Karl Barth and Christian Nationalisms in Brazil

In this paper, I will first critically analyze the recent rise of Christian Nationalism in Brazil and the US by engaging the work of scholars like Benjamin A. Cowan and Willie James Jennings. After a brief provisional exploration of social diagnosis, I propose Karl Barth's theology as a potentially fruitful correcting theological force against religious nationalism movements. In particular, Barth's Christ-centered theological anthropology exposed in CD IV/1, § 58.1, and § 58.2 offers us a useful theological tool to counter the collapsing of religious and national identity underlying these movements. I will develop Barth's insight by engaging Kathryn Tanner's work Christ the Key, where Tanner develops a Christ-centered view of human nature as radically "open-ended," corresponding to an "apophatically-focused anthropology." I will conclude with practical suggestions of how this theological view of human identity might foster new forms of political resistance in Brazil and the United States.