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Showing posts with the label Bonhoeffer

The Way of the Towel: Greatness, Redefined by Jesus

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by Bart Denny Central text: John 13:12–17 (NIV) Over the years, in church settings, I’ve done a lot of dishes. I’ve raked a lot of leaves. I’ve painted plenty of church walls. I’ve plunged more than a few clogged toilets. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. But if I’m honest, at this age, with this many years in church, there’s a part of me that wants to say, “I’ve done my time.” I don’t usually say it out loud. I dress it up. I call it wisdom. Focus. Stewarding my time well. But the feeling sneaks up on me. It shows up when another need pops up. When the same few people carry the same load. When I feel tired. It shows up when I think, “Shouldn’t somebody else take a turn now?” And I’ll confess something else: I don’t mind serving. I just want to choose the terms. And if I’m not careful, I start thinking and acting like the low places belong to somebody else. Now let me be even more honest: I don’t struggle with getting my hands dirty. I struggle to keep my ego in check....
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The Influence of Bonhoeffer’s “Religionless Christianity” on Radical Theology

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As best I can remember, I wrote this paper sometime in 2016. Introduction This paper will compare Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s concept of “religionless Christianity” with the radical (or “death of God”) theology, demonstrating that radical theology it is the logical outworking of his thoughts on religionless Christianity—even if Bonhoeffer himself would have been shocked to see such a development. Of course, many groups have appropriated Bonhoeffer as their own, even if he was not. Bonhoeffer’s brave faith, in the face of Nazi persecution, imprisonment, interrogation, and execution—as opposed to the capitulation to Nazism of the majority of German Protestants in his day—appeals to a broad swath of Christianity, including evangelical conservatives, mainline liberals, liberation theologians, and even the radical or “death of God” theologians. Indeed, as Pugh has said, both pacifists and Mike Bray, the notorious abortion clinic bomber, invoke Bonhoeffer’s example in their causes.[1] Neatly compa...
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