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CEC - Why Is Bonhoeffer Alive for Us Today


From Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date Wed, 09 Jun 2004 02:13:58 -0700

The Conference of European Churches is pleased to forward this press 
release from the International Bonhoeffer Congress

WHY IS BONHOEFFER ALIVE FOR US TODAY?

"Why does the 'Bonhoeffer industry' - as some like to call it - far from 
dying out, seem to flourish anew each decade?". The Rev. Dr. Keith 
Clements, General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches, 
addressed this question in his sermon at the opening worship service of the 
9th International Bonhoeffer Congress, meeting in Casa La Salle (Rome, 
Italy), 6-11 June. About 100 theologians from 14 countries are gathered on 
the theme "Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Christianism Humanism". The German 
theologian, who died in 1945 in a nazi concentration camp, visited Rome as 
young theology student 80 years ago.

Dr Clements preached on Romans 1,16, where the apostle Paul affirms that 
the Gospel "is the power of God for salvation to everyone". "One reason", 
said Clements, "why Bonhoeffer is alive for us today is that he is a 
witness to the need to affirm the significance of the 'everyone' in an age 
when it is being threatened, abused, trivialized". Between religious 
fundamentalism, with its fear of diversity, and the relativistic and 
individualistic trends of the post-modern society, "we want to know a power 
of salvation for everyone, a grace which affirms the value and dignity of 
everyone drawn into a new community of mutual belonging and love".

After the worship service, presided over by Prof. Hans Pfeifer (Germany), 
participants gathered in the Aula Magna of Casa La Salle for the first 
plenary. Prof. Michael Lukens (USA), co-chair of the Planning Committee 
together with Prof. John Matthews (USA), welcomed participants underlining 
that this is not just an academic event. "We live in a deeply troubling 
time", he said, marked by "economic injustice, war, discrimination against 
strangers, abuse against captives. We are here to study Bonhoeffer's work, 
but also to explore its meaning for this critical time in our engagement 
with the world".

Prof. Gianni Long, President of the Federation of Protestant Churches in 
Italy, presented the situation of the Italian Protestant minority, deeply 
marked by Bonhoeffer's theology and the experience of the German 
"Confessing Church" which resisted fascism. The Dean of the Waldensian 
Theological Seminary, Prof. Daniele Garrone, introduced this institution, 
the only Protestant seminary in Rome, which will celebrate its 150th 
anniversary next year.

Today the Congress started the exploration of its theme through the plenary 
addresses of Prof. Gangolf H binger (Germany) , which illustrated the 
background of Bonhoeffer's intellectual formation, and Prof. John de Gruchy 
(South Africa), who highlighted the significance of Bonhoeffer as 
"Christian Humanist for Today". His humanism, said de Gruchy, is "deeply 
rooted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ"; a humanism 
that "is shaped not just by education, but also by a genuine encounter with 
'the other', a humanism that is fashioned in the struggle for truth and 
justice against dehumanizing power, a humanism that is deepened through 
suffering, yet one that is always affirming human goodness against 
perversity, hope against despair, and life against death".

The Congress will close on Friday 11 June. For more information please 
refer to our website www.bonhoeffercongress.org or phone Luca Negro, (0039) 
335 68 69 974.


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