A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #82

[April 1999 journal entry]

Among the variables that contribute to an accounting for my break/withdrawal from the ‘religious’ sphere/paradigm are:

1. not being deeply (i.e., to the point of being unable to resist or to break free) marked/stamped by my fundamentalist upbringing in the ‘religious’ sphere,
   
   
2. having an early defining life experience with the depth/breadth of human suffering – for me, my first wife’s illness/death – that came before prolonged investment in the ‘religious’ sphere and that did not come after my undergraduate and graduate education,
   
   
3. having doctoral training in historical methodology, philosophy, antiquities, 17th century history, 19th century history, 20th century history,
   
   
4. having graduate teaching experience in spirituality, ethics, history, systematic theology, philosophy of religion.