Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Two Kingdoms, and Protestant Social Thought Today

Abstract

Last century's Protestant consensus on the rejection of natural law has been questioned in recent decades, but Protestant social thought still has much work to do in order to articulate a coherent and cogent witness to contemporary realities. The doctrine of the two kingdoms has been put forward as a model for advancing the discussion, and while there is much to be learned from such a doctrine, its excesses ought to be avoided, just as the excesses of a transformationlist ethic ought to be avoided as well. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor and theologian, is put forward as an example of a modern Protestant thinker with much to offer towards the advancement of Protestant social thought today, particularly with regard to his perspectives on the two kingdoms, natural law, and the divine ethical mandates (marriage, work, government, and church).