Theological Journal – April 18: Bonhoeffert on Easter and Resurection

From Letters and Papers from Prison (Kindle edition)

“The Christian is not a homo religiosus but simply a human being, in the same way that Jesus was a human being—in contrast, perhaps, to John the Baptist. I do not mean the shallow and banal this-worldliness of the enlightened, the bustling, the comfortable, or the lascivious, but the profound this-worldliness that shows discipline and includes the ever-present knowledge of death and resurrection.” 6211-6219

Bonhoeffer is famous (or infamous) for his calls for a secular or non-religious Christianity. He makes it clear in this passage that he is not recommending that the church simply join in and go with the flow of wherever the prevailing cultural winds take us (though he has been [mis]interpreted to mean that). He characterizes that way of living as:

-“enlightened”

-“bustling”

-“comfortable”

-“lascivious”

Or what we might call a middle-class or above way of life give to business, busy-ness, consumerism, and pleasure. The “American Dream” as some call it. Bonhoeffer calls it superficial or lacking in profundity. What he has in mind, rather is a disciplined approach is which our desires are trained and channeled in certain directions, directions set by Jesus’ own life dynamic of death and resurrection. A penetration into the depths of life as God intended it by dying to the “shallow and banal” distractions and diversions we have usually based our lives on and instead yield ourselves to God’s way of being with and for others, living in the profoundest solidarity and communion with God and one another, especially those who suffer and are oppressed is contrast to the shallow banality of what passes for life in the non-profound versions of this-worldliness he rejects.

Religion is often a part of this shallow and banal this-worldliness. This individualistic, other-worldly focused, partial, phenomenon focused on one’s inner life and often uncritically wedded to nationalism that corrupted Bonhoeffer’s German church is also rampant in our own country. Bonhoeffer wants us to get rid of it. It has nothing to do with genuine Christianity and underwrites the shallow triumphalism Bonhoeffer noted in his comment, the “American Dream.”

We’ve yet to really take him seriously at this point. Which means we have not taken Jesus’ resurrection seriously (as we have looked at it in earlier posts) either. This is “the” challenge among the many he poses that we have yet to take up. My ebook Dietrich Bonhoeffer: What He Would Say to the North American Church outlines some of the other challenges Bonhoeffer prods us to face.