Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology has bad a role in the development ofthe Protestant Churches in the GDR which was not at all unimportant. Wolf Krötke has a closer look at the reception of Bonhoeffer in the GDR. He describes Bonhoeffer in wide perspectives. They range from a socialist demand on the one hand up to critical claims against socialism on the other hand. In these perspectives the slogan of »Kirche im Sozialismus« plays a prominent and at the same time problematic (...) role. Krötke's study demands a critical inventary of the Bonhoeffer-reception in the GDR and gives a first and cautious contribution to this analysis. (shrink)

Before being executed by the Nazis at the age of 39, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had produced enough material, according to Howell, to fill 16 volumes of theological reflections. Nevertheless, Howell noted, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is not a household name. That is unfortunate. One of Bonhoeffer's most inspiring efforts-from the perspective of mass media ethics-centered around his unfinished attempt to define "what is meant by telling the truth." As is often the case with truly outstanding thinkers, his reflections in this regard (...) appear even more timely today than when he composed them well over 50 years ago. (shrink)

Nik Byle argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer theologically adapts Heideggerian concepts about human existence such as temporality. Bonhoeffer is thus able to provide a positive account of Christ’s relation to time and history moving, Bonhoeffer beyond impasses found in both dialectical and liberal theology.

SINCE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, THE DEBATE ON RELIGION AND POLITICS HAS attracted considerable attention. One of the problems in this discussion has been the challenge to find a common ground of discourse while maintaining the identity of diverse worldviews. In this essay I argue—from a Christian viewpoint—that a reformulated understanding of the secular, understood as saeculum, may serve as the source of a view of the plenitude of human reality that overcomes this tension. Drawing on the theologies of Dietrich (...) Bonhoeffer and John Milbank, I argue that human reality is always partaking in divine reality, and as such there is no being apart from God. In the light of this view, I endorse a Christological affirmation of reality that enables us to move beyond an antagonism of secular and religious worldviews and ethics. (shrink)

This book argues that formation lies at the heart of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's ethical project. Ryan Huber examines Bonhoeffer's life story and his most influential ethical writings, from his encounter with Jesus Christ in the early 1930s until his arrest in 1943, to illustrate the centrality of Christological formation in both.

Although Christianity has abundant literature against racism, the menace negatively affects human relationships in contemporary westernised societies. The near silence of most Christian denominations leads to one crucial question: how should Christians deal with racial prejudice in contemporary westernised societies? This article is a social criticism of racism from the perspective of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As a Christian, Bonhoeffer struggled with the morality of racism, particularly regarding the experience of black people in the United States and Jews in Germany. His (...) reflections and action against racial injustice are a robust framework that could inspire a positive Christian attitude in dealing with racism. This article describes the causes and remedies of racial injustice from his perspective. The central argument is that faithfulness to the communal social character is a significant way to deal with racism in contemporary westernised societies.Contribution: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reflections and actions against racial injustice are a robust framework for dealing with racism. The central argument is that faithfulness to the communal social character is a significant way Christians can deal with racism in contemporary westernised societies. (shrink)

How can we explain Bonhoeffer's clear-sightedness in leading against National Socialism from the beginning of the Third Reich, by contrast with experienced theologians? Around 1930 he experienced his personal turning through the Bible, `especially the Sermon on the Mount'. He replaced the dominating position of the nation in God's historical order, and the social-Darwinist struggle for the survival of the fittest nation, with the task of preventing wars through an international order of peace, including international law. He saw the mission (...) of the church on a new, transnational political horizon as one people of God that has a mission of peace in the world through the gospel. (shrink)

This volume argues that Bonhoeffer's early work, particularly his Christocentric anthropology, grounds his later expressed commitments to responsibility and faithfulness in a ""world come of age."" Ellison suggests, in fact, that a concern for otherness permeates all of Bonhoeffer's work: a Christian self-defined by its orientation towards otherness.

본 연구는 본회퍼의 ‘타자와 더불어 사는 삶’이라는 기독교 윤리를 칸트의 초월 철학으로부터 해명해야 한다고 주장한다. 본회퍼는 칸트의 초월 철학의 본래 의도를 주체의 인식 행위와 타자의 존재 사이의 변증법적인 관계에 있음을 주목하였다. 이에 본 연구는 본회퍼가 칸트의 초월 철학을 신학적 언어로 재해석하여 타자를 주체로 동일시하지 않으면서 동시에 주체를 타자로 환원시키지 않는 탈 관념론적 신학을 추구하였으며, 주체와 타자의 상호 독립성과 연결성을 변증법적으로 공존시키는 데 성공했음을 해명한다. 이 연구는 주체를 배제하지 않는 타자 윤리가 주체를 통한 변화와 타자의 권리를 동시에 요구하는 오늘날의 윤리적 상황에서 (...) 매우 적합한 접근법이라고 주장한다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 세 가지 과제를 수행한다. 첫째, 본회퍼의 칸트 초월철학에 대한 비판과 수용을 설명한다. 둘째, 칸트의 행위철학에 대한 본회퍼의 신학적 재구성을 살펴본다. 셋째, 본 연구는 행위로서의 계시에 대한 본회퍼의 칸트적 해석을 통해 본회퍼의 신학은 타자를 ‘위한’ 시혜적 윤리가 아니라 타자와 ‘함께’ 하는 연대적 윤리임을 주장한다. (shrink)

Does Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics have any affinities with what we have now come to call virtue ethics? If so, what is the relationship between those affinities and the more widely recognized influence of Karl Barth? Moberly seeks to answer these questions through close analysis of the Ethics and engagement with other interpreters of Bonhoeffer, while discussing the nature of virtue ethics in a Christian context. The answers may be surprising, but they are certainly rewarding for anyone wanting to better (...) understand Bonhoeffer and to see how his work could be helpful for current ethical debates. (shrink)

Scholars celebrate Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a "prophet of justice for the oppressed" who identified the need "to see the great events of world history from below." But few address the thorniest aspect of Bonhoeffer's ethics for the marginalized: the mandates or divine commissions in church, marriage, work, and government made concrete within certain orders of relationship and authority. Bonhoeffer's marriage mandate poses particular problems as it reinforces unjust social structures. Fortunately, striking similarities between Bonhoeffer's ethics and feminist thought—attention to (...) concrete contexts, the role of emotion in moral reasoning, opposition to harmful dualisms, and emphasis on relationality—suggest that feminists are well-placed to critique and reconstruct Bonhoeffer's account. Construing the mandates as contexts for "genuine communities of argument" repurposes them to combat rather than condone injustice. (shrink)

Virtuality in Dietrich Bonhoeffers’ Sanctorum Communio: Collective intelligence as a new epistemology of the church? Collective intelligence has been indicated from biological, philosophical, anthropological and technological developments. The stygmergy principle serves to explain collective behaviour in nature such as with ants. An earlier form of collective intelligence is found in Leibniz’ Monadology. Today, collective intelligence emerges from the anthropological space of knowledge. This article argues that collective intelligence such as Wikipedia is based on a postfoundational epistemology and asks whether (...) this can be seen as a new epistemology for the self and the other. With these insights as hermeneutical interface, Bonhoeffers’ ecclesiology in Sanctorum Communio is re-read, and it is argued that Bonhoeffers’ church concept as Christus als Gemeinde existierend collectively might serve as a new epistemology for the church. (shrink)

In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics the notion of reality plays a central role. The present article focuses on the ethical implications of the Chalcedonian Christology underlying this concept. This approach is tied to the debate on the relationship between the universal and specific identity of Christian social ethics in public discourse. In the opening section the article outlines the pertinence of this debate with regard to Bonhoeffer's Christological ethic. In the following section the article analyzes Bonhoeffer's concept of reality and (...) the implied Chalcedonian traits. With this foundation established the article raises the question about its social ethical implications. The final part of the article argues that Bonhoeffer's ethics and ecclesiology cannot be separated from each other, explaining why Bonhoeffer's notion of reality leads to an assertion of the church's role in letting reality become real. In the light of Bonhoeffer's notion of reality the last section argues for the reconciliation of Christian witness and participation in public discourse. (shrink)

This essay offers an overview of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's distinct theology of conformation in Christ. His work is unique both in form and content. Formally, Bonhoeffer, as a systematic theologian, emphasizes doctrinal relationships as well as biblical exegesis. This leads him to develop a distinct content of Christian formation. This essay investigates how he works and the specific benefits of an exhaustive theological accounting of formation in Christ. To do this, this essay investigates Bonhoeffer's “upstream” theological commitments, beginning with anthropology, (...) in order to illumine his distinct starting position. These are then put into conversation with doctrines of sanctification and holiness to draw attention to their import for Christian formation. It will then review Bonhoeffer's unique understanding of conformation in Christ and what it means for Christ to take form among the community. All of this will be done in order to place him in conversation with more dominant models of formation and look forward to how his theology might push the current dialogue further. (shrink)

Besonderes Augenmerk richtet Friederike Barth dabei auf den philosophischen Hintergrund dieses Werks, da die in derEthikentworfene ethische Theologie Bonhoeffers auf einem zumeist unausgewiesenen, differenzierten Rezeptions- und ...

Bonhoeffer dira plus tard qu’il a « découvert » la Bible en donnant ce cours sur « Création et chute » en 1932-33. Il a voulu faire un « exercice » d’« exégèse théologique », comprise comme relecture de toute l’écriture à partir de la fin de la création dans le Christ. Les allusions au nazisme qui vient de prendre le pouvoir en Allemagne montrent Bonhoeffer soucieux de lui opposer une anthropologie théologique qui soit la prise en compte, dans l’écriture, (...) de toute la réalité humaine dévoilée à la lumière du monde nouveau.Notons quelques idées maîtresses de cette anthropologie : la résurrection du Christ est ce qui révèle l’acte créateur comme appel à l’être ; la Parole créatrice donne forme au réel ; l’appartenance commune des hommes à la terre fonde leur co-humanité, chacun advenant à la liberté par sa relation à l’autre ; la limite est grâce et le refus de la limite, l’origine du mal ; l’union de l’homme et de la femme dans la différence signifie et l’acceptation de la limite et l’accueil de la grâce, que chacun est pour l’autre ; l’église se fonde et se signifie dans cette communauté humaine différenciée et réconciliée.Later in his life Bonhoeffer will say that he “discovered” the Bible in giving his course on “Creation and Fall” in 1932-33. He had wanted to make it an “exercise” of “theological exegesis”, taken as a rereading of all Scripture in terms of the end of creation in Christ. The allusions to Nazism that came to power in Germany show Bonhoeffer’s concern to oppose it with a theological anthropology. It would take into account, in Scripture, all human reality unveiled in the light of a new world.Let us note some key ideas of this anthropology : Christ’s resurrection is that which reveals the creative act as a call to being ; the creative Word gives form to the real ; the common appartenance of men to the earth establishes their co-humanity, each approaching freedom by his relation to the other ; grace is the limit and refusal of the limit is the origin of evil ; the union of man and woman in their differences signifies both the acceptance of the limit and the reception of grace, what each one is for the other ; the Church establishes and gives itself meaning in this human community that is differentiated and reconciled. (shrink)

The German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer is not widely known for engaging with scientific thought, having been heavily influenced by Karl Barth's celebrated stance against natural theology. However, during the period of his maturing theology in prison Bonhoeffer read a significant scientific work, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker's The World View of Physics. From this he gained two major insights for his theological outlook. First, he realized that the notion of a "God of the gaps" is futile, not just (...) in science but in other areas of human inquiry. Second, he felt that an infinite universe, as considered by science, would be self-subsistent and could exist as if there were no God. Bonhoeffer replaced Barth's radical critique of religion with the even more extreme view that it is a mere passing phase in history that grown-up humanity can dispense with. At the same time Bonhoeffer began an important critique of Barth's reaction, namely, the latter's retreat to a "positivism of revelation." While Bonhoeffer did not go quite as far as one might like, his approach opened up hopeful avenues for an answer to "the liberal question" and even a revived place for some kind of natural theology. (shrink)

The article connects the discourses on Bonhoeffer's Ethics with feminist ethics and critically reviews Bonhoeffer's use of »man« and »woman« respectively malehood and femalehood and relates both to the centrat ideas on >mature«, »body«, »Order«, and »sacrificejvictim«. While Bonhoeffer's concept of nature and body shares quite a Iot with the respective feminist concepts in ethics, his concept of sacrificejvictim differs substantially. The argument pretends that both approaches could enrich each other. One result of the analysis is that Bonhoeffer uses the (...) convential patterns of »man« und »woman« as weil as of»malehood« and »femalehood«, butthat his ethics also includes some fundamental ideas to overcome the traditional categories of gender. (shrink)

The paper explicates Bonhoeffer's dense statement, made in a 1932 lecture, that `Reality is the sacrament of [the ethical] command'. It begins with a summary of William T. Cavanaugh's rich description of the Eucharist as that act which makes the Church Christ's body, thereby constituting the true res publica. A comparison is drawn with Bonhoeffer's account of the sacramental foundation of the Church's public proclamation of God's ethical command. Bonhoeffer differs from Cavanaugh, I suggest, not only in his conviction that (...) the Church speaks God's command penultimately and with humility, but in regarding the state as one of the means by which God acts within the penultimate to preserve creation. (shrink)

On 2 July 2000, Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority, deferred action on the petition to have Dietrich Bonhoeffer named a righteous gentile. My contention is that critics of this decision conceal a more pernicious difficulty that arises in Bonhoeffer's Lutheran legacy. David Nirenberg's recent Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, demonstrates the history and development of such categories with particular attention to Luther. What goes unnoticed is the ongoing operations of anti-Judaism in later theologians such as Bonhoeffer. (...) Although Bonhoeffer may not have been anti-Semitic, the degree to which his theology remained bound to centuries old anti-Judaism is another matter. (shrink)

This essay frames the question of responsibility as a problem of agency in relation to the systems and structures of globalization. Responsibility is a “shattered concept” when considered too narrowly as a problem of act, agency, and individual freedom. Constructively, the essay introduces Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the most promising theological dialogue partner for rethinking the meaning of responsibility today. His challenge is to find a way of talking about responsibility that does not collapse into individualism or become ensconced within (...) a univocal logic that subsumes socioeconomic, cultural, and religious differences within itself. The claim is that Bonhoeffer’s reflections on the center, boundaries, and limits of responsibility are helpful today to Christian people struggling with an increasingly exhausted concept of responsibility, when linear agent-act-consequence connections to distant others and far away harms are increasingly difficult to trace. (shrink)

This volume frames the question of responsibility as a problem of agency in relation to the systems and structures of globalization. According to Ricoeur responsibility is a “shattered concept” when considered too narrowly as a problem of act, agency and individual freedom. To examine this Esther Reed develops a short genealogy of modern liberal and post-liberal concepts of responsibility in order to understand better the relationship dominant modern framings of the meanings of responsibility. Reed engages with writings by major modern (...) (Schleiermacher, Hegel, Marx, Weber) and post-liberal (Buber, Levinas, Derrida, Badiou, Butler, Young, Critchley) theorists to illustrate the shift from an ethnic responsibility built on notions of accountability and attributions to an ethic responsibility that starts variously from the 'other'. Reed sees Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the most promising partner of this theological dialogue, as his learning of responsibility from the risen Christ present now in the (global) church is a welcome provocation to new thinking about the meaning of responsibility learned from land, distant neighbour, (global) church and the bible. Bonhoeffer's reflections on the centre, boundaries and limits of responsibility remain helpful to Christian people struggling with an increasingly exhausted concept of accountability. (shrink)

For a Better Worldliness is not only a statement of Abraham Kuyper's and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theological concept and historical practice of discipleship. It is also--and perhaps more importantly--a call to engage in the fullness of the Christian life here and now. While this book goes to great efforts to establish sound historical and theological insights specifically in regards to Kuyper and Bonhoeffer, there is a strong underlying current that these particular insights deeply matter to the life of discipleship in (...) the world today. History shows us that discipleship is not a singular journey; because of Jesus Christ it is not a description of one set path with one set of guidelines. A disciple can be a prime minister who unabashedly and successfully campaigned on his Calvinistic principles, just as he can be a participant in a coup d'état launched against a tyrant, leading to the disciple's own imprisonment and death. Jesus Christ calls--whether to the height of political office, or to the dank prison cell, or (more likely for us) to somewhere in between. - Back cover. (shrink)

Ethics edifies to the extent it takes seriously the munus propheticum Jesu Christi. Though many assume ethical action indicates behaviour realising Jesus Christ, this is problematic because it implies he is otherwise mute and absent. Paul Lehmann offers a refreshing alternative when he argues that the principal concern of ethics is alignment with all that God in Christ is doing now to make and keep human life human. Lehmann thus recasts the question ‘What am I to do?’ by taking seriously (...) the presence and activity of the One who summons human beings to participate in his work. In a manner consistent with the christological foundations of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics , Lehmann’s proposals evoke an ethic shaped by and subject to the self-disclosure and radiance of the triune God. (shrink)

In his Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer urges Christians to feel their longings for earthly realities to the fullest, and argues that such yearnings strengthen faith. This issue has been overlooked by Bonhoeffer scholars, despite its central place in the Letters; this study seeks to correct that oversight. Through a selective, chronological analysis of the Ethics, this text shows Bonhoeffer progressively developing a positive view of the natural and of fallen life which undergirds his later encouragement of (...) secular longings in the Letters. This new perspective has rich implications for Christian anthropology and ethics. (shrink)