schedule

Monday, September 23, 2024

Time (ET)
Session
Presenter(s)

8:00AM

Registration

9:00–10:00AM

Plenary lecture #1

John Swinton

10:00–10:30AM

Break with coffee and refreshments

10:30–11:30AM

Plenary lecture #2

Rahel Siebold

11:30AM–12:00PM

Panel Discussion

Swinton, Siebold, Rosa; facilitated by David Wood

12:00–2:00PM

Lunch (Provided in Mackay Dining Hall)

2:00–3:00PM

Plenary lecture #3

Andrew Root

3:00–3:30PM

Break with coffee

3:30–4:30PM

Plenary lecture #4

Hartmut Rosa

4:30–5:00PM

Closing Panel

Root, Rosa; facilitated by David Wood

8:00–9:00PM

Homebrewed Christianity Podcast Live Recording with Hartmut Rosa – Location TBD

Tripp Fuller, Hartmut Rosa

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Time (ET)
Session
Presenter(s)

9:00–10:00AM

Plenary lecture #5

Claudia Welz

10:00–10:30AM

Break with coffee and refreshments

10:30–11:30AM

Plenary lecture #6

Gerardo Marti

11:30AM–12:00PM

Panel Discussion

Welz, Marti, Rosa; facilitated by Wood with Root

12:00–2:00PM

Lunch (Provided in Mackay Dining Hall)

2:00–3:00PM

Plenary lecture #7

Philip Zeigler

3:00–3:30PM

Break with coffee

3:30–4:30PM

Plenary lecture #8

Miroslav Volf

4:30–5:30PM

Closing Panel

Zeigler, Volf, Rosa; facilitated by Wood with Root

Travel & Lodging

Transportation

Click here to view information on travel and airport ground transportation options.

Lodging

A limited number of guest lodging rooms are available on campus in the Erdman Center. Details about the Erdman Center can be found here. The nightly rates range from $55-$90. Since there is an early start to the conference program on Monday morning, September 23, we encourage guests to consider staying in Princeton beginning on Sunday evening, September 22.

Please note: Lodging charges are not included on the invoice for the conference. Attendees pay for their lodging upon arrival at the Erdman Center. For information regarding conference lodging at the Erdman Center, click here and enter your arrival date and group number 104291.

If the Erdman Center is full or you would like other lodging options, check this nearby hotel:

Hilton Garden Inn
1300 Lenox Dr,
Lawrence Township, NJ 08648
Phone: 1 (855) 618-4697
Hotel Website

Steering Committee

Kaitlyn Dugan

Director, Center for Barth Studies

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Dr. Kaitlyn Dugan

Kaitlyn Dugan is the Director of the Center for Barth Studies, which involves managing the daily operations, programs, and conferences of the center as well as curating, preserving, maintaining, and developing Princeton Theological Seminary’s Barth Special Research Collection. She is grant co-author for the $300,000 Scholarly Editions and Scholarly Translations grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Karl Barth Translator’s Seminar in 2019. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and political science from Taylor University, a Master of Arts in theology from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and received her PhD in systematic theology from the University of Aberdeen in June 2022. Her dissertation research focuses on developing a constructive theological account of death informed by Pauline apocalyptic theology and is titled “The Enduring Enemy: Towards An Apocalyptic Theology of Death.” She is currently working towards publishing her dissertation. Kaitlyn is a member of St. James Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Harlem, New York City.

Check out her Twitter here: twitter.com/kaitdugan.

Andrew Root

Professor and Carrie Olson Baalson Chair of Youth and Family Ministry, Luther Seminary

See Full Bio

Andrew Root

Andrew Root, PhD (Princeton Theological Seminary) is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary. He is most recently the author of four volume Ministry in a Secular Age series (Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Congregation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, and Faith Formation in a Secular Age), and The End of Youth Ministry?.  He has also authored Christopraxis: A Practical Theology of the Cross (Fortress, 2014) and Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker (Baker, 2014).

Root puts together theology and storytelling to explore how ministry leads us into encounter with divine action. His book  The Relational Pastor (IVP, 2013) as well as a four book series with Zondervan called A Theological Journey Through Youth Ministry (titles include Taking Theology to Youth Ministry, Taking the Cross to Youth Ministry, Unpacking Scripture in Youth Ministry, and Unlocking Mission and Eschatology in Youth Ministry) break new ground in this direction. In 2012 his book The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry (with Kenda Creasy Dean, IVP, 2011) was Christianity Today Book of Merit. He has written a number of other books on ministry and theology such as The Children of Divorce: The Loss of Family as the Loss of Being (Baker Academic, 2010), The Promise of Despair (Abingdon, 2010), Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation (IVP, 2007) and Relationships Unfiltered (Zondervan/YS, 2009). Andy has worked in congregations, parachurch ministries, and social service programs. He lives in St. Paul with his wife Kara, two children, Owen and Maisy, and their dog. When not reading, writing, or teaching, Andy spends far too much time watching TV and movies.

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