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The Logos Academic Blog

Bonhoeffer and COVID-19: “Life Together” in Isolation

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Image by Elliot Alderson from Pixabay

By Charles C. Helmer IV

How are we to think theologically about our present social isolation? How might our time apart sharpen our understanding of the church? My intention here is to reflect briefly upon three theological insights from Bonhoeffer’s Life Together that may serve to hearten us in our experience living apart. None of what follows is intended to minimize the challenges the church now faces. Rather, it is to be reminded that the church is an eschatological community, united with Christ and born of and empowered by the Spirit. It is a community whose existence transcends present, worldly circumstances and a community over which the gates of hell will not prevail (Mt. 16:18). This present article suggests how I think Dietrich might consider our present ecclesiological crisis.

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Breaking Barth: Five Tips from the Experts

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Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics (CD) is arguably the most important product of twentieth-century theology. It is difficult to describe adequately its enduring influence on academic theology. What Barth called his opus imperfectum never came to completion, but concluded abruptly upon his death at a towering thirteen volumes and nearly 10,000 pages.

Originally published in German as Die kirchliche Dogmatik, the English translation is known for its long, winding sentences that lead the reader through a string of interconnected and circuitous thoughts. Barth’s CD is also known for its social, historical, political, ecclesial, and theological context that engages hundreds of named and unnamed interlocutors over the more than 30 years of its composition.

So how does one begin to “break” Barth (or at least break into CD)? [Read more…]