How to put it without sounding blasphemous, the pattern of Christian life, the discovery of one's own earthly fit into it, the commensurate self-recognition that could only come from such a comparison.  Who would want to say that out loud?  It would be far better to be a religious academic or a defined member of church and clergy, or simply a church goer on Sunday than to observe that even outside of any defined tradition one's own life humbly and with human defect and sin and flaw was in some way a reflection of the pattern of Christ.

He was the anointed Son of God.  He performed miracles, knew His scripture inside and out, and people listened to Him.  It was somehow obvious who He was.

More and more I find myself reading about traditional support of the Bible's revelation.  The Union Theological Seminary that Bonhoeffer encountered struck him as mired in theological schism, disregarding the basis of the Christian story and meaning.  He got more out of the religious fervor and spirituals found up in Harlem.  To understand the history of Luther, the Dark Ages, papism, is to understand the importance of bringing forth the Bible itself to popular readership, the lessons therein largely self-evident, transforming, effective just through reading, no need of heavy handed guide.  To read Testaments Old or New is not an act we would ever need to be afraid of, because we have by dint of being human the intelligence and the spiritual receptors to understand and comprehend.

And so it seems possible that a spiritual life is attainable, with a bit of faith and effort and a good heart, without a great calling of attention to it, without acts of pride to distinguish the self as such.