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Bonhoeffer Thesis Final This thesis is submitted to Charles Sturt University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Beyond, in the Midst of Life: An Exploration of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity in its Christological Context. Peter Hooton, BA Hons. (LTU), M.Th. (CSU), St Mark’s National Theological Centre, School of Theology, CSU. Submitted: November 2018 1 / Peter Hooton 11435588 Table of Contents Abstract 5 Introduction 6 Chapter 1 “We are approaching a completely religionless age” 17 Chapter 2 Bonhoeffer’s critique of religion 46 Chapter 3 Religionless Christianity in its christological context 83 Chapter 4 Non-religious interpretation 132 Chapter 5 Mystery, faith, and wholeness 161 Chapter 6 Christ without religion 186 References 228 2 / Peter Hooton 11435588 “I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at Charles Sturt University or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgment is made in the thesis. “I agree that this thesis be accessible for the purpose of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Executive Director, Division of Library Services or nominee, for the care, loan and reproduction of theses.” Peter Hooton 3 / Peter Hooton 11435588 I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, the Reverend Dr Jane Foulcher and the Reverend Dr Ockert Meyer, for their wise and warm support and encouragement on this journey. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. 4 / Peter Hooton 11435588 Abstract The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) understood Western civilisation to be “approaching a completely religionless age.” He was sure, too, that Christianity could neither afford to deny nor to ignore this reality if it was to survive as a credible expression of faith in Jesus Christ. This thesis explores Bonhoeffer’s 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 work of non-religious interpretation, and the place of mystery, paradox, and wholeness in Bonhoeffer’s thinking, are also given careful attention—and non-religious interpretation is taken seriously as an ongoing task. The thesis seeks to present religionless Christianity as a lucid and persuasive contemporary expression of systematic theology. It 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?” 5 / Peter Hooton 11435588 Introduction The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) believed Western civilisation to be on the threshold of a “completely religionless age”1 to which Christians must respond and adapt. This thesis explores Bonhoeffer’s own response to this challenge—his concept of a religionless, but nonetheless Christ-centred, Christianity—and its place in his broader theology. It asks whether it is possible to make a theologically compelling case for God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ, for the God-human who helps us “by virtue of his weakness and suffering,”2 in the absence of a religious framework which draws force and utility from traditional ideas of God’s absolute power. I believe the answer to this question to be yes and seek to present religionless Christianity as an expression of systematic theology with potentially strong contemporary appeal. I can do this, finally, only by answering the question which inspired Bonhoeffer’s theological inquiry from start to finish—the question “Who is Jesus Christ?” Bonhoeffer’s late preoccupation with the concept of religionless Christianity is examined in the light of his earlier theology. While this allows me to argue that religionless Christianity is a natural, though by no means inevitable, outcome of his ongoing theological endeavour, I make no claim to a comprehensive exposition of the whole of Bonhoeffer’s theology. Rather, I draw selectively on elements in the earlier writings which seem to me not only to enable the emergence of the concept of religionless Christianity but also to serve as necessary aids to understanding what Bonhoeffer intended by it. I believe the religionless Christianity which characterises Bonhoeffer’s prison theology thus to depend on certain critical continuities in his thinking, as well as on developments both in his 1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. John de Gruchy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010), DBWE 8: 362. I have relied, for access to Bonhoeffer’s oeuvre, on the English edition (DBWE volumes 1–17) of the German Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke (DBW). All German words and constructions are Bonhoeffer’s. Some appear in DBWE. Others are drawn from Widerstand und Ergebung (DBW Achter Band). 2 Letters and Papers, DBWE 8: 479. 6 / Peter Hooton 11435588 theological outlook (principally, the progressive disclosure of a more inclusive Christology) and in the world of his experience. The study prioritises Christology over other categories of theology because, for Bonhoeffer, all theology has its origin in the mystery of God’s becoming human, and because the question “who is Christ actually for us today?”3 is the one with which religionless Christianity is principally concerned. Christology does not always have the stage to itself, but its foremost associates in this thesis—ecclesiology and Christian ethics— remain largely under a christological umbrella. Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity is heavily contextualised. It is, therefore, necessary not only to examine his understanding of religion as a historically conditioned and thus “transitory form of human expression”4 but also to take account of the personal-historical circumstances which helped shape the idea of a religionless Christianity. In this undertaking, significantly more emphasis is placed on external (social-historical) factors than on internal (psychological) ones. The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first investigates the historical premise which grounds Bonhoeffer’s sense of the need for a new form of Christianity. If he was wrong about the approach of a “completely religionless age,” then it would seem he may also have been wrong about the need for Christianity to redefine itself against religion. And a world of more than two billion Christians (to say nothing of the other major faith traditions) is clearly not a religionless one. There is nevertheless strong evidence of a sustained decline in the overall significance of religion as a cultural property of the West today. Modernity does not necessarily lead to secularisation, but it does foster plurality, and encourage the exercise of choice among alternatives, including religious alternatives, and alternatives to religion. While a majority of Westerners continue to acknowledge at least a vestigial 3 Letters and Papers, DBWE 8: 362. 4 Letters and Papers, DBWE 8: 363. 7 / Peter Hooton 11435588 Christian identity (with much smaller numbers either embracing religion wholeheartedly, or denying it outright), religion generally plays at best a small role in their lives. In many social contexts, the governing presumption is now one of unbelief. This is not the future Bonhoeffer predicted, but it is sufficiently like it to support a broadly positive assessment of his historical presupposition. Most people do not depend on God to make everyday sense of their lives, and Christians have little choice but to accept the largely secular reality in which they find themselves. The second chapter probes Bonhoeffer’s understanding and critique of religion. Bonhoeffer’s views on religion owe much to Karl Barth, who convinced him of the vanity of all human efforts to establish communion with God. There is no human way to God, but only God’s way to us. All religion, for Bonhoeffer, is essentially hubris—a vain reaching out to God from below. Bonhoeffer finds in Matthew 8:17 (“He took our infirmities and bore our diseases”5) “the crucial distinction” between Christianity and religion.6 This distinction, between the powerful, but ultimately illusory, God of religion, and the compassionate, vulnerable God of the gospel, lies at the heart of both Bonhoeffer’s critique of religion and his concept of a religionless Christianity. Other elements of the critique of religion—its otherworldly preoccupation with personal salvation, its tendency to see God as the solution only to problems we cannot yet solve, its confinement to a particular sphere of life, and its unjustified assumptions of privilege and authority—all are honed by this distinction. What remains, when religion is set aside, is simply the gift of God’s Word7 to human beings. Religion is not to be confused with faith, and the collapse of religion, properly understood, need have no adverse implications for confidence in God’s self- revelation. Quite the opposite is true in fact. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are called not to religion but to new life with God. 5 In this thesis the NRSV is generally used for citing the Bible. The only exceptions are to be found in citations included in extracts from Bonhoeffer’s own writings. 6 Letters and Papers, DBWE 8: 479. 7 Other than in some direct quotes, (the) “Word” is capitalised whenever it is understood to refer to God’s becoming human in Jesus Christ. 8 / Peter Hooton 11435588 Chapter three explores Bonhoeffer’s concept of religionless Christianity in its broader theological, and predominantly christological, context. Bonhoeffer raises the prospect of a religionless Christianity in just a handful of letters smuggled out of his Berlin prison cell in the spring and summer of 1944.
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