Life and Health: Bonhoeffer’s Normative and Divergent Accounts of Private Confession of Sin

Abstract

This article highlights the critical distinction between Bonhoeffer’s theology of private confession of sin set forth in the collection of working papers from 1940–45, with that found in his other writings. I compare and contrast Bonhoeffer’s “normative account” of private confession with several distinctive aspects of his treatment of the theme in the essay, “The Best Physician,” and other remarks on confession from the same period. In these papers Bonhoeffer restated—albeit in attenuated form—some key points made in his other works on confession of sin and then, departing from his usual christological and ontological depiction, introduced a psychosomatic element not found in his other writings. I argue that the differences do not of necessity constitute a shift in his thinking, but in essence express a common perspective: Christ draws close to the weak. The apparent differences between the texts reflect more the context in which the papers were written than a change in Bonhoeffer’s position. Both the normative and divergent texts emphasize the high priority Bonhoeffer afforded private confession and give insight into the role this concept played in his ecclesiology and theological anthropology.