I've not posted recently, since I've been excessively busy, but I expect to more regularly over the next two weeks.

I did a paper on Bonhoeffer's approach to the Book of Psalms. My prof asked a couple of really good questions in his response to it, which I plan to respond to in this forum. All I need is time. :-)

I've continued reading, of course, getting through Letters and Papers from Prison, and am planning to do my next paper (again 5-7 pages) on the biblical basis of Religionless Christianity. One quick note on the Bible-centeredness of all this. First of all, Bonhoeffer was very bible-centered, in that tradition from Luther, and he connected with the earlier work of Luther, out of which much of the "scripture alone" part of the Lutheran approach to religion (fueled by the paradigm change coming out of the printing press). So it's important on that basis. From another POV, the prof directing my study is a bible prof, so the focus on the biblical hermeneutic of B. is part of the way this course is set up. I am looking forward to taking my exploration of Bonhoeffer further in the fall, when I take Systematic Theology, and can get deeper into that point of view.

On to the real point. Also have read several portions of the Cambridge Companion to Bonhoeffer, including one on personal spirituality which echoed amazingly my first paper!

Second paper on religionless Christianity focuses on the Bible basis, and I think I have a good handle on this - but I am also intruigued by other questions associated with this. Most notably, B's concepts have real resonance for the Church in our time, and particularly for the Church Vitality initiative. If B is right, then we need to become a "Religionless" Church, and I think that this is something that the UCC is indeed doing, using Bonhoeffer's way of looking at it. I don't have time today to think this through, but I will shortly, and will post on this topic.

For the next two weeks I'll be on vacation - but I hope to connect and to post to this blog while away. This is important, because my vacation includes three important Bonhoeffer sites: The church where he did his first pastoral work in Barcelona, the Ettal monastery where much of what became Ethics was written, and the Concentration Camp at Flossenbuerg, where he was executed. I hope to post impressions and pictures of all these sites, and of course several B-related books will be in my backpack as I enjoy some rest and relaxation.