REL prof’s new book is a study in theopolitics

Wed. Oct. 22, 2025

Dr. Jane Barter is Professor in the Department of Religion and Culture, where her research focuses on the areas of modern Christianity. In her new book, Theopolitics and the Era of the Witness (Routledge, 2025), Dr. Barter examines “the act of witnessing in the aftermath of tragedy” in the Jewish and Christian faiths, moving from the period of the post-Shoah writings of Paul Celan and Primo Levi to the more contemporary Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in Canada and South Africa. The book is part of an interdisciplinary series, Transforming Political Theologies (Routledge), edited by Judith Gruber, Vincent Lloyd, and David True, which explores connections between religion and politics. Dr. Barter is also the general editor of the multi-volume T & T Clark Encyclopedia of Christian Theology, which is forthcoming in 2026 with Bloomsbury Press.  

Dr. Jason Hannan, Professor in the Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications, provides the following comments regarding Theopolitics and the Era of the Witness, "Jane Barter's book is a truly fascinating account of the role of public witnessing in theological politics. It excavates the perspectives of a wide range of twentieth century theologians and philosophers, weaving them into a compelling historical narrative. This is a very exciting work of intellectual history that helps to illuminate the present moment. It's also beautifully written."

According to Dr. Tracy Whalen, Dean of Arts, "Dr. Barter brings an exquisite sensitivity to theological resonances in the secular public sphere. In a piece she penned during COVID, for example, she read (then) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pandemic beard and uncharacteristic scruffiness within a tradition of religious ritual, specifically, as a secular gesture of renunciation with respect to vanity during a time of public mourning. Dr. Barter connects so beautifully the dynamics of the political present with theological perspectives."

Arts Matters posed a series of questions to Dr. Barter about Theopolitics and this is what she had to say.

Arts Matters: Can you (briefly) explain what theopolitics is and can you give us an example in modern life? 

Jane Barter: So theopolitics is a theory that theology and politics continue to influence one another even in a secular world. We can see this, for example, in the degree to which Charlie Kirk’s death is currently being interpreted through the religious lens of “martyrdom.” Theopolitics distinguishes itself from political theology because it does not claim, as does classical political theology (such as Carl Schmitt), that theology secretly underwrites political concepts, such as sovereignty, authority, and the state. Instead, theopolitics is concerned not with sovereignty and power, but with powerlessness, vulnerability, and the “tradition of the oppressed,” as Walter Benjmain called it. In this book I sought to decenter of power to offer an account of remnant witnessing, which I claim is attentive to foremost to suffering and the victims of atrocity, rather than toward a redeemed and sovereign futurity. 

AM: How do you navigate in your own life when you’re dealing with the weighty subject matter, especially when it involves the inhumanity of people to one another? 

JB: Thank you for this question. Fortunately, I am not a scholar who is doing ethnography on victims of atrocity; instead, I was thinking through how scholars, states, and societies think about atrocity and genocide. Still, this is depressing content, especially in light of the ways in which some suffering is foregrounded over others today. I have found that talking through these ideas with colleagues and friends is helpful, as is committing myself to witnessing to atrocity today through political engagement and protest.   

AM: The study of genocide and political atrocity is heavy and we are living in difficult times now. Does your book offer hope for us in our present circumstance?  

JB: I am not so sure it does. In fact, the witnesses whom I admire the most are ones who seek not to overcome the tragedy, but in a way to keep it centered in their political action and response. So, for example, I write of the family members and friends of MMIWG2S, who have been tireless advocates in not allowing the Canadian public to forget them. It comes, I suspect, at great personal cost. However, I do think that the solidarity that emerges from witnessing in such a way is powerful and it offers a mode of political resistance that is deeply counterintuitive and revolutionary. That is, let us not speak of progress or reconciliation until the last member of our community is accounted for.  

AM: In reference to the last line of the abstract, how is it that “theology can be a constructive and critical force in public life”? 

JB: Sure. I think that politics is often, for better or for worse, caught up in the West with theological paradigms. For example, reconciliation is a deeply theological (especially Christian) concept, and it carries with it related concepts such as forgiveness, confession, expiation, and so on. Often when such concepts are secularized, they tend to displace divine authority with human authority. Theology is critical of that kind of project, which for example, would enshrine the nation state with the power to reconcile subjects as if by fiat. My book claims that while theology often has underwritten authority and sovereignty, it often has an undercurrent which is renunciatory and critical of such power. So, for example, this book draws a lot on the concept of lament, which as Jewish and Christian theologians have displayed, is a form of mourning that is a continual protest against injustice; that refuses any easy form of reconciliation in the aftermath of atrocity.  

AM: Do you have plans for your next project? 

JB: I do! I plan to write on something less depressing! That is, I will be writing on AI and the Vatican’s (and especially the late Pope Francis’s) interventions in guiding its use ethically. I am both appreciative and critical of these interventions.