The UEK awards Karl Barth Prize for 2022 to Katherine Sonderegger

The Union of Evangelical Churches in the EKD (UEK) is awarding the Karl Barth Prize of the UEK in 2022 to the US theologian Katherine Sonderegger. Katherine Sonderegger is professor of systematic theology at Virginia Theological Seminary. As a teacher of theology and priest of the Episcopal Church, she is especially concerned to make theology fruitful for real-life questions and to underline the value of theological traditions in the present day.

With the Karl Barth Prize the UEK honours the theological life’s work of Katherine Sonderegger, one of the leading figures in English-speaking Barth scholarship. In doing so, the jury refers initially to her dissertation on Karl Barth’s doctrine on Israel (1992) and to numerous important essays on Karl Barth. Above all, however, it acknowledges the two volumes of her own Systematic Theology that have appeared so far, in which she treads her own constructive path in critical engagement with Barth, in particular. She develops a substantial biblical theology that spells out Christian tradition for the present critically, constructively and in ecumenical breadth. Often Barth’s concerns are ultimately brought out precisely at the point where she decides against his solutions.

The Karl Barth Prize of the UEK has been awarded biennially for 36 years in memory of the Swiss theologian (1886–1968). It is endowed with €10,000. Previous prize-winners include Eberhard Jüngel (1986), Bruce McCormack (1998), George Hunsinger (2010), Wolfgang Huber (2012), Michael Welker (2016) and latterly Michael Beintker (2020).

The award ceremony for Katherine Sonderegger is to take place in Worms on 29 September 2022 in the context of a consultation on church leadership and academic theology.

Hannover, 14 March 2022

UEK Press Office