“A view of the human-world relation that leads to responsible and life-giving action within it:” Kyle Barton at LATC 2025

Q: LATC 2025’s theme is Receiving Redemption, and it focuses on how salvation is received by human persons and communities. Why did this aspect of soteriology catch your attention and make you propose a paper on it?

A: I think it’s a well-timed topic considering the release of the new Oxford handbook of deification this year. Also, I think there are perennial questions about when and how and who receives redemption that are always worth exploring more carefully to make sure that we get God and the gospel right. Also, I found it interesting that it was not titled receiving salvation! Since redemption is Barth’s preferred term for the third act (creation, reconciliation, redemption) and since the Scriptures are clear that redemption is for the whole cosmos, I am excited to see if and how people discuss the specifics of that word. 

Q: The title of your paper is “The Human Among the Animals: Deification as Human Distinctiveness.”  How will you be approaching the conference theme in this paper?

A: I am trying to do a few things in this paper as it relates to the conference theme. 1) I continue the call to my fellow Protestants (evangelicals especially!) to seriously consider the view that salvation is deification (although founded unshakably on justification by faith). To that end, I articulate what this claim means and how there is nothing to fear about it. A stretch goal here, for a different audience, is to show that Barth has much of what constitutes the core of deification up and running in his theology, although of course in his own idiom. 2) I respond to concerns, coming from yet another audience, that deification leads to depreciation of nature and fosters mystic self-absorption or monastic retreat from the world. I argue that receiving redemption, precisely and by definition in the sense of deification, fosters a view of the human-world relation that leads to responsible and life-giving action within it. I cash this out in my paper by recommending the virtues of attention, attunement, and action. 3) I try to map out a respectful distinction between humans and other creatures that shifts the locus of distinction to two different levels of participation in God and away from rationality. I call this the difference between being deifiable and being deiform. 4) All along the way I bring Augustine, Robert Jenson, and Karl Barth into conversation. 

For my paper, I was inspired by a quote from Lynn White Jr: “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them.” 

Q: Can you describe how this paper fits in with your previous theological work, or with your recent scholarship?

A: I am a first year PhD student at Baylor. My interests are in Protestant accounts of deification and the totus Christus. Key figures for me are Augustine and Barth. Augustine was my first theological love. But I did my MDiv at PTS and had the privilege of studying with George Hunsinger, Bruce McCormack, and Hanna Reichel, which is like winning the Barth lottery. 

Q: What are you looking forward to at the conference? Are there any papers or theological issues that have especially caught your eye?

A: I think these papers are going to generate lots of fun discussions. I am especially looking forward to Katherine Tanner’s paper. Her work has been helpful to me recently. Also, Andrew Davison’s paper, especially in light of his recent book on participation in God. In terms of the short papers, definitely Cambria Kaltwasser, as a fellow Barthist, and one interested in talking about Christian growth. Finally, I am trying to finish reading Frederick Bauerschmidt’s delightful little book, The Love that is God, before next week!