Contributions to Human Rights in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics

Abstract

Even in its unfinished state, the depth of insight in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics is inescapable. Though written in Nazi Germany in the midst of World War II and the Holocaust, it provides profound guidance for the formation of our own Christian ethics, after Au schwitz, after Hiroshima, and after the Cold War. Our changed context means that we cannot uncritically adopt all of Bonhoeffer's theological ethics as our own. There are to be sure, needs in today's world that Bonhoeffer addresses inadequately or not at all.1 Yet one urgent con temporary need is a strong ethic of human rights, and here Bonhoef fer's Ethics provides firm guidance.2 A Christian ethic of human rights must be able to perform two tasks. First, it must be deeply rooted in the central themes of biblical faith and classic Christianity so that it may speak clearly to church members from the center of their faith convictions. An ethic of human