a whirlwind

The past 24 hours has been such a whirlwind. I stumbled on a blog last night: http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com and I have been so challenged by his treatment of Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers. Other articles that he has written seem to be written right to me and my struggle as an academic in a world that no longer has any need of God. I have come to a whole new understanding of what Bonhoeffer meant by what he said, and I have a whole new set of things to consider in my quest to figure out what my calling is as a Christian in a broken world.

I feel bad for my facebook profile, it has been inundated with Bonhoeffer quotes.

I think I am especially challenged by Bonhoeffer's conception of God as weak. It makes such perfect sense when considered in the light of passages such as Isaiah 53 or Philippians 2. I am challenged by the challenge to live the "Christian" part of our life in secret - to keep prayer and worship a private activity and to instead let the world see Jesus through our love and care for the world. I am challenged by the blogger's conclusions (based on Bonhoeffer's) that our calling is to reach out to others, not to concentrate on improving our relationship with God. (see http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2009/08/bait-and-switch-of-contemporary.html )

Most of all, I'm excited to more fully explore this in relation to the Scriptures. I am excited to take this new understanding of what Bonhoeffer meant by religionless Christianity and test it to see for myself if it matches up with what the Bible teaches. And I am filled with hope, because I think that it is quite possible that I have stumbled upon something that may change the very course of my life.