- Summary
- This thesis is an exploration of Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity which seeks to flesh out the important contribution that his theology has to make to the church and its current missional discussion. Today the western mainline church is experiencing significant changes and challenges which are causing the church to ask questions about its identity and purpose. As the church searches out the answers to these questions, it will find a valuable traveling companion in Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer's theology is important today not only for the questions it raises, but for the answers it opens to us in his formulation of religionless Christianity. While Bonhoeffer, of course, did not live to know the current missional theology, it is the author's contention that Bonhoeffer's theology is missional. Through religionless Christianity Bonhoeffer sought to show that faith is more than religion, that Christ is not only present in the church, but in the whole world, and that as his followers we are called to point to the presence and activity of God in the world today. While Bonhoeffer was an academic, he was also a pastor. It was therefore essential to him to share a theology that was relevant to the church and its members. In spite of what some have concluded from the name of religionless Christianity, Bonhoeffer believed that the church would continue to have a role to play in the world. However, he also believed that if the church was going to effectively minister to the world on behalf of Christ, it would have to make some deep changes. Bonhoeffer's understanding of theology and the church's mission was honed in the refining fires of Nazi Germany, providing the church today with a prophetic example and a call to recenter our lives on Christ and his costly grace.
- Format
- Book
- Author/Creator
- Santer, Jennifer M.
- Published
- [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 2009
- Notes
-
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-175).
Photocopy. Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Dissertation Services. 22 cm.
Dissertations and Theses
