The Place of Mission in Bonhoeffer’s Ethics

Abstract

This article considers mission and evangelism in light of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology of reality and its relation to the two-realms doctrine. Particular attention is given to his Ethics, wherein his understanding of the Christ-reality supersedes all formulations that would dichotomize the sacred from the secular. Bonhoeffer’s use of “ultimate” and “penultimate” defines the conditions in which mission is realized in the world. The implications of Bonhoeffer’s theology are conceptual, with the sacred and secular sharing the same Christ-reality, and practical, with the church standing as the penultimate agent of mission in the world.