Bonhoeffer - Ethics

Review questions

1. What civilized values were particularly threatened by the advent of Nazism? (58)

2. Established Christianity had found itself attacked for failing to embody these civilized values ever since the philosophers of the Enlightenment declared their independence of, if not hostility to, religion. Now Bonhoeffer sees an ironic reversal: who needs whose help in defending against the Nazi onslaught? (58-59)

3. Bonhoeffer ascribes much power to Jesus. In what way does Jesus create a safe haven for the values of culture? (58-59)

4. Bonhoeffer sees no contradiction between these two sayings attributed to Jesus. What does each mean, and how do they fit together? (59-61)

He that is not against us is for us (Mark 9:40)

He that is not with me is against me (Matthew 12:30)

5. Who is it who responds to the gospel of Jesus Christ in time of stability? In times of crisis? Why the difference in audience? Do you think Bonhoeffer’s generalization is correct?

The Theoretical Ethicist and Reality

6. Why are ethicists (those people who think they are professionally trained to distinguish right from wrong) so "blinded" by the current situation in Germany? Why can’t they see the difference between good and evil? (66-67)

7. Bonhoeffer briefly describes the failure of different ethical orientations to come to grips with the evil of Nazism. (67-70) Outline his critique of:

people who trust their reasonable instincts

fanatics

those with active and sensitive consciences

those who guard their freedom

those who retrench in private virtues

8. What is Bonhoeffer’s prescription? What combination of attributes is necessary for one to avoid being crushed or coopted by the evils of the hour? (70-71)

9. Where must one’s gaze be fixed, and how does this help us resist the dissolution of good into evil? (71-72)

10. Martin Luther was convinced that we see God as wrathful and destructive except insofar as we see God through Jesus. For Bonhoeffer, in looking upon Jesus, what do we learn about God? (73-74)

11. Seeing God through Jesus also enables us to recognize evil for what it is.

What do we learn about: (73-76)

the actions of the majority

the "despiser of men" (and who is this person?)

honestly intended "philanthropism" (literally, love of humanity)

12. Why is it that we discover our true selves in the image of a crucified Jesus? (76-77)

13. Why is it inappropriate for a follower of Jesus to aim at success? (77-79)

14. An important question to keep asking the text (so to speak) is whether Bonhoeffer’s ethic applies only to times of deep cultural crisis, or to "normal" times as well. Our "normal" culture worships success. Do we pursue success in a way which escapes his criticism?

15. Why is the ideal of success a "denial of eternal justice"?

16. "In the cross of Christ God confronts the successful man with the sanctification of pain, sorrow, humility, failure, poverty, loneliness and despair" (79; see also the poem on p. 19) Why must this be?

17. Bonhoeffer moves from the cross to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (79-81) What social evil of the Nazi era does the resurrection make abundantly clear?

18. What does Bonhoeffer think the New Testament means by "conformation"? (Not to be confused with confirmation!) (81-82)

19. What does being conformed "in the likeness of the Crucified" involve? List Bonhoeffer’s main points. (82-86)

What measures of human value is Bonhoeffer rejecting here?

Define what the church is, according to Bonhoeffer’s idea of "conformation".

20. Bonhoeffer insists that conformation to Jesus yields "concrete commandments and instructions" (87-89). What do you think he has in mind here? What is there about "conformation" which makes ethical choices so clear?

Why does Bonhoeffer reject the idea that his ethic of conformation might be specifically and especially German? (Recall that the Nazified German churchpeople were claiming a special German identity of their Christianity.)

21. What two forces can stop this final plunge? How do they operate? (108-110) In tandem, or hostile to each other?

a

b

22. Bonhoeffer focuses on what the church, rather than government, can do. How is the church to communicate the "saving act of God"? (110-112)

23. Who is it who needs to confess? And to what? (112-116)

Individual(s):

Church:

24. What might be the result of such confession? (116-119)

25. Stand back and analyze for a minute: what is the connection between everything here that Bonhoeffer wants confessed, and the saving of Western civilization from plunging into the void?

Is his catalogue of sins on target here? Are there any that he has omitted, perhaps in self-censorship? Or has he tapped the root of the evil which had infected Germany and Western Civilization generally?

Christ, Reality and the Good

26. Why is it inappropriate to begin ethical reflection by asking (as this course does) "How can I be good?" and "How can I do good?"? (186-187)

skip to "Thinking in Terms of Two Spheres" (193)

27. What is wrong with the Lutheran division of the world into two "spheres"? (194)

How does two-spheres thinking need to be corrected? (195)

What do you make of B’s statement that "The world has no reality of its own, independently of the revelation of God in Christ."?

How does B accommodate the fact that secular and Christian, profane and sacred, etc., do seem to be truly contrasting elements? (196)

28. When Christianity resists the independence of the secular world, what relation between the sacred and secular should it aim at? (196-197)

What are the perils if either Christianity or secular declare independence of each other?

29. There was a strong tendency among German Christian theologians in the 1920s and 1930s to insist that the world of faith needed to be kept pure of the world of politics. What does B say to such compartmentalization? (198)

Would you agree?

30. Why have Christians been tempted to think of the kingdom of Christ as separate from the world? (198-199)

Why is this view mistaken?

31. What is the appropriate stance of the church towards the world? (200)

32. B refines the question by asking whether the true opposition is not between the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the devil. Does he accept this reformulation of the dichotomy? (201)

33. How should the church respond to the world which seeks to stifle it? (202-204)

34. What does knowing the world through Christ tell us about God’s will for us in the world? (204-205)

What authority, what status do these "mandates" have?

35. Briefly characterize each, including its purpose and its scope or limits:

labor

marriage

government

church

36. Does B’s notion of "mandates" escape the "static" division of reality that bothers him about two-spheres thinking?

Does it encompass all the mandates? Can you think of others?