The Body Politic of Christ: Theology, Social Analysis, and Bonhoeffer's Arcane Discipline

As the world moves further into a postmodern era, the church often seems at a loss to articulate its own raison d'etre . Dietrich Bonhoeffer's discussion of the early church's "arcane discipline" provides a suitable basis for an ecclesiology and modus vivendi that can help Christians respond critically and faithfully to a world come of age as it seeks to sequester the life of the church within its global dispensation. This response takes the concrete form of a distinctive body politic that resembles in many ways the way of life of cultivated by diasporic Judaism.