Mike Pietsch - The relevance of Bonhoeffer's religionless Christianity

As the Nazis sought to dominate all thought, Dietrich Bonhoeffer became very aware of the decay of religion. He began to search for new ways to express what it meant to be a follower of Christ. Since the Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment, humanity in the West was ‘coming of age’ and people felt they could live their lives independently ‘before God, but without God’. Bonhoeffer focuses on the meaning of the Incarnation and Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross as the ‘man for others”. In the light of this selfless gift, the church becomes its real self when it exists for all humanity. How might this paradoxically religionless Christianity be lived and expressed in the church and the world of the 21st century?

Tonight's speaker, Rev Mike Pietsch, is a Lutheran pastor who has served in parishes in Melbourne, Adelaide and Canada and in-full time chaplaincy at government high schools in Victoria. For 19 years he was University chaplain in South Australia. Recently retired he now focuses on being a parent and grandparent to his three children and their families, all of whom live outside of S.A. He continues University Chaplaincy on a part time basis and co-ordinates the monthly meetings of the Bonhoeffer reading group in Adelaide.