The Politics of God’s Yes: Karl Barth in Conversation with American Christian Nationalism

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.