A voice that deserves to be heard | Ethics

Work in progress | Ethics | Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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	• Ethics Dietrich Bonhoeffer Touchstone, 1995 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Unfinished Theological Masterpiece

Bonhoeffer offers penetrating theological, ethical, and spirtual insight in this unfinished, posthumously published book. I feel that this work has more to offer than the Cost of Discipleship and more to offer academically (perhaps not spiritually) than Letters and Papers From Prison. It has a more mature feel than The Cost of Discipleship (rightly so, given it was written after). Bonhoeffer's writing style is incredibly clear and straigthforward. In an almost Nietzschean fashion, Bonhoeffer gets right to the point and does not weigh the reader down with non-essentials. It's two greatest weaknesses are that it is unfinished and the chapters were ordered by Bonhoeffer's friend, leaving one wondering how Bonhoeffer would have desired its organization. Its greatest strength is that it offers a theology that is academically rigorous AND deeply practical. In this "postmodern" age such theology is valueable. This work has significantly influenced my theological thinking. Perhaps not recommended for the theological novice, but highly reccommended for anyone with a little background in theology and/or Bonhoeffer.

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A voice that deserves to be heard

You can't speed read Bonhoeffer; as a German he was used to a high degree of order and formality in his life and this is reflected in his writing style. But his is a voice that deserves to be heard, because he was so acutely aware of the horror of the Nazi rule in his native land and his treatise on ethics was written in this environment. Throughout its writing, Bonhoeffer knew that at any time he might be executed by the Nazis, which is what finally happened just days before the war's end.

As when reading The Cost of Discipleship, I found myself understanding and agreeing with Bonhoeffer most of the time, but at times I couldn't quite connect - perhaps because I haven't reached the depth of his faith or his sensitivity to the issues on which he wrote.

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Work in progress

In the fist chapter Bonhoeffer argues against the notion that what is spiritual is good and what is physical is evil. In the second he turns our focus from asking what is good to asking what is the form of Christ in the church today. He than gives a short history how the West has become godless

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The Complete Edition

Ethics is a difficult work to encounter, largely because the work was unfinished when Bonhoeffer was arrested and imprisoned. Most versions of Ethics require an editor to arrange the manuscripts into a coherent whole - but this being the "Works" edition includes all of the information (including notes about context and translation from German) surrounding the writing of the Ethics manuscript.

This is the version to get if you want "completeness", in-depth discussion, or research purposes (the volume contains an exhaustive bibliography) but it might not be for the casual reader that wants an overview of Bonhoeffer's formulation of ethics. (Otherwise, you might not understand why you are reading a chapter titled "History and Good" twice!)

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Read the new edition!

The new edition of Bonhoeffer's ETHICS (Fortress Press 2005)is completely re-arranged, newly translated, full of helpful notes, and includes an introduction and a commentary by the editors. These help explain Bonhoeffer's ethical thinking and his radical critique of Nazi policies. The text and the commentary help the careful reader understand Bonhoeffer's rationale for working in the conspiracy against Hitler, and his challenge to Christians and the church in the postwar period. Bonhoeffer regarded his ETHICS as his most important mature writing, and reviewers have called it "one of the greatest works of 20th century theology." Incomplete because interrupted by Bonhoeffer's arrest, the old edition's arrangement created problems for readers. The new edition largely overcomes these problems.

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The Christian does not live in a vacuum, says the author, but in a world of government, politics, labor, and marriage. Hence, Christian ethics cannot exist in a vacuum; what the Christian needs, claims Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is concrete instruction in a concrete situation. Although the author died before completing his work, this book is recognized as a major contribution to Christian ethics.

The root and ground of Christian ethics, the author says, is the reality of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. This reality is not manifest in the Church as distinct from the secular world; such a juxtaposition of two separate spheres, Bonhoeffer insists, is a denial of God's having reconciled the whole world to himself in Christ. On the contrary, God's commandment is to be found and known in the Church, the family, labor, and government. His commandment permits man to live as man before God, in a world God made, with responsibility for the institutions of that world.

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