The Center for Barth Studies (CBS) is currently the central locus for Barth research in the world, with a consistently high, top-ten ranking on Google searches related to Karl Barth. It serves as the premier resource for scholars, students, and anyone else interested in Barth’s work. The CBS regularly hosts visiting scholars both domestically and internationally. Part of its mission is to make Barth’s work more accessible, both within the United States and globally. To this end, the CBS sponsors and hosts conferences every year, both at Princeton Theological Seminary and abroad, while also fostering a robust online presence. The CBS also has a long history of academic partnerships with institutions around the world.
The Barth Translators Seminar, a key program of the CBS, exists to foster the English-language reception of Karl Barth’s literary corpus by providing support and guidance for qualified translators and facilitating the publishing of as yet unavailable Barth resources for the academy. The Seminar emerged out of the Center for Barth Studies regular conferences in response to the concern both for continual improvement of the quality of Barth translations as well as the encouragement of new translations. In light of the universally recognized significance of Barth’s work as the premier Reformed theologian of the twentieth century, it is a matter of both urgency and stewardship that his work be made available in reliable translations for the theological work of both the church and the academy.
The resources of the CBS have been an invaluable resource for the translators. In its biannual sessions, the Translators Seminar has developed standards for translation, provided expert guidance to active translators, and continues to serve as the material hub of the proposed translation project. The Seminar has recently published three volumes of their English translations with Westminster John Knox Press. The three volumes are the English translations of Barth’s Gespräche, and are published as Barth in Conversation (Volume 1, 1959–1962, Volume 2, 1963, and Volume 3, 1964–1968).
In 2018, the Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary received the Scholarly Editions and Translations Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to translate into English three volumes from The Lectures and Shorter Works of Karl Barth, 1905–1909, 1909–1914, and 1914–1921. The center received this NEH grant award again in 2023 to translate the next three volumes from The Lectures and Shorter Works of Karl Barth, 1922–1925, 1925–1930, and 1930–1933. These generous NEH grant funds enable the Seminar to meet twice per year to work together and translate these three volumes into English allowing for greater translation efficiency. The English translation of these volumes will be published by Westminster John Knox Press. The first English translation volume was published in 2023 as The Early Barth – Lectures and Shorter Essays, Volume 1, 1905–1909.
BRUCE L. MCCORMACK
Project Director
Bruce Lindley McCormack is Professor of Modern Christian Theology at the University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland. McCormack was Princeton Theological Seminary’s Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology until June 2022. He earned his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1989. He also earned an MDiv from Nazarene Theological Seminary and an honorary doctorate of theology from the Friedrich Schiller Universitat in Jena, Germany. A Presbyterian, McCormack is interested in the history of modern theology, from Schleiermacher and Hegel through Karl Barth. His courses cover Schleiermacher’s Glaubenslehre and the doctrine of atonement in Christian tradition. He is a member of the General Assembly committee commissioned to write a new catechism for the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has been a member of the panel on doctrine for the Church of Scotland. A member of the Karl Barth-Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland, he is North American editor of the Zeitschrift für Dialektische Theologie, published in Holland.
KAITLYN DUGAN
Project Co-Director
Kaitlyn Dugan is the Director of the Center for Barth Studies. She is grant co-author for two $300,000 Scholarly Editions and Scholarly Translations grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Karl Barth Translator’s Seminar in 2019 and 2023. Dugan is co-editor (with Philip G. Ziegler) of The Finality of the Gospel: Karl Barth and the Tasks of Eschatology (Brill, 2022) and (with Paul Dafydd Jones) of Karl Barth and Liberation Theology (T&T Clark, 2023). She is also the English language editor for Zeitschrift für Dialektische Theologie and the Theology Editor and Operations Manager for The Other Journal.
Dugan 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 a Doctor of Philosophy in systematic theology from the University of Aberdeen in June 2022. Dugan’s research and writing focuses on Pauline apocalyptic theology, eschatology, Karl Barth, Christian liberation theologies, and theologies of death. She is currently working towards publishing her dissertation.
PAUL T. NIMMO
English Editor
Paul Nimmo holds the King’s (1620) Chair of Systematic Theology at the University of Aberdeen, having previously held positions at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh. His studies were undertaken at the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen. His first monograph, Being in Action: The Theological Shape of Barth’s Ethical Vision, was awarded a John Templeton Award for Theological Promise in 2009, and he has since published Barth: A Guide for the Perplexed, co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Karl Barth and The Cambridge Companion to Reformed Theology, and edited the church resource Learn: Understanding Our Faith. He is currently completing a monograph on Karl Barth and the Lord’s Supper. He was Managing Editor of the International Journal of Systematic Theology for a decade, and became its Senior Editor in 2016. He has also served as co-Chair of the AAR Reformed Theology and History Group Steering Committee from 2017 to 2020, and as Treasurer of the Society for the Study of Theology from 2013 to 2016. An ordained elder in the Church of Scotland, he is the Vice-Convenor of its Theological Forum, and is currently a member of the CPCE delegation for ecumenical dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church.
CAMBRIA JANAE KALTWASSER
Project Editor
Cambria is Assistant Professor of Theology at Northwestern College, Iowa, where she teaches courses in historical and systematic theology. Her research examines the relationship between Barth’s covenantal theology and his account of human agency as responsibility before God. Her wider interests include the doctrine of humanity, sanctification, and Christian hope. She earned her MDiv and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary (2010, 2017) and her BA from John Brown University (2006). She spent the 2013–2014 academic year conducting research at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen as a Fulbright Scholar. Kaltwasser is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She lives in northwestern Iowa with her husband, son, and daughter.
MATTHIAS GOCKEL
German Editor
Matthias Gockel teaches Systematic Theology at the University of Basel, having previously taught at Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. He is interested in the intellectual, social, and cultural history of modern Protestant theology. His current research focuses on the doctrine of God’s attributes and Political Ethics. He received his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his dissertation was published (in revised form) as “Barth and Schleiermacher on the Doctrine of Election: A Systematic-Theological Comparison” (Oxford UP, 2007). After his PhD he worked for six years in a mainline Protestant Church in Germany. He received fellowships from the German-American Fulbright Commission, Princeton Theological Seminary, the Luther-Gesellschaft, and Friedrich-Schiller-University.
CLIFFORD B. ANDERSON
Clifford is Director of Digital Research, Center of Theological Inquiry; Chief Digital Strategist, Vanderbilt University Library; and Professor of Religious Studies, College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University. He holds a M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. and Th.M. in Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. He also earned a M.S. in L.I.S. from the Pratt Institute. Anderson is the co-author of two edited volumes (both with Bruce L. McCormack) on Karl Barth: Karl Barth and American Evangelicalism (Eerdmans, 2011) and Karl Barth and the Making of Evangelical Theology (Eerdmans, 2015). He is also the translator (with Dagmare Houniet) of Tjitze Kuiper’s Abraham Kuyper: An Annotated Bibliography, 1857–2010 (Brill, 2011).
MATTHEW J. ARAGON BRUCE
Matthew is currently Assistant Professor of Religion at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO. He holds a MDiv (2006) and PhD (2014) from Princeton Theological Seminary and a MTh (2007) from the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on modern and medieval theology, with particular interest in Karl Barth and Thomas Aquinas. His present major project is a monograph entitled: Theology without Voluntarism: Karl Barth and Thomas Aquinas on the Love and Freedom of the Triune God.
JOHN BURGESS
John P. Burgess (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1986) is the James Henry Snowden Professor of Systematic Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His publications include The East German Church and the End of Communism, Why Scripture Matters, and Encounters with Orthodoxy, as well as numerous articles in professional journals and popular magazines. In 2004–05, Burgess spent a sabbatical year in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2011, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Moscow, Russia, and in 2012 continued his research in Russia as a Henry Luce III Foundation Theology Fellow. In 2014–15, he was a research fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. He is currently working on a translation of essays by Wolf Krötke, a major contemporary German interpreter of Barth and Bonhoeffer.
DAVID CHAO
David C. Chao is Director of the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has degrees from Yale University (BA), Regent College (MDiv), and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThM, PhD). He is author of the forthcoming book with Routledge entitled Concursus and Concept Use in Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Providence: Nature, Grace, and Norms. David has published in Zeitschrift für dialektische Theologie, is co-editor of the three-volume work on Karl Barth’s conversations (1959–1968), and taught at Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University. His research and writing focus on Asian American theology, the uses of Christian doctrine for liberation, the convergence and divergence of Protestant and Catholic dogmatics, and the theology of Karl Barth.
TERRY L. CROSS
Terry Cross teaches in the areas of theology and philosophy. A specialist in the work of Karl Barth, he completed his doctoral work in systematic theology. Prior to his work at Lee University, Cross was a pastor for twelve years and a high school teacher of Latin and history. He was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award at Lee University in May 2000 and the Excellence in Scholarship Award in May 2001. He is the author of Dialectic in Karl Barth’s Doctrine of God, Answering the Call in the Spirit: Pentecostal Reflection on a Theology of Vocation, Work, and Life. Currently, Cross is completing a book on ecclesiology entitled, The Church: A People of God’s Presence and Power. Cross graduated from Lee in 1978, earning the first of several degrees. He later received the M.A. in Church History and the M.Div. in Theology from Ashland Theological Seminary (Ohio). From Ashland, he moved to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he received the Th.M. in Doctrinal Theology and the Ph.D. in Systematic Theology (1991). In the summer of 2002, Cross became the dean of the School of Religion. Terry and his wife, Linda, have one daughter, Tara. Aside from golf, tennis, and racquetball, he enjoys genealogy and Latin.
SVEN ENSMINGER
Sven is originally from Germany. A graduate of the University of St Andrews, he received his Masters from Yale Divinity School before returning to the UK for his doctoral studies. His doctoral thesis under the supervision of Gavin D’Costa, Karl Barth’s Theology as a Resource for a Christian Theology of Religions is published by T&T Clark/Bloomsbury. Sven is the author of numerous book reviews and articles. His current research focuses on the theological virtues.
DAVID GILLAND
David Gilland is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the Technische Universität in Braunschweig, Germany, a post which he has held since 2017. He was previously Lecturer at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany. He completed his doctorate in divinity at the University of Aberdeen, UK, in 2010 under the supervision of John Webster. A revised version of David’s doctoral thesis was published by T&T Clark in 2013 as Law and Gospel in Emil Brunner’s Earlier Dialectical Theology, which traces Brunner’s earlier theological development and the build-up to his debate with Karl Barth on nature and grace in 1934. In addition to his work with the Barth Translator’s Seminar, David is also nearing the completion of a translation of the “Karl Barth–Emil Brunner Correspondence” for T&T Clark. Beyond teaching and translation, David is currently researching and writing on the interrelation between Christian theology and human rationality, focusing in particular on interdisciplinary and ecumenical approaches to theological anthropology.
ANETTE HAGAN
Anette Hagan, originally from Germany, is Rare Books Curator for Early Printed Collections to 1700 at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. A graduate of the University of Mainz in English, Divinity and German, she also holds a PhD in English philology from the University of Edinburgh, published by Peter Lang under the title Urban Scots Dialect Writing in 2002; a postgraduate diploma in Library and Information Studies from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen; and a MTh by research from New College, Edinburgh. Greatly extended, this was published by Wipf & Stock in the Princeton Theological Monograph Series in 2013 under the title Eternal Blessedness for All? A Historical Examination of Schleiermacher’s Understanding of Predestination.
Outside the field of book history, her interests revolve around the life and work of Friedrich Schleiermacher. She has co-edited two volumes of the Kritische Gesamtausgabe (IV 1+2, Schleiermacher’s translations of works in English) with Professor Günter Meckenstock and is currently transcribing David Friedrich Strauß’s notes of Schleiermacher’s lectures on the introduction to the New Testament.
THOMAS HERWIG
Thomas Herwig is an ordained minister of the Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland in Germany. He lives and works in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, having followed his wife Lou Ann Sellers in 2008 when she accepted the position as associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church. Thomas worked five years with Eberhard Busch as his first assistant in Göttingen. He then received his Ph.D. (Dr. theol) from the Protestant Faculty of the Ruhr University in Bochum with a dissertation on Barth’s involvement in the Ecumenical Movement based upon the correspondence between Barth and W.A.Visser ’t Hooft. He later edited this correspondence as Vol. 43 of the Gesamtausgabe. Before moving to the US, he served in the city of Duisburg as Campus Minster, Minister of Church & Arts, and Co-Pastor of a 6,000-member church. Since 2008, Thomas teaches religious studies, history, ethics, and cultural identity as Assistant Professor for the Honors College of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. At the same time, Thomas also started a German-speaking ministry under the roof of First Presbyterian Church, called “First Pres Deutsch.” Within the translators’ seminar, Thomas is completing a full retranslation of Barth’s Göttingen Dogmatics. He is proud father of three children: Johannes, Charlotte, and Madelyn.
OLIVER KEENAN
Oliver Keenan is a Catholic Priest of the Dominican Order, currently serving as Lector in Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology at Blackfriars, Oxford. He completed his doctorate in systematic theology at the University of Oxford (under the supervision of Professor Graham Ward), outlining a semantic ontology for Christian dogmatics by developing the philosophy of Michael Polanyi in dialogue with contemporary Thomism. Oliver teaches courses across the whole nexus of systematic theology, but his research focusses on the theology of the twentieth-century, particularly Catholic receptions of Karl Barth. He is currently working on a monograph examining the metaphysics of Jesus’s humanity within a semantic perspective. In addition to his academic and administrative commitments, Fr Keenan is Catholic Chaplain at Imperial College London.
DECLAN KELLY
Declan is originally from Galway, Ireland, and currently lives and works in Aberdeen. He received his Masters from Queen’s University Belfast before moving Aberdeen for his doctoral studies. A revised version of doctoral thesis was published in 2022 as The Defeat of Satan: Karl Barth’s Three-Agent Account of Salvation as part of the T&T Clark series “Explorations in Reformed Theology.” Declan is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, the latest of which is an exploration of Barth’s interpretation of the Beatitudes in CD IV/2 for the Journal of Reformed Theology. His current research focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century critiques of religion, and the place of Satan in modern Protestant systematic theologies.
DAVID MACLACHLAN
Full-time Professor for New Testament Studies and Early Christian History at AST since July 1983 with specialties in the Revelation to John, Paul, Early Church History; interests in Biblical Theology and Jewish-Christian dialogue. David was the Academic Dean at AST from 1998 to 2011. As a doctoral student under and research assistant to Dr. Markus Barth (1915–1994) at the University of Basel he assisted Dr. Barth with the preparation of his volumes on Ephesians and Colossians in the Anchor Bible commentary series as well as the volume on Philemon in the Critical Eerdmans Commentary series. He is a member of the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies and has written several shorter book reviews in Studies in Religion. He wrote articles for the student handbook, Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture from Sheffield Phoenix Press. With a deep interest in the use of the Bible in the church David was a member of the United Church of Canada General Council Committee for Theology and Faith and chaired the Committee from 1988 to 1992. He participated in the development and writing of the 1992 UCC General Council report, The Authority and Interpretation of Scripture. He also sat on the committee that prepared the Canadian resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2014 materials. David is presently working on a collection of essays on the Revelation to John and a special study on the theology of Israel in the Revelation. He is also translating Markus Barth’s book Die Taufe: ein Sakrament? into English.
PHILIP MITI
Philip Miti is a doctoral candidate in systematic theology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany working on Karl Barth’s doctrine of the body and soul. He completed a masters in theological ethics at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and currently resides in Berlin. Philip worked at the Bonhoeffer-Haus in Berlin and participated on the board (2017–2018). Alongside his research on Barth, Philip spent time as a junior research fellow in science-engaged theology at the University of St Andrews (2021–2022) working on “Embodied Cognition in Thomas Aquinas’ Anthropology” and “Play in the Christian Tradition & Contemporary Neurosciences,” funded by the John Templeton Foundation. He has published a number of reviews and has a forthcoming article on the allegorical interpretation of Song of Songs 1:5–6 in Origen, Ambrose, and Bernard of Clairvaux. Philip’s major areas of interests are the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Scripture, and psychology. He has previously enjoyed translating the Heidelberg Catechism into English, and he is currently working on a translation of Eduard Böhl’s Dogmatik with Richard McIntosh. In his spare time, Philip likes to run, bake, and play guitar. He is married to Katja, a theologian, and they have a toddler named Amos.
PATTY RICH
With a background in literature and language acquisition pedagogy, Patty has studied and taught on five continents. She has done academic, military, and commercial translations, including work for the History Channel and the World Council of Churches. One of her particular interests is paleography. Patty is a native of Pennsylvania, and she presently lives in Basel, Switzerland. She is married and the mother of three grown children. Patty is a candidate for ministry in the Swiss Reformed Church.
J. ROSS WAGNER
J. Ross Wagner (PhD, Duke University, 1999) is Associate Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School. Specializing in Paul’s letters and in Septuagint studies, he seeks to contribute to the recovery of theological exegesis through careful investigation of the ways scriptural interpretation shaped early Jewish and Christian communities. His publications include Heralds of the Good News: Paul and Isaiah in Concert in the Letter to the Romans (2002), Between Gospel and Election: Explorations in the Interpretation of Romans 9–11 (coedited with Florian Wilk, 2010), and Reading the Sealed Book: Old Greek Isaiah and the Problem of Septuagint Hermeneutics (2013). Wagner has been a Humboldt Research Fellow at the Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, Germany, and a member in residence at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton. He is currently at work on a book-length study exploring the impact of Isaiah’s oracles on Christian exegetes of the first five centuries CE.
ROSS WRIGHT
Ross McGowan Wright is the Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal), in Richmond, Virginia and teaches at Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, Virginia) and the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. He is the translator of Barth’s Lectures on Ephesians (Baker Academic, 2017) and author of “Some Reflections on Translating and Analyzing Karl Barth’s Ephesians Lectures,” Letter from the Karl Barth-Archives (2009). He holds a BA in English from Davidson College (1976), including a year at the Faculté des Lettres, University of Montpellier, France; a MDiv. from Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania (1981), a ThM in Systematic Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary (2003), and a PhD in Systematic Theology from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland (2007), where he was awarded a Russell Trust Grant for Academic Research for work at the Karl Barth Archives in Basel, Switzerland. He is fellow of the School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee (2009) and was designated a Scholar of Promise by the Episcopal Church Foundation (2005). In addition to his pastoral work, teaching, and research, he is a free-lance trombonist and plays with groups throughout the Richmond area, including the Richmond Pops Band, the University of Richmond Symphony, and the orchestras for Lee Playhouse and Swift Creek Mill Theatre. He has been married to Lynda Wornom Wright since 1985, and they have three sons.
