Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity in its Christological context

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) believed Western civilisation to be “approaching a completely religionless age” to which Christians must respond and adapt. This book explores Bonhoeffer’s own 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 place of mystery, paradox, and wholeness in Bonhoeffer’s thinking is also given careful attention, and non-religious interpretation is taken seriously as an ongoing task. This book aspires to present religionless Christianity as a lucid and persuasive contemporary theology, and 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?”