PTS Barth Conference: Update

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So, we are in day 2 of this year's PTS Barth conference. Day 1 was given over to registration, an opening banquet, and Clifford Anderson's brief opening remarks. Day 2 is still in via, but so far we have had a very interesting presentation from Gerrett Green on, among other things, some bits of the material that Barth excised from CD 3.1 before publication. Next came Ben Myers speaking on nature and paganism. I have it on good authority that Ben didn't finish his presentation until shortly before he gave it, although those hearing it would never have known this. One great line that stood out to this author was as follows: "Nature may sound eloquent, but she speaks with a forked tongue."

As announced previously, I had the pleasure and honor of introducing Ben at the conference. What follows is my introduction:
Good morning. My name is Travis McMaken, and I am a doctoral student here at Princeton Theological Seminary. It is my distinct pleasure this morning to introduce to you my friend Benjamin Myers. I first made Ben's acquaintance via e-mail after having come across his blog, Faith & Theology, which is one of the highest regarded and most frequently visited theology blogs out there in what some of us call the "theo-blogosphere." Having met in person a couple of years ago during a research trip Ben made to the Barth Center here at PTS, Ben and I got to know each other better last Fall when Ben was again in Princeton, this time as a resident scholar at the Center for Theological Inquiry. Ben is the author of articles on Barth's theology as well as that of related thinkers like Rudolf Bultmann, Tom Torrance, and Wolfhart Pannenberg. In 2006 he published a book on Milton's Theology of Freedom, he has a project on Rowan Williams forthcoming with T & T Clark, and his subject of study during his time at the CTI had to do with discerning the influence of Paul's apocalypticism on Barth's doctrine of election. Please join me in welcoming Ben Myers.
More to come as the conference continues!

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