Religionless Christianity as Bonhoeffer’s Response to Political-Theological Crisis
Abstract
This paper examines the theological problem of the political co-optation of Christianity through the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, with particular attention to his response to the crisis of the German church under National Socialism. This phenomenon may be understood as a recurring theological distortion in which the church becomes entangled with ideological and political power. This study examines Bonhoeffer’s concept of “religionless Christianity,” developed in his prison writings, to reconsider the relation between church and world beyond the dualism of sacred and secular. Key themes in his theology include the “world come of age,” the notion of “one reality,” the “order of preservation,” and the relation between resistance and obedience. Bonhoeffer articulates a theological account that resists both secular reduction and religious absolutism. Bonhoeffer’s account of responsible action, including the notion of bearing guilt, challenges ethical approaches grounded in ideological certainty and situates Christian responsibility within concrete historical engagement under divine judgment and grace. The study develops as a theological reconstruction of Bonhoeffer’s response to a political-theological crisis and concludes with a consideration of how his account may serve in evaluating contemporary forms of Christianity that align with ideological or nationalist agendas.