Christian Moral Action: Dietrich Bonhoefferhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-hS_90axHg

Key ideas: Duty to God and the state,

role of the Church as a community and

discipleship and moral action

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Feb. 4, 1906 – April, 9. 1945) was a Protestant Lutheran Pastor, theologian, and active in the German resistance to the policies of Hitler and Nazism.

• For his opposition to the Nazi regime, Bonhoeffer was ultimately arrested and executed at Flossianconcentration camp, during the last month of the war. He remains an important symbol of opposition to Hitler, and his views on Christianity are increasingly influential.

Early life and teaching

• Having been brought up as Lutheran~ a quick summary of

Lutheranism to help understand where Bonhoeffer was coming

from The Lutheran denomination is the oldest Protestant

denomination. It was founded (not deliberately at first) by

Martin Luther, a German monk and professor who famously

posted 95 Theses against the practice of indulgences in 1517.

• Luther saw contradictions between the Bible and current church

practice as well as corruption and abuses within the (Catholic)

church, and initially hoped for reform, not schism. When that

proved impossible, he continued to spread his teachings despite

excommunication and threats to his life.

Early life and teaching

• Martin Luther taught that salvation comes by the grace of God

and faith in Jesus Christ alone, and the many rituals and works

prescribed by the church were not only unnecessary, but a

stumbling block to salvation. He rejected such traditions as the

intermediary role of priests, priestly celibacy, the Latin Bible and

liturgy, purgatory, and transubstantiation, and advocated for the

scriptures to be available to the laity in their own language.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPwMj-1fkTg

• Bonhoeffer had an early vision of how the Church should be

transformed and he went onto study Theology at Tubingen

university. In 1930 he complete his doctorate on Act and Being

which proposed the radical form of Christianity where the

Church, not the state, should be involved in decisions of justice.

he believed the state had too much power and authority and it’s

rulers undermined the purpose of Christianity. Bonhoeffer was

dedicated to a radical interpretation of Lutheranism.

America and the resistance to Nazism

In 1930 Bonhoeffer travelled to New York and after studying many

contemporary influential theologians he was impressed by their teaching on

social responsibility but that they underestimated the goodness of human

nature. He experienced for the firs time the vibrancy of the black churches

and then realised how Christianity needed to build relationships between

it’s churches without racial and geographical boundaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl1F6-hy98Y

Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on 30th January 1933. On the 1st

February Bonhoeffer delivered a radio broadcast “ The Younger

Generation’s altered view of the Fuhrer” in which he was deeply critical of

the “leadership principle” Hitler represented and the effect this was having

on the Church and that by giving power to an earthly leader they turn him

into an idol/”misleader”, the microphone was turned off!

America and the resistance to Nazism

Bonhoeffer had placed himself against the state and began to work towards

its demise in 2 ways:

1.He became a member of the Confessing Church-a group of clergy who

refused to accept that only Aryan Germans could become members of the

Church accepting Christ as authority.

2. He joined the Resistance (Widerstand) and continued to be under

investigation by the Gestapo.

In 1939 he had returned to the USA but realised that if he was to be true

to his teachings and beliefs he must return to

Germany and attempt to overthrow the Nazi regime. He had thought

himself a pacifist until now but decided this was a “secular pacifism” and a

scandal because it failed to prepare for the Kingdom of God and did not

acknowledge true justice and is insufficient to tackle evil, perpetuating lies

and injustice.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian, ethicist, public

intellectual, commentator on politics and public affairs, and

professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years.

During his time in New York, Bonhoeffer became a friend of

Reihold Niebhur and in a letter to him in 1939 he wrote that it

was his duty to return to Germany to be part of the “terrible

alternative” and that Christians in Germany will face the terrible

alternative of either willing defeat of their nation in order that

Christian civilisation may survive or willing the victory of their

nation and therefore destroying our civilisation. In 1940 he joined

the Counter Intelligence section of the Armed Forces the Abwehr

to unofficially work for the Resistance to overthrow Hitler’s

regime.

Reinhold Niebuhr

On the 5th April 1943 the Gestapo arrested and imprisoned

Bonhoeffer and his brother-in-law Hans Dohnanyi n the

grounds that they had helped Jewish immigrants escape to

Switzerland. On 24th July 1944, the failed Resistance attempt

to kill Hitler implicated Bonhoeffer and Dohnanyi and they

were eventually sent to Buchanwald concentration camp. In

1945 Hitler ordered that all resisters should be annihilated.

Bonhoeffer was hanged after a mock trial in Flossenburg

concentration camp in 1945, shortly before the camp was

liberated by American forces.

In his work Ethics Bonhoeffer set out to explain how

Christian ethics are very different to and from human ethics.

He warned against all forms of ethics which claim to be

based on a ideology-these are dangerous because they simple

extensions of human ideas to justify the use of power eg ISIS

Christian ethics begins with the view that all humans are sinful

and finite. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard

influenced Bonhoeffer’s view that in some extreme situations

we can do absolutely nothing but act of despair but in faith

and hope. So when Bonhoeffer became involved in the plot to

assassinate Hitler he knew it was wrong and could undermine

the stability of the country but it was the only option for the

Church.

Duty to God and the duty to the state

Duty to God and the duty to the state

Bonhoeffer agreed that a Christian should obey the

government as it is its aim to impose law and order on a sinful

man and correct disorder. In practice that state gains too

much power and subordinates justice to its policies and the

state thinks it is the embodiment of justice and then justifies

its actions with an inflated sense of its own importance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOqtra7j6UM

Bonhoeffer believed that the state can never represent God’s

will or have ultimate power. The role of the Church is not to

be part of the state but to keep it in check ( the House of

Lords is represented by 26 Bishops of GB and the leaders of

all main faiths). However, when may a Christian decide to

disobey the state to avoid more suffering?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyLn7tZKkSU

Obedience to God’s willhttps://vimeo.com/125082671

There are 2 passages from the NT that reinforces that Christians have a

duty to obey the state.

As Luther stated there are 2 kingdoms: the spiritual K of G and the

political kingdoms of the world. Jesus said in Mk 12v 17 “ Give to the

emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God that which are

God’s” This implied that taxes should be paid and duties done. Later St

Paul wrote in Rms 13 v1 that “every person should be subject to the

governing authorities as they have been instituted by God”

BUT Is obeying the state the will of God and how does one know that

will? In his book “No Rusty Swords” he said that God’s will only becomes

“ clear in the moment of action”. It requires ridding oneself of personal

ambition and submitting to God’s will everyday-an act of faith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuHuRnmV6do

Obedience to God’s will

Bonhoeffer goes onto be very critical of autonomy as the only

way to live a moral life.

If love was as self evident as is claimed then morality would be

purely human And reduce God to a human idea. Human based

principles don’t free humans but make them slaves to their

ideas, whereas responding everyday to the will of God is truly

liberating.

This can be achieved through Jesus’ teaching, prayer, conscience

and reflecting on the example of Christ and a life in the

Christian community.

Link back to unit on Christian moral principles and Jesus Christ

Leadership

The idea of leadership is very different to the idea of being a leader.

Leadership is embedded in a community, a leader is someone of a

specific character.

Bonhoeffer argued that leadership can be rationally justified but “it

is virtually impossible to give a rational basis for the nature of the

Leader”. Leadership focusses on matters beyond the leader eg

society not the leader him/herself .In the situation in Germany it

had invented a new category of Leader, divorced from Society. The

group had chosen to give up it’s freedoms and identity in obedience

to the leader.

Can civil disobedience be justified? (remember Liberation

Theology and Martim Luther King jnr)

Leadershiphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6t7vVTxaic

The key to understanding Bonhoeffer’s actions for civil

disobedience is that Christians have a “responsibility to the state” to

ensure it act a in accordance with God’s will. If the state makes

“reasonable people face unreasonable situations” then a Christian

has a duty to disobey the state.

Bonhoeffer believed that the Church was “seduced” by the power of

Nazism, where minorities where marginalised and there was a blatant

disregard for life and gross distortions of the God-given order.

Bonhoeffer concluded that tyrannicide maybe a Christian duty if it

means establishing social order, it was what Luther called “suffering

disobedience”. He was particularly critical of those who do their

duty but in so doing allow evil to prevail, as illustrated in the recent

imprisonment of Nazi war criminals despite individuals not being

directly involved but serving as guards.

Leadership

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tCqSm4Phugarly

He dismissed consequentialist ethics where the ends justifies the

means as we can never calculate all possible outcomes. Rather a “bold

action is a free response of faith”

But killing is killing and no amount of human reason can make it

morally justifiable, the only consolation is that God promises to

forgive the “ man who becomes a sinner in the process”.

The role of the

Church as community

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-d4otHE-YI

Kant said that when a person acts out of duty he knows he does so

because he is Acting in solidarity with all humankind. Bonhoeffer

agreed with this philosophy and that no Christian can act in isolation.

The church’s role is to provide a moral and spiritual community and

equip each person with the tools and attitudes to live morally in the

world. For this to happen the church cannot be a middle-class

institution and it has become and it needs to embrace and engage with

a religionless world.

Bonhoeffer supported and promoted autonomy and democracy as

essential for choosing the best life and one’s happiness. He described

this as modern western culture as a world come of age, having discard

superstitious views and was more rational. However, this had come at

a cost.

Liberalism had discarded many Christian values as irrational but in

turn created a “Western void”, a Spiritual and moral vacuum open to

dangerous beliefs. The present day threat of ISIS would be an

example.

Whilst some ideas can appeal as they are new they can also be radical

and a threat. Bonhoeffer argued for a “religionless Christianity” ie

without baggage of the past and contamination of ideological beliefs

of the present.

There should be “no rusty swords” which are worn out ethical

attitudes which were effective in the past but of no use today.

“Christianity and ethics do indeed have nothing to do with each

other”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4HXJUcUPiA

The role of the

Church as community

The Confessing Church

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drq9hz5tYDI

The Confessing Church began with Bonhoeffer and Niemoller as a

reaction to Hitler’s German Christian movement when he created the

German Evangelical Church and in 1934 he imposed the “Aryan

paragraph” removing all non Aryan clergy, establishing a “Reich Bishop”.

In the same year the Confessing Church met at Barmen and Karl Barth

produced the foundations of the Barmen declaration. This declaration

stated that a Christian’s primary duty is to Christ: the Church should

reject any teaching which is not revealed in Christ. It was a theological

denial of Nazi Socialism.

The Confessing ChurchBonhoeffer set about creating a community at Finkenwalde to train

ministers and pastors for the Confessing Church which was shut down

and declared illegal by the Himmler Decree of 1927. However, the

community was training clergy in practical Christian virtues that would

benefit all such as:

• Discipline

• Meditation

• Bible study

• Brotherhood

• Community for others

Many have said that this declaration should have gone further, especially

with regard to the Jews and other minority groups under Hitler’s attack.

Bonhoeffer developed the objective further with his “ecumenical

theology”. But when in his final days in prison he became disillusioned

that the Confessing Church had become too defensive, concerned with

itself and less engaged in the world.

The cost of discipleship

“Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is meaningless” James 2 v 14.

How do we know the will of God. Bonhoeffer stated that Christianity is not an

otherworldly institution but is grounded in the everyday world. In becoming human

God reaffirms what it means to live in the world. So in responding to the question

who is Christ for us today? Christology, ethics and discipleship are inseparable.

Karl Barth greatly influenced Bonhoeffer with his ideas that if Christianity is to mean

anything it can be an abstract system of human thought. God’s revelation is when he

chooses it and it is through a special act-the supreme eg the person and life of Jesus

Christ. The Barmen declarartion which barth produced set out that the Church’s

primary duty is to do the will of Christ and it should reject teaching not revealed in

Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer used this as a basis of the “confessing Church” which

promoted a wider, more inclusive role of the church eg minorities and Jews. He

promoted what he called an “ecumenical theology” with no racial, national or political

boundaries.

The cost of discipleship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C91ygWW2u0U

Bonhoeffer urged Christians that they must not be passive followers,

likening them to the Pharisees who were very good at hearing God’s

commands but did nothing to act on God’s behalf. Hearing the law must

mean being a doer of the Law. This is illustrated in the story of Jesus’

criticism of Martha-she acts but doesn’t hear or listen to his teaching.

The ideal is that:

• Ethics is action and action is liberating

• Action is prompted by conscience

• Ethical decisions involve conflict and action-distinguishing good and

evil

• Love overcoming disunity agape God’s love revealed and expressed

through Jesus Christ

Costly grace

“costly because it costs a man his life and grace because it

gives man the only true life”

How can Christianity be religionless? Using the ideas of Calvin and

Luther, Bonhoeffer argued that authentic Christianity has 3

fundamental points:

• Only Christ

• Only scripture

• Only faith

Anything else is a human invention, as are political parties (think of

the chaos of this summer!). So for Christianity not to be used for

political and personal ends it was essential, it became free of the

state. It requires taking on the world, an unjust society. Discipleship

is a precarious and dangerous situation!

Costly grace

Sacrifice and Suffering

This is most clearly reflected in the cross. In the worlds

come of age, God is not the supreme leader but as revealed

in Christ, weak, powerless and struggling against the world.

Bonhoeffer adopted Barth’s use of the NT Greek word

“Kriss” meaning dispute and judgement.

The Christian paradox is that it is because of the crisis in the

world (sin, disputes, lack of belief) that God reveals his

crisis, his judgements of sin and grace and redemption of

Christ “ a theology of crisis”. Bonhoeffer realised he too

would have to pay the ultimate sacrifice of death but he did

not seek to suffer or snot saw himself as a martyr.

Solidarity with the Jews and

the wider community

A common theme of Bonhoeffer’s was that Jesus was a “man for

others” so therefore the Church must be a “Church for others”. As

such he believed it had failed in its duty, not acted in solidarity with

the weak, vulnerable and oppressed. He was most dismayed by the

German Church’s attitude to the Jews.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQyIdm3S6xg

Solidarity with the Jews and

the wider community

Vatican Gives Formal Apology for Inaction During Holocaust

By William Drozdiak, The Washington Post

BERLIN: The Roman Catholic Church formally apologized Monday for failing to take

more decisive action in challenging the Nazi regime during World War II to stop the

extermination of more than 6 million Jews. But in a long-awaited document on the

church's role in the Holocaust, the Vatican defended Pope Pius XII, who headed the

church during the war, from accusations that he turned a blind eye to the systematic

killing of Jews.

Some critics say Pius was motivated by church religious prejudices dating from the death

of Jesus Christ.

Pope John Paul II, in a preface to the landmark publication entitled "We Remember: A

Reflection on the Shoah," expressed hope that the historic declaration of repentance by

the Vatican about Catholic shortcomings in dealing with the Holocaust "will indeed help

to heal the wounds of past misunderstandings and injustices.”

Solidarity with the Jews and

the wider community

In 1933 Bonhoeffer wrote The Church and the Jewish Question and that it

must fight the evil of discrimination in 3 ways:

1. The Church must question the legitimacy of the states actions. Similar

here to Trump’s latest rulings!

2. The Church must help all victims regardless of faith or belief-what are

we doing about the refugee crisis?

3. The Church must fully engage in resistance to reverse injustice-is the

Church a liberator or just passive?

It must “not just bandage victims but put a spoke in the wheel itself ”

He publically rejected the common view that Kristallnacht was God’s

punishment of the Jews for their rejection of Jesus Christ.

He later collect large sums of money to aid the Jewish immigrants.

Bonhoeffer’s relevance today

Can theological ethics engage with the issues of today? Does Bonhoeffer’s

teaching offer any guidance in a post-Christian, multi-cultural and globalised

Western society?

Many would say Bonhoeffer’s ethics were culturally relative and can only work in

extreme circumstances eg the compromising of pacifism because absolute

pacifism is untenable. In today’s globalised world the threat of terrorism ,power

struggles between the USA and China and Middle Eastern conflicts and threats

to Western society are far more complex and multi-faceted than Bonhoeffer’s

more localised notion of politics. Many say theology is not equipped to deal with

life in liberal democratic societies.

But does Bonhoeffer’s ethics engage Christianity with the world in moral

spiritual/conscience? Stanley Hauerwass argues that Bonhoeffer’s concern for

truth in politics offers a much needed challenge to the pragmatism of western

democracy. The Church can play a special role in global politics. He said a society

that only practices tolerance for pragmatic reasons without any idea of truth

quickly falls into indifference. And “indifference leads to cynicism”. Liberal

societies can undermine truth creating a “void” which is quickly filled by

totalitarian powers.

The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd and the

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby,

launch the Full Community Sponsorship

scheme at Lambeth Palace today

Can Bonhoeffer’s ethics be compatible

with plural, multi faith societies?

Many agree that moral pluralism suggests the notions of right

and wrong are not absolute but relative to the

person/group/community in whatever situation they find

themselves. But each person should be tolerant of other’s

values where they are seen to cause harm to others.

Joseph Fletcher referred Bonhoeffer’s account of Mother

Maria who volunteered to sacrifice her own life in place of a

young Jewish girl in a concentration camp. Fletcher states that

killing innocent people can’t be an absolute wrong, it can only

be judged relative to the principle of Christian love. However,

some consider Fletcher’s interpretation of Bonhoeffer’s ethics

as wrong.

Bonhoeffer is not a moral relativist.

Can Bonhoeffer’s ethics be compatible

with plural, multi faith societies?

His views are formed outside secular society and within the practice of

Christianity. Truth is an absolute a directed by faith and conscience.

Bonhoeffer believed that liberal, pluralistic societies had undermined the

very idea of truth. In trying to be non-judgemental society has lost sight of

what a truly just community really is. However, he did expect the Jewish

community to eventually convert to Christianity so making his theology

questionable, even causing resentment and mistrust.

Bonhoeffer wrote in his essay “After ten years” about how he had learnt

lessons “from below”-the suffering and marginalisation of the outcast and

the powerless. He sympathised in a new way, experiencing what it meant to

belong to a faith community that was being prejudiced and discriminated

against or the domineering power. All religions could find “costly grace” a

guide to developing multi-faith societies understanding the costs and

suffering required. The Church should question it’s power without losing

integrity as a witness to Christ.

Revision

Watch this documentary/dialogue by Tom Greggs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk7Ti8wmZxk