By Walter Hesford | FāVS News Columnist
A while back I wrote a column celebrating the value of religion. So how can I now be celebrating a religionless Christianity?
Blame my brother … and, in turn, blame Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian, most famous, probably, for his 1937 book, “The Cost of Discipleship,” for being imprisoned and in 1945 for being executed because he was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler.
My brother, a retired Lutheran minister, organizes a Bonhoeffer discussion group in Red Wing, Minnesota. Once a month, this group discusses his often profound, sometimes disturbing, writings.
Recently they have been pondering Bonhoeffer’s’ letters from prison. In the ones written to his dear friend and fellow Lutheran pastor Eberhard Bethge in April through August 1944, he puts his hope in a “religionless Christianity.” What could he possibly mean by this?
Thankfully, I have my brother to guide me into Bonhoeffer’s thoughts. Even in his pre-imprisonment days, says my brother, Bonhoeffer was critical of both the appropriation of the Christian religion by Nazi nationalism and by the retreat into pietism by those who tried to remove themselves from the political sphere.
During his 1930 stay in the U.S., Bonhoeffer visited Black churches in Harlem. He was impressed by their commitment to the welfare of their community and to social justice. Bonhoeffer’s theology developed in ways that make it similar to Black and Liberation theology.
Bonhoeffer wrote in “The Bonhoeffer Reader” that he believed that we must now consider “world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled, in short from the perspective of the suffering.”
Identifying with the suffering would align us with Jesus Christ. “Who is Christ for us today?” is Bonhoeffer’s central question in this reader. A religionless Christianity does not use God as an escape, a “deus ex machina,” but puts God and his beloved Son at the center of our lives. In our life we should serve the world, as did Jesus.
Bonhoeffer hopes that the Christian church will in the future engage less in God-talk and more in serving the poor, the outcast, the persecuted. One thinks today of the advocacy of the late Pope Francis and the current Pope Leo XIV. One thinks of churches in the U.S. daring to defy the Trump regime by providing sanctuary for immigrants and refugees.
Bonhoeffer in his lifetime saw that Europe was growing more secular. He thought that a religionless Christianity could speak to people who did not value religion. This may be the case today. The title of a 2021 Christian Century book review by Clint Schneklof declares that “In a secular age, Bonhoeffer’s ‘religionless Christianity’ is evergreen.”
Other religions might become evergreen by becoming religionless in Bonhoeffer’s sense that of term. Imagine the benefits a religionless Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam might bestow on all people in our increasingly secular times. Many people of faith are already putting their faith into action to promote the common welfare.
In turns out that Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity is quite similar to the religion without spirituality I was promoting (somewhat facetiously) in my March column. Transcendent spirituality will continue to be vital for many people of faith, but it’s through down-to-earth organized faith communities that the world will be served.
Herman Melville, in my opinion America’s most deep-thinking writer of fiction, critiqued God-talk years ago in a letter to his fellow fiction writer and friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Yes, that word [God] is the hangman. Take God out of the dictionary and you would have Him on the street.”
On the street, in homeless shelters, in refugee camps, in sanctuary cities, in war zones amidst dropping bombs, among migrant workers picking our fruit and cleaning our homes … among so many people the kingdom of God is waiting for us, as well as in our hearts.
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.
There’s a proverb from Taoism that says, “The sun shows us the way, but the sun is not the way.” Maybe the same holds true for God or Christianity. Maybe they are just concepts to help us see the way. And the way itself is what you’ve proposed: love in action in this world here and now.
This is so good, I read it twice and then skimmed the marginalia of my copy of “The Cost of Discipleship.” I still see the problem is with the institutionalization of faith — but that is where all the fun is — going to church, getting validation from others who believe what you do, singing together, maybe helping a member in need — a brain on church gets all the good stuff (oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, etc.). There’s nothing wrong with getting together at church for something that makes you feel good. There’s a lot of worse things to be doing.
Reading between the lines, I think you might be increasingly aware of institutional failures. That people can do good in the world without the institution, and that secular democracies (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, etc.) places of least church attendance and religious affiliation are places of less poverty, universal access to healthcare, less prison population (and reciditism), and welcoming diversity through immigration and protective policies for all people. If you’re a Matthew 25:35-40 kind of Christian, the democratic secular countries are out-Jesusing the Christian institution in the US.
I can see where that bothers you. Me too. I mean, as a secular humanist, I’m a Matthew 25:35-40 kind of gal. For what it’s worth, I LOVE the honest inquiry your mind is willing to make. I thought it was just me over here on a Diet of Worms.