in general terms the idea of divine grace can mean the entire movement of God toward the world. that is, christian theology says that God has declared himself for the world, for its continuation. God desires the world to flourish. God has good-will toward the world.

but, what does this mean in a world of religious fundamentalists and atom bombs and freeze dried foods and nano technology and islamic terrorists and pedophile priests and on and on?

bonhoeffer says that God has allowed himself to be pushed out of the modern world, but i wonder. actually, it seems that God, or at least the word "God" is the hot topic and the coinage of the realm today. someone has wisely said that, while 20th century violence was secular (nazism, fascism, communism), the 21st century will be the time of religious violence. it would appear to be so.

but, in a way this makes bonhoeffer's statement even more poignant because it’s the old view of God that has been lost, this view of a benevolent God that actually has good-will toward the world. it is this view that has been pushed aside & in its place we have thor, the god of war.

much is lost here, not the least of which is the view of God that offers the good news that God's concern for the world was so great, that he became part of that world in the christ.

those who hold a supreme sovereignist theology would have us believe that God controls the world without the inflection of the human voice. this is nonsense. humans are responsible for this mess we are in not God. humans have given up on humanity, not God. humans have lost trust and hope and a willingness to listen to the point of view of another, not God. humans have given up on the God of good-will, and in his place we rely on politics and money and possessions and elite power. smoke and mirrors.

said another way, we are free to make choices that have good-will toward the world, or we can destroy the whole thing. we are free and we are responsible. this is God's greatest gift of grace to us.

what must be remembered, however, is that, while we are free to make choices, choices that shape the world, God is free as well. God is free to allow himself to be pushed out of the world (and out of our lives) for which he has good-will. we can have it either way.

Tags: grace

look, the question is: does true spirituality consist of what we do -- externally acting in the name of the christ, or does it consist in what we think -- internally relating to the christ?

this is not a new question. is faith to be done or thought?

for the most part, my tradition comes down on the side of thinking. we are very much a "people of the book," which means we prize knowledge as the primary mark of spirituality, as in "wow, she really knows the bible!"

i am coming to the conclusion that this may be wrong-headed, and that in fact this part of our dna may have contributed to our current inaction and failure of nerve in the face of the post-modern/post-christian context.

bonhoeffer leaves little doubt where he comes down on this question, especially in his latter writings such as the letters and papers from prison. for him, religion asks, "how can I find a gracious god," but christians in a world come of age ask, "lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" (martin marty about bonhoeffer), or take what Heinz Zahmt wrote in a tribute ten years after Bonhoeffer's death in Flossenbürgy: "there have been martyrs who called the world to the church...bonhoeffer is a martyr who called the church to the world."

bonhoeffer himself said:

"she [the church] must tell men, whatever their calling, what it means to live in christ, to exist for others." (lpfp)

"The Christian, unlike the devotees of the salvation myths, does not need a last refuge in the eternal from earthly tasks and difficulties. But like Christ himself ("My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?") he must drink the earthly cup to the lees, and only in his doing that is the crucified and risen Lord with him, and he crucified and risen with Christ. This world must not be prematurely written off. In this the Old and New Testaments are at one. Myths of salvation arise from human experiences of the boundary situation. Christ takes hold of a man in the center of his life." (lpfp)

"In what way are we in a religionless and secular sense Christians, in what way are we the Ekklesia, "Those who are called forth," not conceiving of ourselves religiously as specially favoured, but as wholly belonging to the world? Then Christ is no longer an object of religion, but something quite different, in deed and in truth the Lord of the world." (lpfp)

"Is it not true to say that individualistic concern for personal salvation has almost completely left us all? Are we not really under the impression that there are more important things than bothering about such a matter? . . . Is there any concern in the Old Testament about saving one's soul at all? . . . It is not with the next world that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved and set subject to laws and atoned for and made new. What is above the world is, in the Gospel, intended to exist for this world. . . . "(lpfp)

Tags: bonhoeffer

ok. so, let's continue thinking-through some of the ideas found in bonhoeffer's letters and papers from prison (LPFP), by quoting a seminal passage from a letter he wrote to his friend eberhard bethge on 16, july, 1944.

[i know it may be a temptation to skip this extended quote; please don't do so.]

"and we cannot be honest unless we recognize that we have to live in a world etsi deus non daretur [as if there is not god]. and this is just what we do recognize -- before god! god himself compels us to recognize it. so our coming of age leads us to a true recognition of the situation before god. god would have us know that we must live as men who manage our lives without him. the god who is with us is the god who forsakes us (mark 15:34). the god who lets us live in the world without a working hypothesis of god, is the god before whom we stand continually. before god and with god we live without god. god lets himself be pushed out of the world on to a cross. he is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us. Matt. 8:17 makes it quite clear thatchrist helps us, not by virtue of omnipotence, but by virtue of his weakness and suffering ." (LPFP, page 360-361)

there is much here. the language is dense and thick, and bonhoeffer's shortened life only gives us a weak and irregular pulse on his full thought.

having said that, let's unpack some ideas that flow from this paragraph:

* people in the world come of age get along quite well without the god-hypothesis...

* the god-hypothesis basically means that god is in control of the world, that god is the answer in morals, politics, or science. bonhoeffer thinks this must be discarded by
christians because it already has been discarded in the world come of age...

* since people have chosen to push the god-hypothesis out of the world, and god has allowed this to occur, people must now take full responsibility for the world. thecavalry is
not on the way...

* christians must now see that the way to god is the way of the cross -- the way of weakness and humility...

more on these ideas to come...

Tags: bonhoeffer

earlier this week i received a letter from a friend and the next day i responded in kind. i was pleased to do so. in fact, i used to write letters much more than i do now, but there is rarely any need for that anymore. writing an email may seem like writing a letter, but it requires much less finesse and thought.

receiving this letter reminded me of books containing letters written by famous people, several of which have had a deep influence on me. there's rainer maria rilke's letters to a young poet, christopher hitchens' letters to a young contrarian, and karl barth's, letters '61-'68.

but, by far the most influential book of letters has been letters and papers from prison, by dietrich bonhoeffer.

as biographical background: bonhoeffer was a lutheran pastor and theologian during world war two. his conscience led him to participate in the july 20, 1944 plot to assassinate adolf hitler. he was subsequently arrested for this and was hanged on april 9, 1945.

what is incredible is just how much influence he continues to wield over portions of christianity in the west, especially when we consider how his life and thought was cut short. so, what i thought i would do is lead us into an ongoing but occasional conversation with and about bonhoeffer.

i begin with the account of bonhoeffer's death as told by h. fischer-hullstrung:

"on the morning of that day between five and six o'clock the prisoners...were taken from their cells, and the verdicts of the court martial read out to them. through the half open door in one room of the huts i saw pastor bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison grab, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his god. i was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that god heard his prayer. at the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed. his death ensued after a few seconds. in the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, i have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of god." (quote take from: i knew dietrich bonhoeffer, pg. 232)

Tags: bonhoeffer