Bonhoeffer - "What is Meant by ‘Telling the Truth’?"

review questions

1. What is the primary location for truth-telling? Why? (358)

2. Why is telling the truth "something which must be learnt". (359)

Telling the truth, for B, is a matter of discerning to whom one has responsibility. Why?

Can you infer from this discussion what view of truth-telling B is opposing here?

3. How do we go about telling the "living truth", as B later calls it? (360)

4. In a polemical aside, B attacks a conception of truth-telling held by "cynics" and backed by "Satan". What is this ("formal") conception of the truth, and what is wrong with it? (361)

Do you agree with B here? Is there no such thing as the objective truth

irregardless of circumstances?

5. Back to the main argument. Why is B’s conception of the "living truth" dangerous? (361)

Does this danger justify retreating into the more common "formal" conception of truth-telling? Why not?

6. B next explores the nature of truth-telling in greater depth by recounting the example of the schoolboy asked to confirm that his father is frequently drunk. Do you agree with B’s analysis of what constitutes real truth-telling in this situation? (362)

7. B proceeds to dispute two common definitions of lying. What is wrong with each? (363-364)

a

b

Has he persuaded you? Are you now willing to give up these common definitions?

8. What is B’s definition of lying? (364)

Why must it be a theological definition? Why does he have to bring God into the issue of truth-telling?

9. Would you agree that the kind of speech we engage in is defined by the nature of our relations with others—and in particular, by our "office" or social role? (365-366)