Christ Existing as Concrete Community Today

Abstract

Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology summed up in his axiom, “Christ existing as community,” establishes the church as a “reality of revelation”—the continued manifestation of Christ in the world. This central notion drives Bonhoeffer’s theological and pragmatic search for new social forms that make the Gospel concrete. Requisite for full appropriation of Bonhoeffer’s legacy is a turn toward contemporary Christian communities trying to follow Jesus’ teachings with similar intentionality and seriousness. To this end, the article places Bonhoeffer’s well-known reflections on discipleship alongside the lived experience of the Open Door, an interracial, residential Christian activist and worshipping community in Atlanta, Georgia, USA that for 30 years has been engaged in works of mercy and justice for homeless and incarcerated persons. When read through the lens of Bonhoeffer’s discipleship theology, the founding and life-work of the Open Door helps readers rethink and re-imagine the kind of ecclesial spaces and structures needed to foster radical discipleship formation strong enough to confront unjust realities that oppose God’s reign today.