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Learning Together: Understanding Christian Nationalism – Prophetic Voices
Prophetic Voices Against Christian Nationalism Prophetic voices always emerge out of oppressed and marginalized communities. In such a way there are voices today, rising out from the first-line victims of the pernicious heresy of Christian nationalism. In White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, Anthea Butler reveals how racism in evangelical movements and spaces,…
Learning Together: Understanding Christian Nationalism – An Analysis
Analyzing Christian Nationalism A problem defined is a problem half-solved. Curing the disease of racialized Christian nationalism requires we first understand its nature and scope. The first two installments of this series provided a look at the inside of the dangerous heresy of Christian nationalism. In this third section, we’ll look at an informative and…
Learning Together: Understanding Christian Nationalism-An Insider’s View
A Former Insider’s Research and Reflections In our last email, we invited you to join our Learning Together reading and resource series on Christian nationalism. We started by pointing you to a couple controversial titles which defend the heresy of Christian nationalism, in order for you to have a chance to read some primary source accounts…
Learning Together: Understanding Christian Nationalism – Defining the Problem
Defining the Problem In Bonhoeffer’s day, Adolf Hitler and members of the Nazi Party embodied the “Christian-conservative, imperial populist front.” Today, we have comparable characters and movements in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere. Despite changes in historical circumstances, location, or personalities, heretical religiopolitical movements have contaminated Christianity since its inception. The universal sine qua non or…
Understanding Christian Nationalism – A Reading and Resource Series
What is Christian Nationalism and What Can We Do About It? Christian nationalism is the belief that a certain kind of Christianity defines the American nation and that the government must take legislative and policy actions to keep it that way. Popularly, Christian nationalists insist that America is and must remain a Christian nation. To achieve their…
Bonhoeffer’s Good Friday Message 2023
Art: Marc Chagall, White Crucifixion, 1938 Writing Below: From The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Volume Two (Fortress Press) Edited by Victoria J. Barnett Bonhoeffer’s Good Friday Message In preparation for Easter, today on Good Friday, we commend to you this excerpt from a Lenten Sermon delivered by Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the Technical College in Berlin, 1932. The passion…
Our Senior Fellows on International Women’s Day
Meet the Women of TDBI’s Senior Fellowship The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute’s Senior Fellows cohort is an invitation-only group of activists, advocates, scholars, and leaders whose skill-sets, experience, and accomplishments complement the work of the Institute. Each a leader themselves, TDBI Senior Fellows contribute to the advance of our mission to nurture, form, and help deploy…
Black History Month: The Roots of Our Crisis
Top photo: Meeting of the KKK, Oregon Historical Society, 1920s. Bottom photo: January 6th Insurrection, Getty Images, 2021. The Roots of Our Crisis By Bishop Van Gayton, TDBI Senior Fellow “The church too must face its historic obligation in this crisis. In the final analysis the problem of race is not a political but moral…
Remembering Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Birthday
On the left, Sister André. On the right, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dear Friend of The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, When a French nun, Sister André, the world’s oldest known person, died recently at the age of 118, time shrunk for me. A century and some years more feels so long ago, until it’s within one person’s lifetime.…
International Holocaust Day of Remembrance
Image by Mary Kessel, 1945 Holocaust Remembrance Day The Holocaust, the world’s unparalleled human catastrophe, began with the simple passing of a law by a new majority in the German national legislature. This law, which forbid individuals with a Jewish bloodline from holding government jobs, went largely unnoticed, and few citizens were bothered by this seemingly…