The Otherworldly Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the following observation about the religious church or movement:

We are otherworldly—ever since we hit upon the devious trick of being religious, yes even “Christian,” at the expense of the earth. Otherworldliness affords a splendid environment in which to live. Whenever life begins to become oppressive and troublesome we just leap into the air with a bold kick and soar relieved and unencumbered into so-called eternal fields. We leap over the present. We distain the earth; we are better than it. . .

We are weak; we cannot bear having the earth so near, the earth that bears us. We cannot stand it, because the earth is stronger than we and because we want to be better than the evil earth. So we extricate ourselves from it; we refuse to take it seriously . . . However, Christ does not will or intend this weakness; instead, he makes us strong. He does not lead us in a religious flight from this world to other worlds beyond; rather, he gives us back to the earth as its loyal children. — from A Testament to Freedom 89