This first volume of the new series International Bonhoeffer Interpretations (IBI) contains
several impulses for translating Bonhoeffer¿s key ideas on Religion Religionlessness and the
Church into current contexts. These impulses vary from prospects for a Christian university
looking at Bonhoeffer¿s distinction between the ¿ultimate and the penultimate things¿ to an
ethical understanding of Bonhoeffer¿s ¿as-if-theology¿ in the light of Luther¿s distinction
between law and gospel from a fresh perspective on Bonhoeffer¿s religionless Christianity in
the light of his thought on ¿oikumene¿ to a Christological re-interpretation of repentance as
the contribution of religionless Christianity to the task of the Church in the United States of
America. The impulses are framed by programmatic contributions suggesting a framework for
reading Bonhoeffer in the 21 century in his hermeneutic exploration of Bonhoeffer¿s theology
and the crises of Western culture and analyzing ¿religionless Christianity¿ in a complexly
religious and secular world.
