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Theologians like Hamilton and Altizer defend a "secular Theology" that tries to banish the Deus ex machina of traditional Theism. So far so good, but how does one pray before God etsi Deus non daretur, (to use Bonhoeffer's expression)?

How does one interpret things like, for instance, the Ignatian "consolation" felt sometimes in prayer without appealing to any "religious" agency?

More specifically: is it possible to elabore a spiritual theology without appealing to religious categories or traditional Theism?

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    Can you provide more sources that show what exactly Bonhoeffer taught and believed about this? – curiousdannii♦ Sep 9 '18 at 13:14
  • Good point. First of all, I'm not trying to say that that Bonhoeffer's position is the same as Altizer et al. What I'm saying is that there is a meeting point where these theologians have realizaed that the "relogious god" is dead. Having said that, and while I'm not an specialist in Bonfoeffer's thought, at the end of his life he realized this idea of a "realigiousless christianity" as we read it in his Letters and Papers from Prison. It seems to me that Bonhoeffer saw a within the secular world a growing liberation from religious forms (Kuhns, In Pursuit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 196) – Jasso Sep 9 '18 at 13:49
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    While interesting, that's not on topic here. We can only deal with the published doctrine and practices of established Christian groups here, not the philosophy of post-Christian philosophers. – curiousdannii♦ Sep 9 '18 at 14:05
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    I strongly suggest you remove Bonhoffer from the list (since his association with the movement is disputed at least) and substitute another name such as van Buren or John Robinson. Secondly, why would you want a Catholic perspective? None of these theologians are Catholics. It would be much better to ask what the movement itself thinks about this matter. – DJClayworth Sep 9 '18 at 19:25
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    @curiosdannii That's the whole point!.I suppose the actually pray, but the point here is what they do understand by praying. It seems like an obvious question --"what is praying?"-- but that's the point of my question, I'm trying to understand what is meant by praying within the "Christian Atehism" perspective. – Jasso Sep 11 '18 at 1:43

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