World Come Of Age Research Articles

A teleological interpretation of Bonhoeffer's concept of “A World Come of Age”

AbstractThis paper explores Dietrich Bonhoeffer's concept of “the nonreligious interpretation of biblical terms in a world come of age,” best known from his Letters and Papers from Prison (LPP). As a case study of its possibilities, we will survey South African thinkers who have explored the concept in rapidly changing contexts. Our leading question is whether academic theology can develop a teleological narrative for a nation that has “come of age.” When a nation or culture becomes so secular that it “outgrows” a traditional use of biblical terms, can those terms be reinterpreted to provide a teleological narrative for the nation? Bonhoeffer can be a resource for academic theologians to address issues in public theology, especially the suffering and oppression of communities still in pain despite a democratic system.

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology, by Lilian Calles Barger

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology, by Lilian Calles Barger

Withdrawn as Duplicate: The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology. By Lilian Calles Barger

Withdrawn as Duplicate: The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology. By Lilian Calles Barger

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology. By Lillian Calles Barger

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology. <i>By Lillian Calles Barger</i>

Confronting the Social Technologies of a World Come of Age: Barry Harvey, Taking Hold of the Real: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Profound Worldliness of Christianity

Confronting the Social Technologies of a World Come of Age: Barry Harvey, <i>Taking Hold of the Real: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Profound Worldliness of Christianity</i>

Attacks on Christendom in a World Come of Age: Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and the Question of “Religionless Christianity” by Matthew D. Kirkpatrick

Attacks on Christendom in a World Come of Age: Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and the Question of “Religionless Christianity” by <i>Matthew D. Kirkpatrick</i>

William Dean Howells’s Spiritual Quest(ioning) in a “World Come of Age”

William Dean Howells’s Spiritual Quest(ioning) in a “World Come of Age”

Politics of the Theological: Beyond the Piety and Power of a World Come of Age. By Barry Harvey. New York: Peter Lang, 1995, 266 pp. $46.95

Politics of the Theological: Beyond the Piety and Power of a World Come of Age. By Barry Harvey. New York: Peter Lang, 1995, 266 pp. $46.95

Politics of the Theological: Beyond the Piety and Power of a World Come of Age. Barry Harvey

<i>Politics of the Theological: Beyond the Piety and Power of a World Come of Age</i>. Barry Harvey

Theology for a World Come of Age: The Meaning of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Doing Systematic Theology Today

What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today. The time when people could be told everything by means of words, whether theological or simply pious, is over, and so is the time of religion in general. We are moving towards a completely religionless time: people as they are now simply cannot be religious any more.These words from a letter of the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer mark one of the turning points in the history of systematic theological thinking in this century.Hardly any other theologian has provided as strong a challenge to post-war theologians as Bonhoeffer. In this article I want to give an introduction to Bonhoeffer’s theology as a whole and his concept of ‘religionless Christianity for a world come of age’ in particular. Then, in the final section, I want to discuss the relevance of Bonhoeffer for doing systematic theology in the changing theological landscape of today.

A Bonhoeffer Legacy: Essays In Understanding ed. by A. J. Klassen

142 BOOK REVIEWS philosopher F. H. Jacobi, with whom he conducted a large and important correspondence, and J. G. Herder, his life-long disciple. At the end of his life he was invited by the Princess· Amalia von Gallitzin to visit her and the "Miinster Circle" (Hemsterhuis was a member) in Westphalia. It was here that he died in June, 1788, and was buried in the garden of the townhouse of the Princess. Goethe, whom Herder introduced to Hamann's writings, retained a lifelong admiration for the Magus. Hegel respected him greatly, and the passionately anti-Hegelian Kierkegaard revered him as he hardly revered any other thinker. Surely, then, he merits our notice. ROBERT M. BROWNING Hamilton College Clinton, New York A Bonhoeffer Legacy: Essays In Understanding. Edited by A. J. KLASSEN. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmanns, 1981. Pp. 382. $18.95. At the time of its publication, A. J. Klassen's A Bon'ho6'fler Legacy was the third major collection of essays on the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to appear in English. The first such collection, edited and introduced by Martin Marty, was published in 1962. The Place of Bonhoeffer presented critical expositions of Bonhoeffer's major writings with the twofold aim of introducing Bonhoeffer to the English-speaking world and indicating the "problems and possibilities in his thought." Then in 1967 Ronald Gregor Smith's World Come of Age featured a predominantly European forum on Bonhoeffer's theology. Here the implicit issue was whether Bonhoeffer was at bottom a Barthian or a Bultmannian. During these same years, a new generation of scholars was beginning to delve more deeply into Bonhoeffer, moved by a critical interest in determining what he actually thought before assigning him a place amidst the prevailing theological currents and camps. There has emerged from this work a portrait, still unfinished, of an original figure in twentiethcentury theology. Although Bonhoeffer was a student of many, he remained to the end a disciple of none. Now some of the leading figures of this new generation have been gathered together in one volume by Klassen. Long known to Bonhoeffer specialists, all the authors represented in this collection have written dissertations , books, or significant articles on some aspect of Bonhoe:ffer's thought. In many cases, their contributions are either drawn directly from or based upon those works. Along with essays by North American, BOOK REVIEWS 143 French, Swiss, and English writers, the volume includes English-language debuts by such notable German Bonhoeffer interpreters as Ernst Feil, Hans Pfeifer, Rainer Mayer, and Tierno Rainer Peters. If the list of twenty-three contributors represents a veritable "Who's Who" of the International Bonhoeffer Society, the themes they treat provide a good indication of the substantial range of recent work on Bonhoeffer. For these reasons A Bonhoeffer Legacy could be viewed as a compendium of the most noteworthy trends and developments during the past two decades of Bonhoeffer research. The golden thread that unites these diverse papers may be glimpsed in the concluding words of Eberhard Bethge's introductory essay, significantly entitled " Bonhoeffer's Assertion of Religionless ChristianityWas He Mistaken~ " Already in this title Bethge raises the question concerning the shape and durability of Bonhoeffer's legacy. His conclusion is suggestive: " It may be, then, that Bonhoeffer's analyses-or those that others after him have developed and modernized-are not behind us but still before us" (11). Many of the pieces included in this book could be said to confirni Bethge's hypothesis. Indeed, that is why they are called "essays in understanding." To understand Bonhoeffer's legacy requires more than the effort to identify the formal contours and conceptual pillars of his theological work. In addition, it involves an appreciation (or even personal appropriation) of a posture for doing theology, a posture shaped by the confluence of inherited doctrine, the present historical situation, and attentive listening to God's Word. It is the exemplary quality of Bonhoeffer's theological posture, more than any particular methods, phrases, or insights, that constitutes the real heart of his legacy. Thus, despite the considerable divergence of views advanced in these pages regarding the most salient features of Bonhoeffer's legacy...

REVIEWS

Exploration Into God. By John A. T. Robinson, Bishop of Woolwich The Private Sea. LSD and the Search for God. By William Braden Phenomenology and Humanism. A Primer in Existential Phenomenology. By William A. Luijpen God‐Talk. An Examination of the Language and Logic of Theology, By John Macquarrie Connaissance de L’être. Traité d'Ontohgie. By Joseph de Finance Cicero on Moral Obligation. A new translation of Cicero's ‘De Officiis’ with an Introduction and Notes by John Higginbotham La Psychologic de l'Activité chez Albert le Grand. By Pierre Michaud‐Quantin Two Tracts on Government. By John Locke. Edited with an Introduction, Notes and Translation by Philip Abrams Limits of Liberty: Studies of Mill's ‘On Liberty’. Edited by Peter Radcliff World Come of Age, A Symposium on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Edited and Introduced by Ronald Greoor Smith New Frontiers in Theology: Vol. III Theology as History. Edited by James M. Robinson and John B. Cobb Salvation in History. By Oscar Cullmann The Historical Jesus in the Gospel of St John. By Franz Mussner A Basic Jewish Encyclopedia. By Rabbi harry A. Cohen The Serpent and the Dove: Five Essays on early Christianity. By Samuel Laeuchli The Making of Christian Doctrine. By Maurice Wiles The Commentaries on Boethius by Gilbert of Poitiers. Edited by Nikolaus M. Huuring, s.a.c. The Efficacy of Putative Attrition in the Doctrine of Theologians of the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries. By Hugh Patton, m.s.c. The Royal Society: Concept and Creation. By Margery Purver Educational Psychology in the U.S.S.R. Edited and translated by Brian and Joan Simon Education and Society in Tudor England. By Joan Simon

The Future of Belief: Theism in a World Come of Age, by Leslie Dewart. 223 pp. New York, Herder and Herder, 1966. $4.95

The Future of Belief: Theism in a World Come of Age, by Leslie Dewart. 223 pp. New York, Herder and Herder, 1966. $4.95

Book Review: World Come of Age

Book Review: World Come of Age

The Logos in a World Come of Age

“The difference between a world come of age and a world initially surprised by the advent of the logos is that in a world come of age the logos must create new conditions for the experience and apprehension of transcendence, not merely correct conditions already at hand. This is a new experience for the logos which does not make the logos any less a new experience for the world.”

More on the World Come of Age

More on the World Come of Age

A Secular Theology for a World Come of Age

A Secular Theology for a World Come of Age