The Church in a Secular Age: The Conception of the Church in Bonhoeffer and Ebeling
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Transcript of The Church in a Secular Age: The Conception of the Church in Bonhoeffer and Ebeling
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The Church in a Secular Age:
The Conception of the Church in Bonhoeffer and Ebeling
One may wonder, why have an interest in the church today? Is it an outdated
institution having outlived its usefulness? Nevertheless, as a Christian, the church is a
part of the life of faith. Faith is not to occur strictly in isolation as an individual but at its
fullest in community. Many an everyday conversation regarding Christianity will often
turn to, Where do you go to church? or What church are you a member of? Even
more telling is the observational comment, Look at that beautiful church. or Oh my!
That is a large church! It is from such conversations that one can draw basic
understandings regarding a mundane conception of the church. The latter two I mention
reflect the common understanding (or misunderstanding) of church as the building one
sees among other buildings. A better view might be, that building over there is the
church house. In either instance, one views the church as a structure in which
Christians gather for worship. This idea of a Christian gathering might be the better
notion. Where one goes to church would be an indicator of the place of meeting for
worship, i.e. the church house. What church one is a member of might be the better
notion regarding the church since it draws from scripture and indicates being part of a
particular gather of Christians. It is from such ordinary exchanges (among Christians)
that I would like venture into conceptions of church that would have (some sort of)
meaning in our contemporary situation in North America.
While globally Christianity may be on the increase, the recent rise in popular
attention regarding atheism and secularism pose some challenges to the notion of the
church. It is in the view of these challenges that I will examine Bonhoeffer's conception
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of the church. He frames his theological work regarding the church in relation to his
struggles within his native Germany during World War 2 and his desire to engage his
understanding of the Christian faith fully with the world. Though his later writings speak
of the world come of age, from the beginning his concern has been the relation of
Christianity to the contemporary world. Likewise, as his student, Ebeling seeks to
continue this engagement of the Christian faith with the present milieu. The issue for
Ebeling is the interpretation of the ancient Christian message in terms that are non-
religious and therefore relevant to persons today. While Bonhoeffer focuses on the
concrete reality of the church and Ebeling on the language and conception of the church,
I believe both open the door for church practice that is radically different from how one
would understand it commonly or traditionally.
Bonhoeffers conception of the Church remains rather consistent throughout
his thought. From The Communion of Saints to his Letters and Papers from Prison he
understands the church as a visible community in the world and ultimately for the world.
This community is a concrete and spiritual reality founded in and through Jesus Christ. I
will begin with his earlier work in The Communion of Saints move on to The Cost of
Discipleship and Life Togetherand conclude with his Letters and Papers from Prison.
While I believe his conception of the Church was consistent throughout with only minor
changes in terminology, I will contend that he does begin to shift his understanding of
church structure from a more traditional Lutheran expression to something akin to an
expression similar to a Free Church expression. I believe part of this shift in emphasis is
in part to his view of the Christian faith in a secular age. In relation to Bonhoeffer's view,
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I will frame the issue in Ebelings further elaboration of the Christian faith in a secular
society especially as that faith finds expression through the Church.
Bonhoeffer begins his work, The Communion of Saints, with an examination in
sociological terms of the relation between the individual and society. After considering
the current scholarship regarding this relation, he moves on to a Christian understanding
of the human person. He defines a person in concrete terms rather than any abstract or
idealist terminology believing such constructions lead toward distinctions in a person not
grounded in lived reality. He states, The Christian concept affirms the whole concrete
person, body and soul, in its difference from all other beings in its moral relevance.
1
It
is from this concrete understanding of the human person and the reality of human social
structures that he begins his elaboration on the theological conception of the Church. It is
important to note that Bonhoeffer is seeking at this point a middle way between sociology
and dogmatics. In other words, he seeks to engage the social sciences of the period with
the faith tradition he is a part of.
Bonhoeffer makes it clear that one must distinguish between the Church and a
religious community. The primary distinction between the two is that of faith.
The concept of the church is possible only in the sphere of reality based on
God; that is, it is not deducible. The reality of the church is a reality of
revelation, part of whose nature it is to be either believed or denied. So if
we want to find an adequate criterion for justifying the churchs claim thatit is the church of God, this is possible only if we place ourselves within it,
if we submit in faith to its claim.2
The reality of God determines the church of God. Faith is necessary to understand the
church; if not, what one views as the church apart from faith is a view of a religious
community subject to sociological scrutiny rather than subject to God.
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Bonhoeffer further distinguishes the understanding of the church by addressing
the Greek origin in the term ofecclesia. The notion has a dual meaning, that of an act of
gathering together and that of an assembled group of people. So drawing from Pauline
teaching, Bonhoeffer elucidates between the people of God and local congregations. He
states, It is the form in which the whole church appears in one place. The whole
church is real only in the local church.3
He has no notion of the mystical body of
Christ. The church is a visible reality founded in and on Christ. This idea takes
seriously the relation of Christ to the church in a dual fashion namely that Christ, is
the creator of the whole life, which rests on him, the master-builder of the church, and he
is also really present at all times in his church, for the church is his body, he rules over it
as the head does the body. 4
He continues in expressing this unity of Christ and the
church by reference to the headship of Christ. From this, he declares the church as an
organism with an organic life, that is, the person and personality of Christ. Bonhoeffers
assertion of the church as an organism does not rest on biological, Roman Catholic or
political conceptions of an organism but on a community of united members each
belonging in the life of the community.5 I gather his view of the church is that of a
cooperative fellowship functioning as a collective person, namely the person of Christ.
He is clear to point out that the church is not a second incarnation of Christ, it is however
a revelatory form of Christ that functions as his body on earth. 6
With this idea of the church as revelation and a functioning body, Bonhoeffer
returns the beginning of the church at Pentecost and the role of the Spirit. Though he
speaks of the spirit of individuals and even communities, he makes the distinction
between such understandings of human spirit(s) and the Spirit of Christ operating in the
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church. The former spirit would seek a derivative or reductionist understanding of
community whereas the church operating in the Spirit is something else entirely. The
Spirit of Christ in the church indicates something other than religion or a religious
community. Rather:
God established the reality of the church, of mankind pardoned in Jesus
Christ. Not religion, but revelation, not a religious community, but he
church: that is what the reality of Jesus Christ means.Thus the relationof Jesus Christ to the Christian church is to be understood in a dual sense.
1. The church is consummated in him and time is annulled. 2. Within
time the church is to be built up on him as the foundation. He is the
churchs historical principle.7 [Emphasis is in the original.]
This brings one back to the notion of faith as necessary to properly understand the
church. The proper understanding of the church is not an issue of religion but of
revelation, of the Word.
The actualization of the church takes place through the Word by the Spirit.
Without the mediation of the Word, the idea of the church would be individualistic,
and thus be dissolved at its very source.8 It is in the united action of the Word and the
Spirit in that, the Word expresses that the Word is intended for a plurality of hearers,
and a visible sign is set up, by which the actualization is brought about. 9 The Word and
the Spirit bring about the communion of saints as the communion of Christ. This is the
reality of the eternal community that lays waste to any individualistic view of the church.
One may be an individual member of the body of Christ, but this membership in the body
one finds in Christ before creation. So the community that found in Christ is not the
work of man but of God. The church does not come into being through people coming
together (genetic sociology). But it is in being through the Spirit which is effective in the
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community.10
In other words, in history, the Spirit builds up the church; in Christ, the
church is an eternal communion.
Now with the work of the Spirit occurring in the church we return to the notion of
the local congregation and the global Christian community. This reflects the dogmatics
side as confessed in the Apostles Creed regarding the one, holy, catholic church.
Bonhoeffer distinguishes these as the gathered church and the national church, that is,
between those who gather in the church of their own free will and those who claim
membership in the church by birth in a particular nation. While the notion of a national
church may seem foreign to American minds, a similar occurrence does happen in
American culture. This would be the membership within a church by being born into it.
Instead of a national inclusion, it becomes a familial inclusion. As Bonhoeffers states it,
both views of the church include the work of the Holy Spirit. He further states, The
logical and sociological unity of the gathered and national, essential and empirical,
invisible and visible church is thus established through the Word11 while this unity
is evident in history, Bonhoeffer still presses for a unity regarding the empirical church,
that is, the many gathering congregations as members of one Body of Christ. The
conclusion reached is that, each individual local church is the Body of Christ, and yet
there is only One Body, and again only the universal church can actualise all the
relationships in the Body of Christ.12
Bonhoeffer, regarding the issue of authority in the church and implicitly the
matter of church structure, raises an interesting point that I will quote in its entirety.
For us the churchs entire claim to authority derives solely from theauthority of the Word. Thus the idea of the priesthood of all believers
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remains the principle upon which the church is built. No empirical bodyin itself has a claim to authority over the church. Every claim derives its
authority from the Word. It seems to me that the necessary conclusion is
that the church should become independent, that is, be disestablished; butwe must leave this question here.13
This quote raises two important issues that I will return to later in this paper. The first is
the issue of the priesthood of all believers, the Lutheran ecclesial doctrine of distinction
and the second is the disestablishment of the church. Both of these issues return in his
Letters and Papers from Prison. As I understand Bonhoeffer, I read this passage as the
seeds for a future free church understanding of church structure.
The next work we turn to is Bonhoeffers Life Together, which draws from his
time teaching in the underground seminary of the Confessing Church in Finkenwalde.
From the beginning he seeks to expound guidance for our life together under the
Word.14 and that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other
Christians.15 On this last note he states, It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are
allowed to live in community with Christian brethren. 16 In his discussion of Christian
community that follows, Bonhoeffer first elaborates the Christological basis for such
community; he then distinguishes between the Spiritual/divine reality as opposed to the
human/ideal understanding of Christian community.
Bonhoeffer states that, Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and
in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more than this.17 He elaborates on this
meaning in three ways namely the need for others, coming to others and eternal unity in
and through Jesus Christ. On the first point, Bonhoeffer speaks of the necessity of others
in the reality ones finding salvation, justification and so on in Christ alone. This end of
individualism comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, through the
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Word of God, which is external to ones self. The Word of God comes to us in human
language through others sharing this message. He states that this need is met in his
brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation.18 The desire for
fellowship is rooted in this message of justification, that is, a community rooted in Christ
alone. The next point Bonhoeffer explains is that it is only through Christ that Christians
can come to one another. The discord between God and man and man and man is only
overcome through the reconciliation of the cross of Jesus Christ. Only through this work
of mediation do we come to know God or our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Only
in Jesus Christ are we one, only through him are we bound together. To eternity he
remains the one Mediator.19 The third point is that of the eternal unity of the Christian
community in Jesus Christ. Again, it is not a matter of what one does that forms the
foundation for community but what Jesus Christ has done for community. What
determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with
one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us.20 This work of
community is in not only the building up of community in time but also in the eternal
fellowship in Christ and in God before creation.
From this Christological foundation for Christian community, Bonhoeffer
continues his elaboration of Christian community by grounding it in reality. He first
speaks of Christian brotherhood not as an ideal but a divine reality. He opposes the
visionary dreamer with demands and wishful thinking that lead only to disillusionment
and accusation. Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather
a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. 21 He next turns to speak
of Christian community as a spiritual not a human reality. At this point, he distinguishes
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between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit with the Holy Spirit bringing truth and the
human spirit bringing desire. Depending on which spirit that is at work, the community
formation will take on quite different characteristics. The primary distinctive of Christian
community over against a human community is the agape love manifest among the
brothers and sisters. The two types of love and the direction each takes is clarified in the
following: Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love
loves him for Christs sake.22 This type of Christian love is only possible in and
through Jesus Christ. It is the recognition of Christ standing between myself and my
brother or sister in Christ. In this recognition, one also sees the freedom that the other
has in Christ. In honoring the others freedom, I must meet him only as the person
that he already is in Christs eyes. This is the meaning of the proposition that we can
meet others only through the mediation of Christ.23 So through the reconciling work of
Jesus Christ and by the power of the Spirit, the Christian community and the love it
engenders orders truth, creates freedom and produces fruit according to the grace of God.
Bonhoeffer concludes this elaboration on community with a practical point
regarding the life or death of a Christian community. As he states:
life together under the Word will remain sound and healthy only where
it does not form itself into a movement, an order, a society, a collegiumpietatis, but rather where it understands itself as being part of the one,
holy, catholic, Christian Church, where it shares actively and passively inthe sufferings and struggles and promise of the whole Church.24
This is Bonhoeffer's response to any sectarian separation from other Christians. No
matter how the local congregation organizes or functions, it shares in the totality of all
those in the Christian communion. While he makes it clear that faith overrides
experience in Christian community life, the reality of the communion of all the saints is
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in Christ. For Jesus Christ alone is our unity. He is our peace. Through him alone do
we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another. 25
SinceLife Togetherand The Cost of Discipleship were written in approximately
the same period, I will only draw out passages from The Cost of Discipleship that expand
on his ideas in Life Together. As he examines the Body of Christ in relation to the
Church, he ties incarnation and church together. Since Bonhoeffer, as a Lutheran,
understands incarnation in a very particular way, this carries over to the church as Body
of Christ.
since he is the incarnate Son of God who came in human flesh, he needsa community of followers, who will participate not merely in his
teachings, but also in his Body. The disciples have communion and
fellowship in the Body of Christ. They live and suffer in bodily
communion with him.26
While he does expound on the sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper, it is the
identification of the Body of Christ as the new humanity that is striking. It is this view of
the church as the Body of Christ presenting the new humanity that is a radical notion.
The Church is the real presence of Christ.We should think of the Church not as an
institution, but as a person, though of course a person in a unique sense.27 He further
states that, When we have recognized the unity between Christ and his Body, the
Church, we must also hold fast to the complementary truth of Christs Lordship over the
Body.28 As he expounds on the Pauline teaching of the Body of Christ, Bonhoeffer
makes a distinction regarding the Body, while it is one Body, it is comprised of a
fellowship of members. Through the presence of the Spirit, the fellowship shares in the
life and Lordship of Jesus Christ. Then again, he states, these ideas are not new but are
radical in the sense that, We are simply following in the steps of the first disciples of
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Christ.29
Therefore, with this radical view of the Body of Christ and the life of Christian
community he turns to explaining the Church as the visible community.
As he previously stated regarding the Body of Christ and incarnation, this leads to
him concluding, the Body of Christ can only be a visible Body, or else it is not a Body
at all.30 This is an elaboration of the visibility of Jesus as a man and incarnation as the
Son of God. The humanity of Jesus is a historical fact while the Body of Christ incarnate
is an issue of faith. Just as Bonhoeffer argued for Christian community in the Body of
Christ, he also argues for the Body of Christ is visible so too is Christian community.
The body of the exalted Lord is also a visible body in the shape of the Church.
31
In
defining the shape of the Church, Bonhoeffer understands the congregation sharing the
sacraments of baptism and Eucharist first, then the preaching of the Word, second. He
elaborates this point in the following: that the Church of Jesus Christ claims space in
the world for its proclamation. The Body of Christ becomes visible to the world in the
congregation gathered round the Word and Sacrament.32 As the congregation becomes
visible, it takes the shape of an organism, that is, the Body of Christ that also will,
include its articulation and order.33 As the Body of Christ is manifest in
proclamation and sacrament, the Body is also visible through its order.
It is such sentiments regarding following Christ and the entailing community of
Christ that appeal to other groups besides Lutherans. As Jay Rochelle states in the
following that Bonhoeffer
makes additional notes about the church which are not customarily
identified with Lutherans. These have endeared him to other traditions,perhaps notably Anabaptist, because he emphasizes discipleship and
because he expands christology to mean not only the Christ who is present
in the proclamation of the Word and the administration of the sacraments,but the Christ who is present among us as community.34
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The gathering congregation under the Word and before the sacraments is a revelation of
the Body of Christ in the world and therefore in history. This interesting correlation to
Anabaptist thought continues further in the following elaboration on the relation of the
church and the world.
While Bonhoeffer did elaborate on the community and order of the Church inLife
Together, it is his understanding of the relationship between the Church and the world by
expounding the text of Romans 13.1ff that sets it apart. He distinguishes between the
dominion of the world and the service of the Christian. So as the Christian submits to the
powers that be and seeks to do good, That is the one thing necessary. 35 In a sense,
Bonhoeffer advocates a worldly or secular Christianity by not abandoning the world but
remaining in it (though not of it).
Let the Christian remain in the world,for the sake of the Body of theincarnate Christ and for the sake of the Church. Let him remain in the
world to engage in a frontal assault on it, and let him live the life of hissecular calling in order to show himself as a stranger in this world all the
more. But that is only possible if we are visible members of the Church.36
He further distinguishes this in the world but not of the world notion by addressing the
proper way of being in the world. He states that this different way is that, the Church
of Christ has a different form from the world. Her task is increasingly to realize this
form. It is the form of Christ himself37
Just as the Son of God was incarnate and
came to the world so too will the Church as the Body of Christ. In the right
confrontation with the world, the Church will become ever more like to the form of its
suffering Lord.38
This is the meaning of the visible Body of Christ. As Jesus Christ
enfleshed the Son of God, the Church is given the privilege to participate in the Body of
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Christ as fleshing out Jesus Christ to and for the world and to share in his joy and
suffering.
The final gathering of Bonhoeffer's thoughts is found in the collection Letters &
Papers From Prison. The difficulty with trying to understand these thoughts is partly the
situation, in which they were written, in a Nazi prison, and the ideas are often presented
in an embryonic state or as rather fragmentary. Bonhoeffer makes scattered references
throughout his letters but it his outline for a book that brings the most to this examination
of his ecclesiology. I will touch on some of the scattered references but will focus on the
book outline.
One of the first places he mentions the church is on Reformation Day 1943. At
one point in the letter, he speaks of the actions taken by Luther and consequences that
were the opposite of what he intended. The one of interest is that of Luther wanting to
...establishment of a genuine secular social order free from clerical privilege.39 The
implication here is that Luther desired the separation between Church and state. This
would seem to be a logical conclusion of his doctrine of the priesthood of all believers,
however, this lead to the Peasants War and a general breakdown in social order and
cohesion in Europe. The next passage also closely related to Kierkegaard's thought is in
relation to the divine mandates of marriage, work, state and church and the broader
concept of freedom. He wonders of the possibility, ...to regain the idea of the church as
providing an understanding of the area of freedom (art, education, friendship, play), so
that Kierkegaard's 'aesthetic experience' would not be banished from the church's
sphere...40 So from these two quotes one could gather an increasing interest in
disestablishing clerical power and allowing greater freedom in the church. This greater
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interest could be in the light of the priesthood of all believers worked out for the
contemporary situation.
While these previous passages deal with notions of freedom and power in the
church, the following passages deal more closely with the church in a secular culture and
its place in the midst of that culture. The following comes in the middle of a
conversation regarding religionless Christianity. Bonhoeffer writes, The church
stands, not at the boundaries where human powers give out, but in the middle of the
village.41 Along similar lines he states, In the place of religion there now stands the
church that is in itself biblical but the world is in some degree made to depend on
itself and left to its own devices, and that is the mistake! 42 And again, The church must
come out of its stagnation. We must move out again into the open air of intellectual
discussion with the world, and risk saying controversial things, if we are to get down to
the serious problems of life.43 In this continuing dialogue regarding religionless
Christianity, Bonhoeffer is not advocating a dismissal of the church, which would be a
mistaken understanding. Rather, he is addressing the engagement of the church with the
world in such a way that one no longer views the church as a religious institution but a
place of freedom in dialogue with the world and speaking to the life problems of a secular
culture. It is in my understanding that such previously mentioned ideas are in line with a
general notion of free church theology.
Now turning to his book outline, he further expands on these ideas. While he
states that the ideas are very crude and condensed, I believe they provide a continued
trajectory for his thought regarding the future of the church. The first two chapters deal
with A Stocktaking of Christianity and The Real Meaning of Christian Faith. This
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would have been his response, both critical and constructive, of Christian faith in a
secular age. Chapter 3 was to be his conclusions and, in particular, in relation to the
church. I will quote the passage in full.
The church is the church only when it exists for others. To make a start, itshould give away all its property to those in need. The clergy must live
solely on the free-will offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage
in some secular calling. The church must share in the secular problems of
ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tellmen of every calling what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others. 44
Maybe this is Bonhoeffer's out working of an issue he raised but did not address in The
Communion of Saints, that of the disestablishment of the church. The response here is
what he sees as a possible conclusion to earlier notions that one could roughly call free
church. This notion of the free church rests on two ideas, freedom of all members of
the church in light of the priesthood of all believers and the freedom of the church from
the influence of the state (and vice versa). This also bears some similarity to the
Anabaptist idea of the believers church, that of believers voluntarily associating together
in freedom without outside coercion. One could argue that Bonhoeffers thought was
heading in this direction with the origin of the Confessing Church in Germany and
possibly even beyond that expression of the church. As a separate branch of the State
Lutheran Church, the Confessing Church was seeking two things: to be free from the
influence of the German government and free to worship together under the Word. The
Lutheran pastors who sought to distance themselves from and oppose the Nazi ideology
that had ascended at the time one could consider a manifestation of the free church
mentality.
While Bonhoeffer sought to engage the present-day world with the Christian faith,
Ebeling continues a similar engagement with contemporary culture by interpreting the
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gospel message in contemporary language. As a student of Bonhoeffer's, Ebeling
expands on these earlier scholarly influences to develop a hermeneutical approach to
Christian faith that would be significant to the present time.
Ebeling expands on Bonhoeffer's thought regarding the church and the
contemporary world by addressing the issues of language in his Introduction to a
Theological Theory of Language. In dealing with the boredom of language and in
particular the crisis of language, Ebeling speaks of the loss of force, meaning and content
of most language regarding God. He repeats Bonhoeffer's sentiment that in the current
state of the world, Christian faith is limited to prayer and action. Such a limitation leads
the church to be the church for others and a life of example that will emphasize and
empower the word. Ebeling cites that this desire for silence from the world regarding
Christian faith is that the boredom with words is the negative side of a longing for a
true word.45 He quotes from Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers regarding the non-
religious language that will one day be spoken as the word of God bringing change and
renewal. Even in the midst of an overabundance of language in Christian theology,
Ebeling seeks to expound the language of God in such a way that is relevant to the
world come of age and yet is true to the faith in which one can find God. He states at
the end of this section regarding Bonhoeffer that even in the worlds desire for silence
from Christianity, one can keep, a close look-out for fundamental experiences which
could once again give rise to genuine and conscientious speech and reveal the possibility
of making a wholesome and saving use of words.46 It seems as if Ebeling echoes the
thought of Bonhoeffer in that a proper interpretation of the current worldly situation can
give rise to a proper interpretation of the Christian message for the present age.
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Ebeling continues this interpretation in a series of public lectures published as The
Nature of Faith. These lectures implicitly seek to interpret the various aspects of the
Apostles Creed in the language of contemporary culture. In the lecture entitled The
Summons of Faith, he addresses the idea of the church and the understanding of it in the
present age. He begins this reflection on the church as an attempt to clear up confusions
in common understandings by investigating the various etymologies of the word
church. In this elaboration, he stays with the original Greek used, ekklesia, as opposed
to the Germanic Kirche and its variations. While seeking to clarify the history ofekklesia
as well, Ebeling points out that the New Testament use has a dual meaning much like
modern use of church. He speaks of both the local and universal church in the following:
Wherever the ekklesia appears, it does so as the one ekklesia, and not justas a part of it. Both the so-called local church, whether the ekklesia in
Corinth or Jerusalem or Rome, and even the gathering of Christians in a
house-church, and the whole church of Christ in all places, are describedby the same word.47
As Ebeling works this out, he concludes that one understanding is that of congregation,
but another is that of new creation. This latter point points to the indivisible unity of the
church, which is beyond that of the local congregation. He also points out the original
Greek usage was secular, that of a summoned assembly of people. This leads to his view
that the community of faithis something different from a religious community.48
This is seen in two ways within early Christianity: First, in the context of faith new
possibilities are opened for community in which previous dividing differences are no
longer important. This echoes the Pauline teaching of neither Jew nor Greek, male nor
female in Christ. Second, essential religious aspects like priests, rituals and sacrifices
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played no part in early Christian faith and worship. In a sense, one can understand this as
The Way of the early Christian faith as spoken of in Acts.
After his reflections on the origin and early Christian practice, Ebeling poses the
following question: Is the church, as we know it among us today, even remotely
challenging men to a decision?49 From this and other questions that are distinct from
Bonhoeffer's, he seeks to provide a positive construction of previous criticisms of the
understanding of church. The decision, as quoted, is concerning the summons of faith.
The important point for Ebeling is not whether the church is necessary, but if one even
hears the summons of faith at all in the contemporary situation. Faith, obedience and
action are essential if faith is truly faith. Such an understanding of faith rests on the
church as he states, The church is the summons to believe. That is how the worship of
the church is to be regardedso that we do not leave as those who are dismissed, but as
those who have a summons and a sending.50 This is the community of the faithful,
called in faith to the obedience of faith. This is a faith lived in community that is in the
world yet alien to the world.
Ebeling writes in the appendix of this collection of lectures some continuing
thoughts on both Bonhoeffer and the church. He quotes from one of Bonhoeffer's later
letters concerning the failure of traditional church language regarding the Word of God in
the following: In the traditional words and actions we glimpse something new and
revolutionary, without being able to grasp it and express it. That is our fault.51
This
returns to the idea of communicating the Word of God in non-religious language. While
many are stuck at the opposing poles of either not saying anything or saying too much
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regarding God, Ebeling builds on Bonhoeffer's ideas that a hermeneutic is possible to
speak the Word of God effectively today so that faith may arise.
From the later writings of Bonhoeffer a wide variety of interpretations have arisen
and Dumas in Dietrich Bonhoeffer Theologian of Reality elaborates on three such
interpretations namely Lutheran, atheistic and ontological.52 While the atheistic
interpretation is in my understanding a misinterpretation and misrepresentation of
Bonhoeffers thought, the work of Ebeling is characteristic of the Lutheran interpretation.
The ontological reading is tied closely to an ontology of relations rather than metaphysics
and would be beyond the limits of this paper but worthy of further investigation. It is this
Lutheran reading that shapes Ebelings understanding of his former teacher, that is, as
Bonhoeffer sought to reinterpret Reformation teaching in light of the contemporary world
situation. Ebeling continues the reinterpretation of Christian faith in non-religious terms
that is in inchoate form in Bonhoeffer's writings. Ebeling stresses the three main
concerns in Bonhoeffer's thought in the concrete terms of the church, faith in a secular
world and the response of such faith.53 It is the second concern that Ebeling seems to
pursue in terms of hermeneutical theology. Ebeling stresses the distinction of Christian
faith and that of religion. While Christianity has many religious forms, it is the root of
Christian faith that is in constant need of reformation, and thus reinterpretation in respect
to the current situation of humanity in the world. Bethge also speaks of the Bonhoeffer's
usage of the term religion not so much as distinguishing true and false religions but
a distinction, learned from Luther, between faith and religionreligion coming from
the flesh, but faith from the Spirit.54 It is the understanding of Christianity as a faith
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over against a religion that shapes the agenda for Ebelings thought in light of
Bonhoeffer.
A Dissent on Bonhoefferby Hopper is another response to the atheistic
interpretation of Bonhoeffer in the 1950s and 1960s. In speaking of Ebelings reading of
the later Bonhoeffer that the non-religious interpretation of faith is long-standing
theological presupposition held by Bonhoeffer from the beginning of his theological
thought.55 While some of the radical and death of God theologians would argue that
Bonhoeffer deserted the idea of the church for the world, Hopper finds that a better
reading shows, that there is no abandonment of the concept of theology church over
the course of Bonhoeffer's theological work.56 From The Communion of Saints to the
Letters and Papers, Bonhoeffer's thought regarding the church is strikingly consistent. It
is only in his later writings that the sphere of the church expands to embrace the entire
world. The enlarged scope is partially based on the life of discipleship that Bonhoeffer
held that bore out in his theological work.57 Many of his later statements regarding the
church must be taken in light of his deep involvement in the world as he struggled to
answer the question of his own faith.58 Hopper summarizes the theology of Bonhoeffer
in the following:
At the end, Bonhoeffer's statement of faith and his humanity were not very
different from the faith and humanity of the long nineteen hundred yearsof Christian history. And it is this Bonhoeffer--not the restless,
provocative theologian--who is likely to strengthen and nurture the faith of
the church.59
On this note, I tend to agree with Hopper. While Bonhoeffer's life engaged both the
Christian faith and the world, he held to both without excluding either.
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In the midst of the controversy regarding radical theology, Beyond Religion by
Daniel Jenkins addresses some of the issues raised by a religionless Christianity as it
relates to the church. Early on in the book, he speaks of this type of Christianity as no
more, than the striving after a more adequate expression of faith working through love
in maturity and freedom.60 This is an elaboration of the Pauline teaching regarding
the mature man in the letter to the Ephesians in light of the current situation the church
finds itself in, the world come of age. Jenkins continues this line of thought in relation
to faith and secularization and makes the following provocative statement:
A religionless Christianity may strictly be impossible but a church thatdoes not transcend its religion in the venture of faith is the abomination of
desolation standing where it ought nottrue holiness in the world arises
only when the members of the Church forget their corporate interestas
they fulfill their common mission.61
This mission is the self-forgetting ministry of loving their neighbors as servants under
God. Jenkins further states that such service in the world is more effective when less
effort is spent on defending the churchs interests and more is spent on serving society as
a whole.62 This line of thought is parallel to Bonhoeffer's notion of the church for
others. Jenkins also elaborates on the type of leadership needed for a church that
embraces such a mission. While recognizing the strengths and limits of institutional
structure he sees a leadership that does not try to reinforce the established structures but
retains mobility and prophetic power that adapts toward future changes. Two practical
concerns he raises are that of a simple and streamlined structure with leaders of open and
flexible viewpoints and the desire for leadership to gain secular and therefore clerical
power. This echoes Bonhoeffer's thought, both early and latter, regarding the
disestablishment of the church. In any effort of reform or renewal, the desire for worldly
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power and influence often undermines the service the church ought to be engaged in,
service to others.
The following quote from Jenkins strikes close to home considering my
current place of my spiritual journey. Regarding the desire of many for relevant
Christian community, he states:
It is often a mark of the Protestant who has seen some of the meaning ofreligionless Christianity that he has constantly to make up his mind on
Sunday morning whether the irritation which he will experience if he goes
to church is less tolerable than the sense of frustration and guilt he willhave if he stays home.63
I have been, for several years, in this paradoxical place. Sad to say, the amount of guilt
has become less over time and the frustration remains. Even with this frustration and
years away from church membership, I remain hopeful for the future of the church.
Ultimately this hope is rooted in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have found
fellowship with other Christians along the way and thereby acknowledging my
membership in the Body of Christ. While many seek to reinterpret traditional language
and liturgy for the current postmodern situation, others are seeking to reinterpret church
structures and practices in a less traditional fashion. Two movements within Christianity
that are addressing this reinterpretation are the emergent and house-church movements.
The emergent conversation seeks dialogue with the contemporary culture concerning the
Christian message. One could view the house-church movement as the logical
outworking of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. All members participate
and are ministers of Christ, the ultimate disestablishment of the church and in a sense the
reestablishment of the church. Perhaps it is in the convergence of these two movements
one could hope to find a model for the church in a secular or post-secular age.
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Copyright 2010 by Jeffrey W. Roop. All Rights Reserved. 23
Simplicity in structure that allows for flexibility for the future and a post-secular and
post-modern language that speaks deeply and profoundly to contemporary culture. Full
participation by all members in worship and ministry will lead to encouragement for the
church to face the world with the non-religious message of the Christian faith and above
all, love the world.
End Notes
1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Communion of Saints, (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1963), 35.2
Ibid., 89.
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Copyright 2010 by Jeffrey W. Roop. All Rights Reserved. 24
3Ibid., 98.
4Ibid., 99.
5 Ibid., 102.6 Ibid., 101.7 Ibid., 111-112.8
Ibid., 115.9 Ibid.10 Ibid., 116.11 Ibid., 152.12 Ibid., 155.13 Ibid., 185.14
Dietrich Bonhoeffer,Life Together, (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1954), 17.15
Ibid., 18.16 Ibid., 20.17 Ibid., 21.18 Ibid., 23.19 Ibid., 24.20 Ibid., 25.21 Ibid., 30.22 Ibid., 34.23 Ibid., 36.24 Ibid., 37.25 Ibid., 39.26
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1963),
266.27 Ibid., 269.28 Ibid., 271.29 Ibid., 274.30 Ibid., 277.31 Ibid., 278.32
Ibid., 281.33 Ibid., 282.
34 Jay C. Rochelle, Mystery and Relationship as Keys to the Churchs Response to Secularism, inCurrents in Theology and Mission 19 (1992), 271.35 Ibid., 293.36
Ibid., 297.37 Ibid., 300.38 Ibid.39 Dietrich Bonhoeffer,Letters & Papers From Prison, edited by Eberhard Bethge, (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1971), 123.40 Ibid., 193.41 Ibid., 282.42
Ibid., 286.43 Ibid., 378.44 Ibid., 382-382.45
Gerhard Ebeling,Introduction to a Theological Theory of Language, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,1973), 67-68.46
Ibid., 68.47 Gerhard Ebeling, The Nature of Faith, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967), 140-141.48 Ibid., 142-143.49 Ibid., 146.50 Ibid., 148.51 Ibid., 184 [or letters page]52
Andr Dumas,Dietrich Bonhoeffer Theologian of Reality, (The Macmillan Company, 1971), 237-280.53
Ibid., 243.
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54Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer's Christology and His Religionless Christianity inBonhoeffer in a
World Come of Age, edited by Peter Vorkink, II, 46-72, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1968), 53-54.55 David H. Hopper,A Dissent on Bonhoeffer, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975), 28.56 Ibid., 34.57 Ibid., 132.58
Ibid., 135.59 Ibid., 144.60 Daniel Jenkins,Beyond Religion, (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1962), 25.61 Ibid., 79.62 Ibid., 102.63 Jenkins, 113.