PTS Barth Conference: Day 4 Dawns
The last day of the conference is upon us. I dropped the ball yesterday in terms of substantive coverage, at least for the most part. Luckily for all of us, Darren as a couple of posts` up covering such things. One thing that Darren wasn’t able to cover was Mark Lindsay’s talk last evening. I was there, but I was in charge of audio recording the talk and so did not take notes. But, here are a few recollections.
Mark’s talk was on Markus Barth’s treatment of Israel, with tangential reference to Karl as well. Mark showed that Markus (fun with alliteration) advocated a position of critical solidarity of Christians with Jews and with the modern state of Israel. Markus held this position for exegetical and theological reasons, which boiled down finally to the fact that Jesus was a Jew. But, Markus’ solidarity was highly critical, and Mark related a number of political and military events in the life of the state of Israel that Markus condemned. The Q&A saw, among other things, an interesting exchange between Mark and Ben Myers, the latter of which pushed the former on whether the holocaust can be considered as the bearer of greater theological significance than any other historical event. Mark thought that it did, considering the theological significance of who this historical event happened to. In any case, this is an important question to consider, and an especially interesting one from a Barthian perspective.
I’m currently in Princeton Theological Seminary’s Cooper Conference room, waiting for the morning session to begin. It will feature Matthew Myer Boulton, who recently published a book on God Against Religion. More to come before all is said and done.
Mark’s talk was on Markus Barth’s treatment of Israel, with tangential reference to Karl as well. Mark showed that Markus (fun with alliteration) advocated a position of critical solidarity of Christians with Jews and with the modern state of Israel. Markus held this position for exegetical and theological reasons, which boiled down finally to the fact that Jesus was a Jew. But, Markus’ solidarity was highly critical, and Mark related a number of political and military events in the life of the state of Israel that Markus condemned. The Q&A saw, among other things, an interesting exchange between Mark and Ben Myers, the latter of which pushed the former on whether the holocaust can be considered as the bearer of greater theological significance than any other historical event. Mark thought that it did, considering the theological significance of who this historical event happened to. In any case, this is an important question to consider, and an especially interesting one from a Barthian perspective. I’m currently in Princeton Theological Seminary’s Cooper Conference room, waiting for the morning session to begin. It will feature Matthew Myer Boulton, who recently published a book on God Against Religion. More to come before all is said and done.
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