A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #17 – reflections from journal entries

67 [August 1998 journal entry]
‘Non-religious’ (as distinct from ‘religious’) means

1. looking in or listening to the ‘religious’ sphere from points outside – however far from or near to – the ‘religious’ sphere,
2. being conscious of the transcendent ‘from below’,
3. living with doubt,
   
4. moving from ethics to theology,
5. moving from existential death toward authentic being.

68 [September 1998 journal entry]
I continue to attempt to delineate as fully and specifically as possible that which I have rejected/surrendered re ‘religion’ as I have pursued a ‘with the world face to face’ way of being/living – e.g., I have rejected/surrendered

1. assumptions re Jewish scriptures and Christian scriptures (e.g., a set 66-document ‘canon’, ‘inerrancy’, ‘infallibility’, that there is ‘the biblical view’ on any subject),
2. an ethics/theology paradigm that reduces life experiences to a single factor – ‘the will of God’,
3. political/social structures and theories rooted in theocracy and/or monarchy,
4. slavery as an unchallenged social institution,
5. a demeaning/devalued view of women,
6. a pre-modern and pre-scientific cosmology,
7. demons,
8. ideas/views that would tolerate anti-Semitism,
9. a literal interpretation of Genesis 1-11,
10. an idyllic view of the beginnings of human history,
11. exclusivity and sectarianism,
12. substitutionary interpretations of atonement,
13. christologies that minimize or render meaningless the humanity of ‘Jesus’,
14. a ‘be fruitful and multiply’ approach to reproduction,
15. certainty,
16. . . . .