Hanna Reichel - Princeton Theological Seminary

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Hanna Reichel

Hanna Reichel

Professor of Systematic Theology

Phone
609.497.7996

Office
106 Hodge Hall

Email
hanna.reichel@ptsem.edu

Biography

Hanna Reichel is Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Reichel earned their Dr. theol. in Systematic Theology from Heidelberg University, Germany, after an MDiv in Theology and a BSc in Economics. Prior to coming to Princeton, they taught at Heidelberg University and Halle-Wittenberg University in Germany.

Reichel co-chairs AAR’s Christian Systematic Theology unit and is a member of the steering committee of AAR’s Reformed History and Theology unit as well as of the Karl Barth Society of North America and the annual International Karl Barth Conference in Switzerland. Reichel co-edits Brill’s Studies in Systematic Theology series and Routledge’s Karl Barth Studies series and chairs Princeton Theological Seminary’s Center for Barth Studies advisory board. A ruling elder in the PC (USA), Reichel also serves on the Theology Working Group of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, currently preparing the General Council meeting 2025 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Reichel’s first book Theologie als Bekenntnis: Karl Barths kontextuelle Lektüre des Heidelberger Katechismus reframes Barth as a contextual theologian through his repeated engagements with this Reformed confession over the course of his life. The book received the Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise and the Ernst Wolf Award. Reichel’s second book, After Method: Queer Grace, Conceptual Design, and the Possibility of Theology argues based on both Reformed and queer-theological grounds that “method cannot save theology.” That does not mean, however, that method has no use. Rather, understanding the work of theology as that of conceptual design – responsibly ordering and structuring given materials for a purpose – theologians are invited to an equally more demanding and more capacious practice. The result is an ethic of theology that is continually called to do justice to the reality of God and the world rather than conform to doctrinal orthodoxy or methodological orthopraxy.

Reichel’s teaching spans doctrine and political theology, with special interests in Christology, theological anthropology, eschatology, the doctrine of God, and theological epistemology, with liberationist and queer-feminist commitments. Reichel is currently working on two monograph-length projects: Against Humanity takes a critical inventory of different theological conceptions of the human being (created in the image of God, defined by the humanity of God in Christ, designated to be God’s covenant partner… ), in light of recent antihumanisms in decolonial, Black, queer, crip, and ecological studies. Political Theologies of Omniscience analyzes contemporary surveillance cultures through a doctrinal lens, developing a typology of disciplining, performing, controlling, and replicating surveillance in conversation with historical debates on divine omniscience relating to eschatology, election, providence, and creation.

An internationally renowned scholar, Reichel’s work has also been featured in public outlets such as The Atlantic, the Presbyterian Foundation’s Leading Theologically, CTI’s Theology Matters, and Tripp Fuller’s Homebrewed Christianity.

 

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