She must tell people, whatever their calling, what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others. She must take her part in the social life of the world, not lording it over people, but helping and serving them. The clergy should live solely on the free will offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling. As a fresh start, she should give away all her endowments to the poor and needy. “The church is her true self only when she exists for humanity. In the very brief outline for the third chapter of his proposed book, he uses the following powerful words to describe what he thinks this would mean. In the Letters, he describes this proposal as a religionless Christianity that confronts a world come of age. Only in this way can she avoid the sickening religiosity that ignores the real dangers in a modern evil culture. Throughout his writings, Bonhoeffer repeatedly contends the Church must commit herself to living in complete honesty and by the standards found in the scriptures if she is to save the world from self-destruction.
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