Eberhard Busch to Lecture on Karl Barth at Princeton Seminary
—Was Barth’s political speech in Second-World-War Germany silenced?—

Princeton, NJ, October 23, 2007–Eberhard Busch, professor emeritus in systematic theology at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, will deliver a lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary on Thursday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Lounge of the Mackay Campus Center. The lecture is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception.

Titled “‘A Swiss Voice’: The Campaign of the Swiss Government against the Voice of Karl Barth during the Second World War,” the lecture will bring to light previously unknown archival documents relating to the Swiss government’s campaign to silence Barth’s political speech in the face of potential National Socialist retaliation.

Dr. Eberhard Busch is a world-renowned Barth scholar, and was Barth’s last assistant. Busch is also a member of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany. His research interests lie in Barth’s life and works, John Calvin and the history of the Reformed Reformation, Reformed confessions in past and present, the “church struggle” in Germany from 1933 to 1945, the history of pietism in the eighteenth century, and Reformed identity.

Busch is the author of the definitive biography of Barth, Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiography Texts (first English edition by SCM Press, London, 1976). In 2004, he published The Great Passion: An Introduction to Karl Barth's Theology, which has since become a standard introduction to Barthian theology.

“Since the publication of his richly annotated biography of Karl Barth, Busch has served internationally as the dean of Barth interpreters, providing guidance through the complex and often contradictory discussion of Barth's theology,” said Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology Darrell Guder. “He has done extensive and original research on the historical contexts that illumine Barth's significance, particularly in relation to the Third Reich and the Holocaust. And he is in his own right a constructive Reformed theological voice, whose work contributes imaginatively both to the advance of scholarship and the ‘upbuilding of the church.’”

Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812, the first seminary established by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. It is the largest Presbyterian Seminary in the country, with more than 700 students in seven graduate degree programs.

For more information about the lecture, please contact the Center for Barth Studies at barth.conference@ptsem.edu.