Bonhoeffer's Ethics Research Articles

KeithClements. Appointments with Bonhoeffer: Personal Faith and Public Responsibility in a Fragmenting World, T&T Clark New Studies in Bonhoeffer's Theology and Ethics. London: T&T Clark, 2022. xiii+203 pp.

KeithClements. <i>Appointments with Bonhoeffer: Personal Faith and Public Responsibility in a Fragmenting World</i>, T&amp;T Clark New Studies in Bonhoeffer's Theology and Ethics. London: T&amp;T Clark, 2022. xiii+203 pp.

Book Review: The Polity of Christ: Studies on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Chalcedonian Christology and Ethics by Ulrik Nissen

Book Review: <i>The Polity of Christ: Studies on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Chalcedonian Christology and Ethics</i> by Ulrik Nissen

Can Lutheran Theology and Virtue Ethics Be Friends?

AbstractLutheran theology is generally suspicious of virtue ethics. This suspicion arises from (1) the Lutheran commitment to justification by faith in God's unconditional promise; and (2) Luther's corollary understanding of sin as existential self‐absorption. Some Lutheran theologians have sought to incorporate virtue ethics by using it as an orientation for Christian life, while making sure to avoid any contamination of the doctrine of justification by virtue ethics. My project is to consider the possibility of a mutual illumination and interaction between the doctrine of justification and virtue ethics’ focus on formation by habituation. As an aid in exploring this possibility I use the distinction in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics between the “ultimate” and the “penultimate.”

Book Review: The Virtue of Bonhoeffer's Ethics: A Study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics in Relation to Virtue Ethics

The of Bonhoeffer's Ethics: A Study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics in Relation to Ethics. By Jennifer Moberly. Princeton Theological Monograph Series 194. Eugene, Ore.: Pickwick Publications, 2013. xvi + 254 pp. $30.00 (paper).This important book by Jennifer Moberly marks the first sustained and detailed engagement with the question of how Bonhoeffer's Ethics as a whole might be related to what is now called ethics. Following the introduction, the second chapter, and Virtue Ethics,' deals with the question central to the book itself: would Bonhoeffer have understood himself as what we might call a ethicist? Dealing honestly and openly with the ostensible reasons why we might reply to this in the negative, Moberly examines the manuscripts of Ethics in detail (as well as secondary commentators) to demonstrate why there are no prima facie reasons simply to deny that Bonhoeffer was a virtue ethicist on the grounds of his comments about Aquinas and ambivalent uses of the term virtue. This chapter lays the foundations for the explorations in the remaining chapters and allows the issues examined to be developed in depth.The following chapter offers a detailed overview of the tradition of virtue ethics within the Christian tradition, examining Augustine, Aquinas, and MacIntyre. This description recognizes the particularity of these different thinkers and the innate danger in overly systematizing their works into a unified whole, but goes on to outline the kinds of concerns and questions which typify such ethicists. These concerns form the basis of the examination in chapter 4, where Moberly examines Bonhoeffer's ethics as a whole in relation to such a description of virtue ethicists. The mediating concept in this analysis is the doctrine of sanctification: Moberly contends that becoming virtuous might find a theological analogy in being sanctified.Chapter 5, Mode of Ethical Discourse, applies the insights of chapter 4 (and its analysis of Bonhoeffer in relation to virtue ethics) to specific ethical topics: the natural; suum cuique; the right to bodily life; arbitrary killing (a typical example); suicide (an atypical example). The chapter then offers an overview of Bonhoeffer's modes of ethical thinking in relation both to Ethics and Letters and Papers from Prison. The final material chapter considers Bonhoeffer's ethics in relation not to the virtue components of his thought, but to the (Barthian) divine command approach to ethics which is also very prevalent in his thinking. …

Christological Foundations for an Ecological Ethic: Learning from Bonhoeffer

AbstractIn an age where the church needs to foster moral concern for the environment, some are suggesting that Christian theology itself must be changed to produce this result. This article argues that such emendations are unnecessary because Dietrich Bonhoeffer, working a couple of decades before ecological concern was even seen as necessary, manages to craft a theological and ethical approach which is sensitive to ecological concern while retaining large portions of the Christian tradition. Bonhoeffer's anthropology robustly affirms humanity's connection with the natural environment and does not separate humans from the natural order. In fact, his novel approach to the image of God emphasises the necessity of human physicality and the ethical responsibility for the other, which seems to be extendable to the natural order as well. In addition, Bonhoeffer's interpretation of the command to have dominion sees the injunction as a call to be ‘bound’ to nature as a servant, not as a lord free to exploit the earth for wanton pleasure. Consequently, Bonhoeffer interprets the industrial revolution as the failure of humans to rule and serve creation well. Finally, his anthropology, unlike many in the tradition, does not extradite humans from the world, but rather situates them entirely within the matrix of interlocking relationships in the natural world. While Christian soteriology has been criticised for shifting Christian concern away from the environment and life in this world, Bonhoeffer's soteriology overcomes this criticism. Bonhoeffer vociferously repudiates two kingdoms theology in favour of a single unified reality of Christ, which unites God's work of creation and redemption into a unified whole. Furthermore, he interprets the incarnation as a robust affirmation of God's creation and thereby life in this present world. Finally, Bonhoeffer posits redemption encompassing the entire world order, rather than seeing humans as its unique constituents. Bonhoeffer's ethics of responsible action shows that humans need to evaluate not just their immediate actions, but also the long-term consequences of their actions, especially when it comes to use of the environment, both for the sake of other humans and for the sake of following Christ. Since disciples of Christ are supposed to be working towards the reality of Christ, one can conclude that Bonhoeffer's thought encourages humans to work towards the harmony that is to typify creation in the eschaton. Thus, Bonhoeffer's ethics encourages a moral concern for the environment both as a means of neighbourly love and as a means of following Christ.

Election in Bonhoeffer's Ethics: Discerning a Late Revision

AbstractEvidence that Bonhoeffer incorporates and responds to portions of Barth's Church Dogmatics II/2 in chapters thought to have been produced without access to Barth's fresh treatment of election mandate a revaluation of Bonhoeffer's controversial ethic and a reconsideration of the hermeneutic proper to his Ethics. Bonhoeffer's conception of election underwent a development from his public academic genesis in Sanctorum Communio to his posthumously published Ethics. His treatment of election in ‘God's Love and the Disintegration of the World’ demonstrates the doctrine's prominent role in his final attempts at reforming Christian ethics and his critique of all previous ethics. Attending to the influence of election illuminates developments in Bonhoeffer's thinking about two of the primary concepts associated with his Ethics–Stellvertretung and Schuldübernahme.

LETTING REALITY BECOME REAL: On Mystery and Reality in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics

ABSTRACTIn 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.

“My” Bonhoeffer: Discipleship, Peace, Freedom

“My” Bonhoeffer: Discipleship, Peace, Freedom

`Felicity to the Original Text'? The Translation of Bonhoeffer's Ethics

In this article Moberly considers in detail the question of how well the translation of Bonhoeffer's Ethics for the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works series represents his thought. While recognizing the difficulties the translators faced, and some successes achieved, Moberly highlights a number of ways in which the translation is flawed through linguistic weaknesses, questionable editorial decisions, and through translations which obscure or distort Bonhoeffer's thought theologically or philosophically. These issues render the translation unreliable for scholarly work, leading the author to question whether for a critical edition there is sufficient warrant to retranslate Bonhoeffer's Ethics .

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER—AN ETHICS OF GOD'S APOCALYPSE?

AbstractBonhoeffer's theology generally and his Ethics in particular have not commonly been thought to be ‘apocalyptic’. Indeed, many have adjudged him to be “almost immunized” against such eschatology. Yet, a close reading of Bonhoeffer's Ethics shows unmistakable resonances between the themes, tasks and argumentative forms of his theological ethics and the contours of pauline apocalyptic as set forth recently in the work of J. Louis Martyn and others. In this text, Bonhoeffer confronts the question ‘What has paraenesis to do with apocalypsis?’ and experiments with answers which acknowledge that ‘the incursion of a new world’ in Christ ‘renders ancient good uncouth.’ Seeing this illumines several aspects of Bonhoeffer's theological ethics, clarifies the importance of the doctrine of justification therein, and emphasises its dynamic, dialectical and pauline character.

The Cost of Citizenship: Disciple and Citizen in Bonhoeffer's Political Ethics

The author suggests that a synchronic reading of Bonhoeffer's major works yields a typology of the two main images around which Bonhoeffer's political ethics orbit: disciple and citizen. Concentrating on the latter, the author shows the centrality of the question of power for Bonhoeffer's political ethics, and how it relates to responsibility and vocation. He argues that Bonhoeffer's ethics follows a christological grammar which constitutes its specific realism and provides its focus on institutions and good works. The essay concludes that the call to citizenship, the vocation of co-operative, representative and vicarious action, forms the central idea of Bonhoeffer's political ethics, which is still highly relevant for political ethics today.

Healing the Rift between the Sermon on the Mount and Christian Ethics

The Sermon on the Mount guided Bonhoeffer's ethics in his decisive early opposition to Hitler. His interpretation was guided by a hermeneutic of renunciation. But the Sermon is strangely missing in his Ethics. The context had shifted; he needed to confront a massive concentration of power — crucial in our context as well. We need to see that the structure of the Sermon is not dyadic antitheses of renunciation, but triadic transforming initiatives of confrontation — significantly more helpful in confronting power, and in recovering its original meaning. We need to heal the historic split between the Sermon and Christian ethics.

Bonhoeffer and the Bible in Christian Ethics: Psalm 119, The Mandates, and Ethics as a 'Way'

This paper elucidates Bonhoeffer's understanding of Christian ethics as a `way'. The concept is prominent in his unfinished exegesis of Psalm 119 and shapes his Ethics, written during the same time period. This reading of Bonhoeffer's ethics yields the claim that he gave a much more central role to biblical exegesis in his ethical framework than is typically granted. It concludes that much of the criticism of his concept of the mandates reveals not the weakness of the concept, but a misunderstanding of both his conception of Christian ethics as a way, and the importance of theological exegesis in his thought.

How Does—or Should?—Theology Influence Politics?

The question discussed in this article is whether Christian theology should influence contemporary political debates. The topic is discussed through two practical case studies: (1) technological advances in genetic engineering and (2) the just war tradition and the use of force. In the first discussion, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's unfinished Ethics is employed to demonstrate the importance of substantial theological categories to resist a reductionist technological utilitarian discourse about the body. Intrinsic human dignity is essentially God-given. In the second, Aquinas and Augustine add theological complexity and substance to secular discussions of war and peace. Human caring is more than the protection of the sovereign state. A peace that is only the absence of war can disguise many harmful situations. In conclusion, theological discussion brings nuance, richness and depth to secular political debates so long as theologians go beyond simplistic contributions such as ‘God demands’ or ‘The Bible forbids’.

Bonhoeffer: a theology of sociality

The classic study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's social thought, now expanded with never-before-published Bonhoeffer letters. Widely acclaimed as the best study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's early social theology, Clifford Green's Bonhoeffer is here fully updated and expanded with new material not available anywhere else. Features of this new edition: A selection of important, newly discovered letters between Bonhoeffer and Paul Lehmann and between Lehmann and members of Bonhoeffer's family. An extensive chapter covering Bonhoeffer's Ethics. All citations updated to the new German and English editions of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works.

Contributions to Human Rights in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics

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

Book Review: Bonhoeffer's Ethics: Old Europe and New Frontiers. Edited by Guy Carter et al. Kampen, The Netherlands: Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1991. Pp. 246

Book Review: Bonhoeffer's Ethics: Old Europe and New Frontiers. Edited by Guy Carter et al. Kampen, The Netherlands: Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1991. Pp. 246

Die Ethik Dietrich Bonhoeffers – Quelle oder Hemmschuh für feministisch-theologische Ethik?

Abstract 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 &gt;mature«, »body«, »Order«, and »sacrificejvictim« (in German both »Opfer«!). 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.

Some Reflections on Bonhoeffer's Ethics

Some Reflections on Bonhoeffer's <i>Ethics</i>

Book Review: New Studies in Bonhoeffer's Ethics

Book Review: New Studies in Bonhoeffer's Ethics