When genocides and political atrocities take place, it has become common for people to assemble in public, bear witness to what has happened, and address those events to reach a sense of… what, exactly?

Awareness? Truth? Understanding? Closure? Reconciliation? Healing? Reparation? Change?

And if these—or something else—are the aims of these assemblies, do they actually achieve these goals? Enter Jane Barter, and her new book Theopolitics and the Era of the Witness, to explore these and so many other important questions related to a phenomenon that has become so typical of our time that it is rare to encounter people thinking as deeply, and speaking as meaningfully to these questions as Jane does.

Bio

Jane Barter (she/her) is Professor of Religion and Culture at the University of Winnipeg. She has published three monographs, including her a recent book on witnessing to political atrocity, Theopolitics and the Era of the Witness (Routledge. 2025). She recently co-edited (with Doris Kieser, St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta) a special volume of the Journal of Moral Theology on the papal visit and apology to survivors of Residential Schools in Canada. She is also general editor of the forthcoming (2026) multi-volume T & T Clark Encyclopedia of Christian Theology (Bloomsbury Press).

Links

Jane's new book: https://www.routledge.com/Theopolitics-and-the-Era-of-the-Witness/Barter/p/book/9781032615035