Announcing the Society for Dialectical Theology

By -
"Dialectical theology is the consistent and systematic development of the missionary (i.e., hermeneutical) insight that forms the condition of possibility for modern theology. . . . Dialectical theology thinks within historical consciousness without reducing faith to history, that is, without reducing kerygma to culture. . . . Dialectical theology is essentially an anticonstantinian theology of mission." (Congdon 2015, xxvi, xxviii)

Last week, David Congdon and I announced the formation of a new Society for Dialectical Theology. The SDT was announced publicly through a YouTube video that serves also as a brief introduction to Dialectical Theology (DT). Here's the video:



If you are devotee of DT, conduct scholarship on one or more of the members of the DT movement in the 20th century, or are simply interested in learning more, I encourage you to complete this form to join the SDT and be added to its mailing list. The SDT is in its infancy, and there are no dues or other obligations. We're just trying to get folks together to talk about some theology that is not only interesting but -- we're convinced, at least -- remains incredibly relevant and constructively fruitful today.

So fill out the form, and I'll see you inside the SDT!

==================================


Subscribe to Die Evangelischen Theologen

Comments

George Plasterer said…
I look forward to seeing what direction you take this. I appreciated so much the Barth/Bultmann discussion. As an aside, your final point, I believe Dr. McMaken made it, was an interest in political application. I will be interested in how you avoid turning the political into its own idol, which I think both Bultmann and Barth had concerns. My book-reading groups have just read Barth and are now ready to read some Bultmann. We were going to read Congdon's book, which I have already read, but it increased in price since I bought it. In any case, a re-thinking of theology today in light of the insights of dialectical theology is well worth the effort.
December 13, 2016 1:37 PM
W. Travis McMaken said…
The political sphere is not any more inherently open to the danger of idolatry than the intellectual, cultural, ecclesial, etc., spheres.

Glad to hear that you'll be reading David's book!
December 13, 2016 1:42 PM
Max Harris said…
I agree that ideological contamination of faith extends beyond the political sphere, but the danger is that as faith seeks to avoid entanglement with one ideology, it risks becoming captivated by another. I assume a central interest of dialectical theology is a perpetual faith-based ideology critique that is wise enough to extend the critique back upon itself. Count me in.
December 16, 2016 9:09 AM
George Plasterer said…
Among the on-going influences of your video is the clarity you have given to the importance of the "event" in Christian theology. If I understood rightly, this means holding together the event of the cross/resurrection and the event of faith. I am not sure where Dr. Congdon is on this now, but I understood him to say in one of our discussions that he thought Bultmann might have lopped off the event of the past in favor of the present act of faith, and that Dr. Congdon wants to hold them together. I share this only to see if I understood him rightly. In any case, the insight of the importance of the event has brought me back to Kierkegaard and Philosophical Fragments. Thank you for that.
March 02, 2017 9:59 AM
Post a Comment

Popular Posts

So, You Want To Read Karl Barth?

By -
Image
Every now and then I am asked for advice about studying Karl Barth. So, I thought that I would share some of my standard advice here. But, before I do that, let me just say that I am by no means a Barth expert as compared to the people whose books I will mention below. I would be thrilled to find myself in their league one day, but as of yet that remains a distant dream. Still, I have been reading Barth for long enough, and under the supervision of a number of the scholars that I will mention below, that I think I can provide a decent orientation. I have never read Karl Barth before. Which of his books should I read first? Barth’s most famous work is the monumental 13-volume Church Dogmatics . Reading the CD with understanding is not an easy thing, so you definitely do NOT want to start here. Luckily, there are two smaller works by Barth that serve as helpful introductions to his work. Evangelical Theology: An Introduction - Based on the lectures that Barth delivered duri
Keep reading

So You Want to Read….Dietrich Bonhoeffer?

By -
Image
"I fear that Christians who stand with only one leg upon earth also stand with only one leg in heaven." "The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from everyday Christian life in community…may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; for in the poor sister or brother, Christ is knocking at the door." "Since ethical thinking in terms of realms is overcome by faith in the revelation of the ultimate reality in Jesus Christ . . . there is no real Christian existence outside the reality of the world." "People who reject their bodies reject their existence before God the Creator." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer Prelude Andreas Steinhoff [Attribution], via Wikimedia Commons I envisioned having a lot of time for blogging this summer, but that simply has not been the case - the last month has been a crazy one, to say the least. For two weeks, I was working at a theology summer camp of sorts, the Duke Youth Academy, and s
Keep reading

2010 KBBC: Week 1, Day 5

By -
“You Wonder Where the Spirit Went”: Jenson and Barth on the Hiddenness of God By Peter Kline I am entering into a conversation that Jenson has already begun with Barth. In a constructive essay on the hiddenness of God (Jenson 2000), Jenson considers Barth’s position on the matter only to find it lacking. I want to explore why Jenson has problems with Barth on this issue, as well think critically about his constructive alternative. I will suggest that Jenson is only partly right in his diagnosis of Barth; he in fact overlooks the heart of Barth’s teaching on divine hiddenness. The reason is that he looks in the wrong place for Barth’s pneumatology. Jenson can’t find the Spirit in Barth not because the Spirit isn’t there, but because the Spirit is hidden . These considerations will open out into a comparison of Barth and Jenson on the logic of revelation. By “logic” I mean: what is discourse about God’s revealedness and hiddenness supposed to accomplish? Part I Jenson focuses his a
Keep reading

Karl Barth on Hell, the Devil, Demons, and Universalism – A Florilegium

By -
Image
You know, all the most interesting topics. Although Barth often confessed that he didn’t find these questions particularly interesting. At best they might draw sideways glances, as it were, as one travels the theological road. But I found a number of places in the records of Barth’s later conversations that I thought folks might find interesting, so I’ve collected them here. And if you aren’t familiar with the term “florilegium,” here you go ! All these texts are from the first volume of Barth in Conversation , with pages numbers given in parentheses along the way. As usual, italics are in the text and bold is mine. Hell “Now we come to hell. You shouldn’t laugh! There is nothing to laugh at! What does hell mean? I think hell means to be in the place where you are once fore all damned and lost without ceasing to exist, without losing the image of God, being what you are but being damned and lost, separated from God, whose creature you are, separated also from your neighbor, from
Keep reading

2010 KBBC: Week 3, Day 1

By -
On the Monstrosity of Christ : Karl Barth in Conversation with Slavoj Žižek & John Milbank By Paul Dafydd Jones For a while, I hoped to frame this conversation in terms of a dramatic interchange – something along the lines of “A Slovenian philosopher, a British theologian, and a Swiss dogmatician walk into a bar…” Alongside an eye-wateringly hip assemblage of cinematic references, literary allusions, and comedic scenes – my early favorites being when Barth imagines a young adult novel, entitled Are you there God? It’s me, Žižek , and when Milbank waxes poetic about the Twilight movies – I wanted to engage some topics that would likely receive attention, were the authors to meet for drinks. Primarily, I envisioned an intense discussion of the logos asarkos and the logos ensarkos , with Milbank talking up the former category, Barth emphasizing the latter, and Žižek asking whether recent debates are but symptoms of secret puzzle, embedded in the Church Dogmatics – a puzzle that
Keep reading