[October 1999 journal entry]
Re my existential/spiritual association with the Letters and Papers Bonhoeffer’s experience and ideas (as I have discussed often with Eberhard and Renate Bethge):
Re my existential/spiritual association with the Letters and Papers Bonhoeffer’s experience and ideas (as I have discussed often with Eberhard and Renate Bethge):
1974-82: During these years, I was catching up with the Letters and Papers Bonhoeffer. He clearly stood out among the seminal thinkers in the history of Christian thought I had studied carefully through my graduate work and during my initial years as a graduate professor.
1982-91/92: During these years, I was moving – in thought, decisions, and experience -- in ways analogous to or alongside the Letters and Papers Bonhoeffer.
1992-present: During these years, I began (and continue) to move – in thought, decisions, and experience -- beyond the Letters and Papers Bonhoeffer (not away from him but further into a ‘non-religious’ experience of ethics and spirituality than he reached due to the abrupt/premature end of his life). 1991-92 was a decisive passage for me in completing the process of stepping out of/away from the ‘religious’ sphere.
