Unconscious Christianity in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Late Theology: Encounters with the Unknown Christ

by Eleanor McLaughlin, Rowan Williams (Foreword)

In the last years of his life, Dietrich Bonhoeffer began work on an idea that he called unbewußtes Christentum, "unconscious Christianity." While Bonhoeffer’s other ideas from this period have been extensively studied and are important in the field of theology and beyond, this idea has been almost completely ignored. For the first time in Bonhoeffer scholarship, Eleanor McLaughlin provides a definition of unconscious Christianity, based on a close reading and analysis of the texts in which Bonhoeffer mentioned the term. From a variety of surviving texts, from a scribbled marginal note in his Ethics manuscript to the fiction he wrote in prison, she constructs a detailed definition of unconscious Christianity that sheds light not only on Bonhoeffer’s late work but his theological development as a whole.

225 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 27, 2020

Reviews

[Jon Coutts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an important topic that it's surprising how little one hears any theological articulation on it. McLaughlin does very well to tease out Bonhoeffer's nascent but insightful contribution.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book about Bonhoeffer thinking that there are Christians that don’t consciously identify as Christians. On the the one hand, this is really interesting for my research, but on the other hand ummm what??????? 0_o

[Bob Koshin Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting and powerful ideas

Very honestly as a person of dual practice,of Christianity and Zen Buddhism , this concept of unconscious Christianity along with Bonhoeffer , thinking about religious-less Christianity This book and the academic thinking that was behind it was a real gift. This book is well written and well sought out, but unfortunately, Bonhoeffer did not have a chance to fully work this idea out before his death. But I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the future of Christianity.