"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (17)

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (17)

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.(15:37)

For better assimilation and understanding, it would be good to add something to Bonhoeffe’s theology of de-religionization which is related to the theology of the death of God. We can overcome the orthodox of theism through this and, we can also accept the doctrine of trinity of Christianity and undermine the teaching of monotheism followed by Judaism.

The motive behind the attempt to reform Bonhoeffe’s theology of de-religionization lies in the fact that the very foundation of his theology is de-religionization of Christianity. According to him, Christianity does not stand on general religious request. Religious request is a phenomenon in which a person seeks and wishes for a supernatural death, loneliness and anxiety. Such religious desire is quite uncommon and out of normal. Rather Christianity is directly connected to the practical field of politics, economics, culture and education.

Religious request is a desire of psychologically immature people. In Bonhoeffe’s view, the people who ask such religious request are less in the matured modern era. Christian faith is not the religion which merely responds to such request. In our modern world, people do not have a religion to play the role of a disciplinarian father. They feel they should have more freedom rather than staying in a God-controlled atmosphere. So Bonhoeffe says “Without God before God!” It is a yearning for an escape from an orthodox theism.

There is no room of material comfort and personal gratification for one who is orthodox in his theism. It does not mean God’s nature is changing but modern people who should recognize and experience God are standing still even in the face of new changing world. It is worth considering Ott’s observation which says, “Today when we proclaim the gospel we should not take it for granted that listeners clearly understand and accept the existence of God.”(H. Ott, Theology bibliography, 97) How can we proclaim Jesus, the son of God who breathed on cross as Messiah?