Abstract
Bonhoeffer was convinced that the revelation of God in Christ can only be discerned in the here and now through practices of hearing the Word of God and of understanding the realities of the cultural and political context. The relationship between these two is reciprocal: by listening to the Word we learn to “see” reality as it is; and by “reading the signs of the times” we become attuned to the ways in which Christ is becoming present in the midst of that reality. This presence is mediated to us within our relations with those others to whom the Gospel leads us. This paper will trace this central motif through four successive contexts of Bonhoeffer's life, each marked by his encounter with a new other.
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