An Ecclesiology of the Cross
the cross is informed by the statement, “It is certain that we can claim nothing for ourselves, and may yet pray for everything; it is certain that our joy is hidden in suffering, and our life in death; it is certain that in all this we are in a fellowship that sustains us.”238 Bonhoeffer’s final recorded christological statement is located in this 21 August letter to Bethge: The truth is that if this earth was good enough for the man Jesus Christ, if such a man as Jesus lived, then, and only then, has life a meaning for us. If Jesus had not lived, then our life would be meaningless.239
In sum, Bonhoeffer’s this-worldly church derives from a seamless christo-ecclesiological continuity defining the Gemeinde’s being in the world. The unifying thread in Bonhoeffer’s tapestry of the church is Christ as Stellvertreter, the vicarious representative for humanity who takes form in the church. How Christ is to take shape and formation in human community is Bonhoeffer’s abiding concern. How the church is to model the kingdom of God on earth in this-worldly “participation in the sufferings of God for the world” is at the center of his “religionless Christianity.” The crucified God hidden on a cross is the scandal that informs how a world come-of-age without need for God may be closer to God. Bonhoeffer’s participation in the plot to kill Hitler is a theological-anthropological statement of faith in concrete action for others as an example of taking responsible risk on behalf of the oppressed Jesus to “murder the murderers.” Bonhoeffer’s radically transgressive language echoes Luther’s desire to reach the person between the house and the street with the Good News. While Bonhoeffer desires
238 Ibid., 391. 239 Ibid. 261