Für mich die herausfordernste Einführung in das Vaterunser ist William Willimons und Stanley Hauerwas Büchlein „Lord, Teach Us. The Lord’s Prayer & and the Christian Life„. Nichts mit frommen Säuseln oder historisch-altkluger Kathedertheologie, sondern direkt in die Nachfolge Jesu. Und das, obwohl beide Autoren renommierte Theologieprofessoren an der Duke University in Durham (North Carolina) sind. Hier ein Zitat aus der Einleitung:
If we are Christian, if we have learned to pray “in Jesus‘ name,” it is God’s doing rather than our doing. Remember: this is the Lord’s prayer. We didn’t think of it. So when someone asks about Buddhist or Hindus or ordinary modern American secular people and whether or not they will be “saved,” it shows a misunderstanding of being “saved.” Salvation, Christian salvation, is not some individual relationship between me and God. Rather, salvation is being drafted into an adventure, having our lives commandeered by God to go on a journey called the Christian faith. This prayer, this “Our Father,” is the naming of, and the participation in, the means whereby we are saved. This is the way God makes us part of a kingdom through which we are saved from the world.
What God does for Buddhists and Hindus is God’s business. All we do in the Lord’s Prayer is to testify to God, and anyone else who will listen, how God has dealt with us. Being saved is not some individual achievement, not the result of some flash of personal insight, nor the securing of life’s sense of meaning, although all of that may happen in the process of praying this prayer. Salvation is the delightful surprise of having your little life caught up in the purposes of God for the whole world. Salvation is having your life bent toward God when all you thought you were doing was memorizing a little prayer. Salvation is having the courage to tell the world what has happened to you now that God in Christ has intruded among us.
Die Auslegung zu „Your Kingdom Come“ findet sich hier. Wer Bonhoeffer zu schätzen weiß, ist bei Willimon und Hauerwas an der richtigen Adresse.
NAMENSgedächtnis 
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