During the last year or so, I have come to appreciate the
"worldliness" of Christianity as never before. The Christian
is not a homo religiosus but a man, pure and simple, just as
Jesus became man... It is only by living completely in this
world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every
attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, a
converted sinner, a churchman, a righteous man, or an
unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one... This is what I
mean by worldliness -- taking life in one's stride, with all
its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its
experiences and helplessness... How can success make us
arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the
sufferings of God by living in this world?
... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945),
Letters and Papers from Prison
