Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 1. By Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Fortress Press, 1998. Pp. 372. $35.00.

2000 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-267
Author(s):  
Ian A. McFarland
Keyword(s):  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Theological Study ◽  
Sanctorum Communio ◽  
The Church

Christ Existing as Community

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mawson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Human Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theological Study ◽  
Sanctorum Communio ◽  
The Church

How can theologians recognize the church as a historical and human community, while still holding that it has been established by Christ and is a work of the Spirit? How can a theological account of the church draw insights and concepts from the social sciences, without Christian commitments and claims about the church being undermined or displaced? In 1927, the 21-year-old Dietrich Bonhoeffer defended his licentiate dissertation, Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church. This remains his most neglected and misunderstood work. Christ Existing as Community thus retrieves and analyses Bonhoeffer’s engagement with social theory and attempt at ecclesiology. Against standard readings and criticisms of this work, Mawson demonstrates that it contains a rich and nuanced approach to the church, one which displays many of Bonhoeffer’s key influences—especially Luther, Hegel, Troeltsch, and Barth—while being distinctive in its own right. In particular, Mawson argues that Sanctorum Communio’s theology is built around a complex dialectic of creation, sin, and reconciliation. On this basis, he contends that Bonhoeffer’s dissertation has ongoing significance for work in theology and Christian ethics.

Lebensraum – just what is this ‘habitat’ or ‘living space’ that Dietrich Bonhoeffer claimed for the church?

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-84
Author(s):  
Donald Fergus
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Church Members ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Living Space ◽  
Political Concept ◽  
Social Acts ◽  
Ordered Space ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Sanctorum Communio ◽  
The Church

AbstractDietrich Bonhoeffer's liberal use of spatial concepts in constructing an ecclesiology served his theological purpose in the articulation of a concrete ecclesiology. In particular, Bonhoeffer uses the themes of taking-up-space and the visibility of the church. The visibility of the church is depicted as a proclamatory space, a liturgical space and an ordered space, all encapsulated in the concept of Lebensraum. Within this space, witness is given to the foundation of all reality in Jesus Christ. The church is the place where this reality is proclaimed; a space no bigger than that required to serve the world in witness to Christ. As opposed to any idea of a ‘privatised’ or individual space, Bonhoeffer insisted on the public and territorial nature of this space as essential to the church's witness, for it was in this very visibility that the church gains space for Christ.Lebensraum, an idea popularised by Adolf Hitler and incorporated into the foreign policy of the Third Reich, was a highly charged political concept taken over by Bonhoeffer to represent a living space diametrically opposed in form to that proposed by the Reich. A useful way of thinking about the Christian form of Lebensraum as proposed by Bonhoeffer is to regard it as the space in which the ‘social acts that constitute the community of love and that disclose in more detail the structure and nature of the Christian church’1 are to be demonstrated and observed. These ‘social acts’ are built upon the foundational concepts, first found in Sanctorum Communio, of Stellvertretung or vicarious representative action, Miteinander or church members being with-each-other, and Füreinander or church members actively being for-each-other. Bonhoeffer proposes that, as its life is lived out in this way, the church will take the form of its suffering servant Lord. It is in this particular space and no other, grounded and upright in Christ, that Christians are to live their lives in witness to Christ.

scholarly journals Virtualiteit in Dietrich Bonhoeffer se Sanctorum Communio: Kollektiewe intelligensie as nuwe epistemologie vir die kerk?

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deon Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Sanctorum Communio ◽  
The Church

Virtuality in Dietrich Bonhoeffers’ Sanctorum Communio: Collective intelligence as a new epistemology of the church? Collective intelligence has been indicated from biological, philosophical, anthropological and technological developments. The stygmergy principle serves to explain collective behaviour in nature such as with ants. An earlier form of collective intelligence is found in Leibniz’ Monadology. Today, collective intelligence emerges from the anthropological space of knowledge. This article argues that collective intelligence such as Wikipedia is based on a postfoundational epistemology and asks whether this can be seen as a new epistemology for the self and the other. With these insights as hermeneutical interface, Bonhoeffers’ ecclesiology in Sanctorum Communio is re-read, and it is argued that Bonhoeffers’ church concept as Christus als Gemeinde existierend collectively might serve as a new epistemology for the church.

scholarly journals The Cruelty of Supersessionism: The Case of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Religions ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
John E. Phelan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Study ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The impact of the Shoah on Christian biblical and theological studies has been significant. The Christian doctrine of supersessionism, the replacement of the Jews and Judaism by the Christian church, has come in for particular criticism. Some more traditional scholars have either ignored these critiques or suggested that they were shaped not by critical study of the biblical text but by Christian guilt. It is also argued that the supersessionist argument is so thoroughly woven into the Christian story that extracting it would destroy the story itself. For some, it appears that there is no Christianity without supersessionism. This paper argues not only that this challenge to supersessionism was indeed the result of post-Shoah reflection, but that such challenges were appropriate and necessary. It does this in part by considering the case of German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose early citations of the “teachings of contempt” were challenged by the violence of Nazis and the clarity of their intent to destroy both the Jews and, eventually, the church. A non-supersessionist Christianity is both possible and necessary, not simply to preserve the relationship between Christians and Jews, but to enable both communities to engage in the work of “consummation” and “redemption” that God has entrusted to them.

scholarly journals Raised Imperishable

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
Kaylie G. Page
Keyword(s):  
Positive Influence ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Bodily Resurrection ◽  
Ethical Choices ◽  
The Church ◽  
Spiritual Attitude ◽  
Primary Impact

Christians live in light of eternity: we anticipate a future glory yet to be unveiled, but we also have some level of participation in that glory in the present. What shape should that anticipation and participation take? In other words, how does the resurrection influence ethical choices in the present? This paper draws on the work of historical and modern theologians to consider what effects the resurrection of the body has on Christian life in the present. It argues that the nature of embodied life in the resurrection affects our view of and our behavior towards our own bodies, the body of the church, and the bodies of other people in the world. While the paper sketches the outlines of an ethic based on the bodily resurrection in each of these areas, its main concern is with the spiritual attitude that informs and results from these ethical choices. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer observes, Christian ethics that focuses on the resurrection tends to fall into one of the two traps of otherworldliness or secularism. However, when attention is given to the spiritual effects of a resurrection-oriented ethic, both of these pitfalls can be avoided. Living in light of the resurrection sharpens our anticipation of heavenly glory, but it also proves our inability to attain that glory by our own power, forcing us to rely ever more on God as the source of our salvation. Thus, although living with reference to the resurrection of the body has positive influence on our ethical choices, the primary impact of such a life is to drive the Christian back to the Gospel.

scholarly journals The Wrong Practice Of Anointing Oil In The Church According To James 5:14 A Theological study

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
Sayangi Laia ◽  
Harman Ziduhu Laia ◽  
Daniel Ari Wibowo
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Theological Study ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The practice of anointing with oil has been done in the church since the first century to the present. On the other hand, there are also churches which have refused to do this. The practice of anointing with oil has essentially lifted from James 5:14. This text has become one of one text in the New Testament which is quite difficult to understand and bring a variety of views. Not a few denominations of the church understand James 5:14 is wrong, even the Catholic church including in it. The increasingly incorrect practice of anointing in the church today, that can be believed can heal disease physically and a variety of other functions push back the author to check the text of James 5:14 in the exegesis. Studies the exegesis of the deep, which focuses on the contextual, grammatical-structural,

The Ministry—A Renewed Quest

1967 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-311
Author(s):  
William Nicholls
Keyword(s):  
World Conference ◽  
Fourth World ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theological Study ◽  
Doctrine Of The Church ◽  
Work Done ◽  
The Church

The Fourth World Conference on Faith and Order, meeting at Montreal in July 1963, recommended the renewal of the study of the Ministry, within a new programme of theological study to be initiated by the Faith and Order Commission. As was noted at Montreal, the Ministry had not been the subject of Faith and Order study for twenty-five years. There were good reasons for this. While the Ministry continued to be the thorniest of the practical problems facing union negotiators, it was widely agreed that theologically it had failed and would continue to fail to yield to a head-on treatment. Only in the light of the doctrine of the Church, considered in its christological and eschatological dimensions, would the Ministry appear in a form that could draw Christians together in church union. So, without altogether losing sight of the hope that something helpful could be said about the Ministry, Faith and Order turned, first to the doctrine of the Church, and then, in the period after Lund, to a study of Christ and the Church. Now the time has come to return to the Ministry, in the light of the work done at these deeper levels of Christian doctrine.

scholarly journals Kön, kyrka och kyrkligt ledarskap

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrik Hagman ◽  
Eetu Kejonen
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Church Of Sweden ◽  
Pastoral Work ◽  
Church Culture ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Theological Study ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

Gender, Church, and Leadership: A Theological Study of Young Priests in Finland and Sweden This article explores how gender, views of pastoral work and views of ecclesiology interact among young priests in the Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Using a survey we develop a model used to discern if the young priests emphasize leadership or serving in their pastoral work. We then compare this model with their views on e.g. sex, gender and the Church. The article shows that sex has is a significant factor in how one tends to view pastoral work. Men tend to see pastoral work more as leadership, whereas women tend to emphasize serving others. At the same time, another factor – to what degree they are enculturated in church culture and tradition – plays a role in clarifying some patterns in the data. This factor, too, interacts with sex, but in some cases it has more explanatory power than sex. The article sheds light on a polarization in views among priest in both Finland and Sweden.

The Concrete Community

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mawson
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Formation ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Community Or ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sanctorum Communio ◽  
The Church

This chapter, ‘The Concrete Community’, turns to and examines Bonhoeffer’s emphasis on the empirical or existing church. For Bonhoeffer, the church is established by God only as an existing community or empirical entity. In developing and deepening this insight, Bonhoeffer again draws upon his earlier engagement with social theory. In particular, the chapter indicates how he relies upon the social-philosophical concept of objective spirit. This concept allows him to attend to the church in its concrete forms and functions (i.e. preaching and the sacraments). Moreover, this concept allows him to reflect on what kind of social formation the existing church is. Accordingly, the chapter examines what is at stake with Bonhoeffer’s claim in Sanctorum Communio that the church presents a distinct sociological type.

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