Bonhoeffer S Religionless Christianity In Its Christological Context

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood Western civilization to be “approaching a completely religionless age” to which Christians must respond and adapt. This book explores Bonhoeffer’s own response to this challenge—his concept of a religionless Christianity—and its place in his broader theology. It does this, first, by situating the concept in a present-day Western socio-historical context. It then considers Bonhoeffer’s understanding and critique of religion, before examining the religionless Christianity of his final months in the light of his earlier Christ-centred theology. The place of mystery, paradox, and wholeness in Bonhoeffer’s thinking is also given careful attention, and non-religious interpretation is taken seriously as an ongoing task. The book aspires to present religionless Christianity as a lucid and persuasive contemporary theology; and does this always in the presence of the question which inspired Bonhoeffer’s theological journey from its academic beginnings to its very deliberately lived end—the question “Who is Jesus Christ?”

In this book, Peter Hooton explores Bonhoeffer's response to the challenge of a future "religionless age" in Western civilization and its place in his theology.

German scholar Ralf K. Wustenberg in A Theology of Life examines Dietrich Bonhoeffer's vision of a "religionless" Christianity, tracing its philosophical and theological roots and detecting its implications and timeliness for today's generation.o

This first volume of the new series International Bonhoeffer Interpretations (IBI) contains several impulses for translating Bonhoeffer's key ideas on Religion, Religionlessness and the Church into current contexts. These impulses vary from prospects for a Christian university looking at Bonhoeffer's distinction between the 'ultimate and the penultimate things' to an ethical understanding of Bonhoeffer's 'as-if-theology' in the light of Luther's distinction between law and gospel; from a fresh perspective on Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity in the light of his thought on 'oikumene' to a Christological re-interpretation of repentance as the contribution of religionless Christianity to the task of the Church in the United States of America. The impulses are framed by programmatic contributions suggesting a framework for reading Bonhoeffer in the 21st century in his hermeneutic exploration of Bonhoeffer's theology and the crises of Western culture, and analyzing 'religionless Christianity' in a complexly religious and secular world.

This study examines the development and interrelatedness of Bonhoeffer's hermeneutic, Christology, and understanding of the world.

The classic study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's social thought, now expanded with never-before-published Bonhoeffer letters. Widely acclaimed as the best study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's early social theology, Clifford Green's Bonhoeffer is here fully updated and expanded with new material not available anywhere else. Features of this new edition: A selection of important, newly discovered letters between Bonhoeffer and Paul Lehmann and between Lehmann and members of Bonhoeffer's family. An extensive chapter covering Bonhoeffer's Ethics. All citations updated to the new German and English editions of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works.

Bonhoeffer's theological brilliance, committed discipleship, ecumenical insight and courageous participation in the struggle against Nazism have profoundly shaped contemporary Christian understanding and action. Although his early death at the hands of the Gestapo prevented him from providing us with a full and systematic theology, his writings are remarkably extensive and have become increasingly influential. This volume concentrates on the key texts and ideas in Bonhoeffer's thought. It presents the essential Bonhoeffer for students and the general reader. John de Gruchy's introductory essay and notes on the selected texts set Bonhoeffer in his historical context, chart the development of his thought and indicate the significance of his theology in the development of Christian theology as a whole. Substantial selections from Bonhoeffer's work illustrate key themes:His theological foundations Christology and reality Confessing Christ concretely The life of free responsibility Christ in a world come of age

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) remains the most seminal theologian of those whose work was forged and tested in the worst years of the twentieth century. A German who loved his country and culture, and who mourned its crimes and actively resisted them, his ethic was wholly contextual, attuned to what he must do in his own land as a disciple of Jesus Christ. He might have been surprised to find that a half-century and more later his work has been widely appropriated by others in different circumstances for their exercise of Christian responsibility. This volume of essays is one example of Bonhoeffer's ongoing relevance. Rasmussen engages Luther, Barth, Niebuhr, Hauerwas, Yoder, and Berrigan as a way to illuminate aspects of Bonhoeffer's ethics. He also compares the post-holocaust theology of Rabbi Greenberg with Bonhoeffer's own treatment of divine presence and human responsibility in a world that has "come of age." One essay, "The Meaning of the Theology of the Cross for Social Ethics in the World Today," pulls the main themes of the book together. This 2016 edition also includes a new chapter, which relates Bonhoeffer's ethics to the current environmental crisis.