Jennifer McBride constructs a theology of public witness for Protestant church communities in the United States through examination of the work of German pastor-theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Contrary to the triumphal manner in which many Protestants have engaged the public sphere, this book shows how the church can offer a witness to the lordship of Christ through the confession of the sin of broader society and the public expression of repentant activity. After investigating current Christian conceptions of witness in the United States, McBride offers a new theology for confession and repentance as public witness, based on the three interrelated dimensions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thought concerning Christ, the world, and the church. McBride takes up Bonhoeffer's fascinating proposal that the concept of repentance may be reinterpreted ''non-religiously,'' expanding and challenging common understandings of repentance. Finally, she examines two church communities that exemplify ecclesial commitments and practices born of confession and repentance. The Church for the World offers important insight into the role of the Protestant church: when its mode of being in the world is confession of sin unto repentance, the church demonstrates Christ's redemptive work and becomes a vehicle of concrete redemption.