Book Review: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics

Unbeknownest to me when I began this past Monday’s ritual of Monastery Monday with a determination to finish Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, that I would be be doing this review on the 105th commemoration of his birth.

Some Christians remember him as a  martyr, others a pastor, to others a theologian, and to many, a 20th century Church Father for the post-modern.  Perhaps behind the admiration for his work is, for a few, a desire for someone to look to as an exemplar during times of trouble.  Ethics is perhaps the most systematic and unambiguous text provided to the church from Bonhoeffer.  At times it reads polemical, but the audience must excuse Bonhoeffer’s frankness because he is trying to wrestle the local church in Germany away from the nasty grip of the Third Reich.  As someone called the ministry (both in the Church and Academy), I sympathize with those who view Bonhoeffer as a model pastor.  I would qualify at least my notion of Bonhoeffer’s pastorate, in light of his thoughts about the so called church/world dichotomy, to say that Bonhoeffer was a pastor to his mid-20th century German world. That is, beyond the doors of even the Confessing church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s lectures and sermons were prophetic oracles that invited Nazi Germany to the light of Christ.

Here are a few things I have learned sitting at the feet of Bonhoeffer:

1. A Christian ethic is not about knowing what is good and evil, but to discredit all forms of human wisdom which lay such claims.

2. Christ as Savi0r is neither a revolutionary or conformist, but Judge and Reconciler.  Bonhoeffer, much like a student of his Jurgen Moltmann, selects one passage and repeats it over and over to make his case.  In Bonhoeffer’s instance for this book, it is Colossians 1.

3. A Christian ethic begins with the notion that nothing is understandable outside the reality of Christ. This means that we do not own our “selves” per se any more, but that it is Christ who works in us as our self.

4. There are four mandates by which God desires human obedience, and within those four mandates, there is freedom: Labor, Government, Church, and Marriage. His view of the Government is quite unique in that he makes  a distinction between the state (which starts from below) and government (which finds its mission from above).  On the mandate called marriage, he does address singleness and celibacy, but since the work was unfinished, he was never able to complete his argument.

5. Lastly, I think that overall, this work proves that a Christian thinker can do theology constructively and re-formulate traditional doctrine, as Bonhoeffer did with Luther’s Two-Kingdom theory as well as justification by grace through faith, to address the prevailing moral issues of each generation.  I don’t think he would want it any other way.

RodtRDH

Formerly known as Rod of Alexandria, Rod the Rogue Demon Hunter Preacher of Hope | Black Scholar of Patristics | Writer for Nonviolent Politics. Destroyer of Trolls. It must be that angry puppy.

More Posts - Website