Taking Hold of the Real

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in one of his last prison letters that he had "e;come to know and understand more and more the profound this-worldliness of Christianity."e; In Taking Hold of the Real, Barry Harvey engages in constructive conversation with Bonhoeffer, contending that the "e;shallow and banal this-worldliness"e; of modern society is ordered to a significant degree around the social technologies of religion, culture, and race. These mechanisms displace human beings from their traditional connections with particular locales, and relocate them in their "e;proper places"e; as determined by the nation-state and capitalist markets. Christians are called to participate in the profound this-worldliness that breaks into the world in the apocalyptic action of Jesus Christ, a form of life that requires discipline and an understanding of death and resurrection. The church is a sacrament of this new humanity, performing for all to hear the polyphony of life that was prefigured in the Old Testament and now is realized in Christ. Unable to find a faithful form of this-worldliness in wartime Germany, Bonhoeffer joined the conspiracy against Hitler, a decision aptly contrasted with a small French church that, prepared by its life together over many generations, saved thousands of Jewish lives.