[September 2000 journal entry]
In his 30 April 1944 prison letter, what/who did Bonhoeffer include (or exclude) re ‘Christianity’? As a historian and with my variation on a ‘religionless’ approach, I would give a ‘from below’ answer and begin with a historical/social definition of ‘religion’. Bonhoeffer, from his doctoral studies forward, took seriously a sociology of religion explanation of Christianity. Remember Max Weber was a neighbor and family friend. With the Confessing Church as his central case in point, Bonhoeffer kept expecting through the 1930s to find a remainder in expressions of ‘Christianity’ for which sociologists of religion could not account. In the 30 April 1944 letter, I suspect he had both these perspectives in mind, with his thought about ‘religion’ correlating with a sociologist of religion perspective and his thought about ‘religionless’ correlating with his search for the remainder.
In his 30 April 1944 prison letter, what/who did Bonhoeffer include (or exclude) re ‘Christianity’? As a historian and with my variation on a ‘religionless’ approach, I would give a ‘from below’ answer and begin with a historical/social definition of ‘religion’. Bonhoeffer, from his doctoral studies forward, took seriously a sociology of religion explanation of Christianity. Remember Max Weber was a neighbor and family friend. With the Confessing Church as his central case in point, Bonhoeffer kept expecting through the 1930s to find a remainder in expressions of ‘Christianity’ for which sociologists of religion could not account. In the 30 April 1944 letter, I suspect he had both these perspectives in mind, with his thought about ‘religion’ correlating with a sociologist of religion perspective and his thought about ‘religionless’ correlating with his search for the remainder.