[October 2000 journal entry]
Bonhoeffer elsewhere in the prison correspondence used the phrase “unconscious Christians” to account for individuals who by their integrity demonstrate that the idea of a ‘religious a priori’ is no longer tenable. I am not drawn to his use of ‘unconscious Christian’. Some of the individuals with whom I am acquainted who Bonhoeffer would have considered ‘unconscious Christians’ are very consciously not Christian, at least as the term is variously defined within the ‘religious’ sphere. Also, Bonhoeffer’s use of ‘Christian’ in the 30 April 1944 letter strikes me as still very ‘religious’ in nuance. To become ‘non-religious’ is to risk losing a claim on the term Christian as variously defined within the ‘religious’ sphere.
Bonhoeffer elsewhere in the prison correspondence used the phrase “unconscious Christians” to account for individuals who by their integrity demonstrate that the idea of a ‘religious a priori’ is no longer tenable. I am not drawn to his use of ‘unconscious Christian’. Some of the individuals with whom I am acquainted who Bonhoeffer would have considered ‘unconscious Christians’ are very consciously not Christian, at least as the term is variously defined within the ‘religious’ sphere. Also, Bonhoeffer’s use of ‘Christian’ in the 30 April 1944 letter strikes me as still very ‘religious’ in nuance. To become ‘non-religious’ is to risk losing a claim on the term Christian as variously defined within the ‘religious’ sphere.
