2026 KBSNA Meeting at the American Academy of Religion

The 2026 Annual American Academy of Religion meeting will take place in Denver, Colorado on November 21–24.

The following are the planned meetings:

→ Friday, November 20, 4:00 – 5:30 PM 

Theme: On Karl Barth’s The Christian Life
Location: Colorado Convention Center, 403 (Street Level)
Keith Johnson, Wheaton College, presiding

This session focuses on Barth’s posthumous work, The Christian Life. It addresses the work’s distinctive account of Christian witness, the “hallowing” of God’s name, eschatology, human righteousness and unrighteousness, and related topics.

  • Cambria Kaltwasser, Northwestern College, Orange City
    “God’s Future as Gift and Goal: Hastening to and Waiting for the Kingdom in Karl Barth’s The Christian Life.”

    Abstract: In The Christian Life, Karl Barth conceptualizes God’s future as an interruption of the present while also attesting its advanced presence as “first fruits” in the life of the community. This paper examines the tensions at play in these two conceptualities and demonstrates how Barth’s exposition of the petition for the hallowing of God’s name among those to whom God is presently both “known and unknown” participates in this tension. While acknowledging instabilities in Barth’s account, the paper argues that a productive tension between these two themes is vital to the fullness of Christian witness, mitigating against both quietism and triumphalism. Finally, the paper highlights certain dispositions appropriate to the Christian life this side of the eschaton, among them lament and humor.  
  • Paul Dafydd Jones, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
    “On Meeting the Kingdom that Comes: Karl Barth’s Theology of Revolt in The Christian Life”

    Abstract: This paper considers the dogmatic presuppositions that underpin Barth’s commendation of “revolt.” It reckons with the claim that the fulfillment of the covenant of grace does not mean the closure of that same covenant; it pays particular attention to “revolt” as a key element of an eschatological ethic that views disruptive political activity as integral to Christians’ obligation to move forward to meet the coming Kingdom of God. This eschatological ethic, the paper suggests, is not merely consonant with the “moral ontology” of the Dogmatics. It expands Barth’s ethical program in the context of the doctrine of reconciliation (and, by anticipation, redemption); and it does so in ways that disclose common ground between Barth and earlier advocates of the “social gospel.” In its conclusion, the paper notes that Barth’s insistence that Christians become “comrades of the Kingdom” has acute contemporary significance in contexts beset by far-right extremism.

→ Saturday, November 21, 9:30 – 11:00 AM 

Theme: Karl Barth and Christian Nationalism
Location: Embassy Suites Denver Downtown, Aspen A (Third Floor)

Cambria Kaltwasser, Northwestern College, Orange City, presiding

Paul Dafydd Jones, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, presiding

This session comprises two papers that reckon with Karl Barth’s work in relation to Christian nationalism, past and present, along with responses and a period of Q and A.

Abstract: Karl Barth’s critique of German Christian nationalism is well known, but some American Christian nationalists have drawn on the theology of Barth and Barmen to justify and support their agenda—notably John MacArthur’s Grace Church during the COVID-19 crisis, the masterminds behind Project 2025, Kevin Roberts and Russell Vought, and antiabortion activist Katelyn Walls Shelton. This paper argues that Barth’s political writings in the 1930s evince a characteristic weakness—an overly abstract notion of Christian freedom and an overly sanguine confidence in the self-evidence of the Bible’s witness against Christian nationalism. Both points may have made sense within the context of Germany, but they have translated poorly in the American context. Those committed to Barth’s intentions must recover elements of his earlier theology from the first Romans commentary and his more overtly socialist writings as a necessary supplement and corrective to his later work.

  • Nicola Whyte
    “On Nationalism, Patriotism, and Sin: Reading Karl Barth in Scotland”

Abstract: This paper explores how a doctrine of sin drawn from resources found in Karl Barth might contribute to theological reflection on nationhood, nationalism, and patriotism. Focusing on my own Scottish and British context while engaging broader theoretical questions, I argue that attentiveness to sin provides an essential tool for Christian engagement with the modern nation-state. Rather than offering any prescriptive political conclusion, the paper proposes that a robust doctrine of sin, developed in conversation with Barth, can help to reframe discussions of nationalism within churches in ways that are both chastening and constructive. I argue that a well-constructed hamartiology based on a critical and appreciative reading of Barth illuminates the dynamics of (self) deception, the insidious functioning of ideology, and the potential of all states and nations to become “at least a little Leviathan,” whilst also preserving the possibility of responsible, hopeful political discernment with regard to the nation. 

Respondents:

→ Sunday, November 22, 9:30 – 11:30 AM 

Theme: Prayer, Partnership, and Transformation: A Discussion of Cambria Kaltwasser’s Book, Karl Barth on Friendship with God
Location: Embassy Suites Denver Downtown, Cripple Creek Salon 1 (Second Floor)

Hosted by: Reformed Theology and History Unit, Karl Barth Society of North America, and Baylor University Press

Join us for a discussion of Karl Barth on Friendship with God, Cambria Kaltwasser’s new book exploring the significance for the Christian life of Barth’s understanding of God’s self-humbling toward creatures in Jesus Christ.

Panelists: