Week 11: Letters and Papers from Prison

1.In his letters to Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer begins to sketch what he calls a 'religionless Christianity' — Christianity for a world 'come of age' that no longer needs God as a stopgap or a deus ex machina. Metaxas is careful to note that these are exploratory, fragmentary letters — not a finished system. What do you think Bonhoeffer was reaching for? What kind of Christianity was he criticizing?

2.Bonhoeffer speaks of 'the God who lets himself be pushed out of the world onto the cross' — the powerless, suffering God who saves not by overwhelming force but by weakness and love. How does this image of God challenge popular conceptions of divine power? How does it connect to the cross at the center of Christian theology?

3.These late letters have been read very differently by different readers — some see them as a radical departure toward secular theology, others see them as a deepening of Bonhoeffer's earlier orthodox convictions. Metaxas sides with the latter interpretation. Based on what you know of Bonhoeffer's life and earlier writing, which reading seems more faithful to the whole of his story, and why?