The Church Is Christ Present: Luther’s Theological Realism and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Understanding of the Church as Unity of Act and Being

Abstract

Facing the challenge of modern individualism Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) corrected the contemporary interpretation of Martin Luther’s theology regarding the sacramentality and communal understanding of the Church. From the perspective of philosophical theology he discussed the “transcendental” and “ontological” approaches to explicate the presence of God’s revelation in the Church through word and sacraments. Ecclesially and pastorally based theology required a participatory, ecclesially oriented ontology as the basis of theological epistemology. Philosophical concepts should be adapted in a theological context to explicate and construct theological content. For Bonhoeffer the Church was the place of revelation in which the human being could understand his or her existence in relation to others and lead a “personal life.” More clearly and systematically than Luther, Bonhoeffer saw the Church as the Body of Christ as the place of transformation into the shape of Christ. Every individualistic idea of the Church must be wrong. Communion, doctrine, and theology belonged together. The intentions of Luther and Bonhoeffer regarding the Church’s Christological and Pneumatological foundation as a sacramental communion in the Triune God, sent into the world in shared witness and service in mission and ministry still seems to have ecumenical potential concerning for example Lutheran and Catholic understandings of Church, ministry and Eucharist.