Can Being "Godless" Strangely Bring Us Closer to God? / Steven Hamilton

I'd like to ask this brilliant blog community for a little help, or at least your thoughts on something I have been pondering.  You see, I heard it again last Sunday in a church service, and it made me feel kind of guilty again...kind of blamed for something I have no real control over. In most churches I have attended, they have proclaimed that it is a shame that I was raised in such a secular culture and have no grid for the "supernatural" like tribal people from other places...and yet I have been struck by this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Prison letters, from 18 July 1944:

 

"When we speak of God in a 'non-religious' way, we must speak of him in such a way that the godlessness of this world is not in some way concealed, but rather revealed, and thus exposed to an unexpected light.  The world that has come of age is more godless, and perhaps for that very reason nearer to God, than the world before its coming of age."

 

I have been contemplating this quote from Bonhoeffer for a few weeks, after beginning my way through Religionless Christianity: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Troubled Times by Jeffrey Pugh (which was recommended in the comments in a recent post here at Not the Religious Type).  The prison setting for this quote was one where, near the end of his life, Bonhoeffer is writing to a friend about his thoughts for writing a book - or series of books - on something he referred to as 'religionless christianity' in a secular world that has 'come of age'.  But it's this last sentence that has been haunting me lately: "The world that has come of age is more godless, and perhaps for that very reason nearer to God, than the world before its coming of age." 

 

What could this possibly mean, considering the fact that we westerners - or at least me, myself and I - have been shamed by 'the religious' for being overly 'secular-ized' by a non-supernatural cultural paradigm, where our truths are based in science and not 'the supernatural' [this is just fact even in American Christianity - have you noticed that your typical 'Christian' bookstore has a whole section about 'God and Science' or proving God via scientific exploration?  It seems to be a growth industry in 'Christian literature and apologetics'].  Is this some sort of Kierkegaard-esque statement that the more godless we are, the less encumbered we are by religious culture - a kind of clearing of the religious haze - so as to see and know God more freely?  Or perhaps even being more secular helps to get the 'knowing about God' out of the way in order to actually relate to and 'know God'?  What is it about a godless, secular world 'come of age' that Bonhoeffer thinks brings people closer to God?  I would appreciate all of your thoughts on this....thanks!