Christian Resurgence Circles

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Eleven, Number Two
January/February 2002

CHRISTIAN RESURGENCE CIRCLES PUT BONHOEFFER'S IDEAS INTO PRACTICE

by Gene Marshall

During his last days in prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer did some provocative thinking about the qualities of the next form of Christian community. Here are four categories of Bonhoeffer's reflections on this topic that inform the experiment in Christian community we in the Realistic Living group are calling Christian Resurgence Circles.

Thoroughgoing This-Worldliness

The Christian community of the future speaks to the world in the language of the world. The two-story metaphors of the Bible will be translated into secular speech. The address of the Bible can and must be communicated to people without insisting that they practice the Christian religion. We work on the transformation of society alongside other persons, whatever heritage they practice for their spirit nurture.

A Disciplined Practice of the New Testament Lineage

Bonhoeffer saw the next Christian community as the practice of a disciplined group which is in full continuity with the New Testament breakthrough. The next Christian community will include such practices as reading the Bible, life together in the Word, and daily solitary practices rooted in this heritage.

Beyond Individualism

Bonhoeffer was clear that you cannot be a Christian by yourself. You are a Christian by joining a community of disciplined practice. You are a Christian by joining the entire vanguard of action on behalf of all people, all nature, and all history.

Beyond the Guardianship of the Clericalized Church.

Members of the next expression of valid Christian community will no longer need or tolerate the guardianship of priests, clergy, pastors, popes, teachers with divinely given right answers. Children are properly protected from complete responsibility until they are ready for it. It is not appropriate, however, for Christian congregations to protect their adult members from a grown-up version of Christianity. Adults know that they must figure out for themselves what is right. As Jesus said, speaking to the crowds "You frauds! You know how to interpret the look of the earth and sky. Why can't you interpret the meaning of the times in which you live?" (Luke 12: 56)