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E-book The Gift of Life : Towards an ethic of flourishing personhood

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Penilaian

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In an age where there was broad recognition of the Christian religion and respect for the church as an institution in European culture on the one hand and immense human suffering on the other, the young German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was deeply concerned about Christianity. His concern sprung from the fact that a person who professes to be a Christian and who holds on to a long Christian tradition could confess doctrinally correct beliefs, observe its moral codes and follow the accepted behaviours and practices of the church, whilst simultaneously supporting an evil system and committing unspeakable horrors driven by a totally immoral ideology. This kind of contradiction was, in his view, characteristic of a formalised and stagnant religion of traditions, doctrines and customs, without any real impact on the predicament of suffering people. In his many writings, he opposed the dead, formalised and fossilised religion and the cold, institutionalised church of symbols, rituals, customs and traditions that he saw in the Europe of his day. Deeply distressed by the rise of the ideology of national socialism, the politics of Hitler’s Third Reich and the looming war between so-called ‘Christian nations’, he contended that Christian faith should be liberated from such a religion.As a first-hand witness of the evils of national socialism in Germany and the silence and even collaboration of the German church, he wished for a faith that grapples not only with the foundations of faith but especially with the life-changing ability of faith – a faith that speaks to suffering people and challenges the causes of their suffering. He longed for a Christian faith that is relevant for human beings in predicaments of evil and vulnerability. He therefore called for a religionless Christianity or a this-worldly Christianity. This idea was the foundation for and the guiding principle of his thought-provoking theology. A prominent South African exponent of Bonhoeffer’s theology, De Gruchy (2010), described this idea of Bonhoeffer as a call for a Christian religion where ‘being for others’, a deep rootedness in the life, suffering and resurrection of Christ, is valued as the true meaning of Christianity. Bonhoeffer’s criticism of a fossilised Christian religion interested post-war Christian theologians. His plea for a faith that speaks to suffering people and addresses the causes of their suffering resonated with many theological traditions worldwide. Churches, motivated by the ecumenical movement and extra-ecclesiastical developments such as the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations in 1948 and the wave of decolonisation, endeavoured to become involved in the new social and political discourses. The quest for the liberation of oppressed and marginalised people resulting from racist, gender-biased, homophobic and other oppressive, one-dimensional societies, permeated the agenda of the church. Political theologies, founded on new hermeneutical theories with different angles of approach, emerged and found their way to what became known as public theology – a vibrant branch of theology in the first part of the 21st century.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

222 VOR t

Penerbit

South Africa : AOSIS Publishing., 2021

Deskripsi Fisik

276 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781776341542

Klasifikasi

222

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Historical Books of Old Testament

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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