Fresh Ground Theology



Theology of BonhoefferIntroductionDietrich Bonhoeffer is possibly one of the most confusing theologians of all time. Not just his theology, but his interpreters. Many schools of thought have claimed him as an inspiration or an early advocate of their theology. Joseph Fletcher labelled him a situation ethicist, Thomas Altizer called him a forerunner to the death of God movement, and Eric Metaxas and John Piper view him as evangelical. Bonhoeffer is a rare theologian Metaxas book on Bonhoeffer was attacked by many Bonhoeffer scholars for inaccurately portraying “sanitized Bonhoeffer fit for evangelical audiences.” Richard Weikart, an evangelical, wrote about his early love of Bonhoeffer followed by disappointment at Bonhoeffer’s unorthodox views. Bonhoeffer must be understood within his German context. Early LifeDietrich Bonhoeffer was born February 4, 1906 in Breslau, Germany to Karl Ludwig Bonhoeffer and Paula Bonhoeffer, whose maiden name was von Hase. Karl was a psychiatrist and professed agnostic; Paula was the granddaughter of Karl von Hase, professor of theology at Breslau. In 1912, Karl became a professor in neurology and psychiatry at the University of Berlin. In 1916, the Bonhoeffer’s became neighbors with Adolf Harnack. Soon after his brother Walter died, Dietrich chose to become a theologian. His mother expected the decision, but his father was initially troubled by his son’s choice. His brothers were alarmed and tried to convince him to do something else because they thought the church was the most “paltry institution” imaginable, but he responded “in that case, I shall reform it.”The “paltry institution”The doctrine of the church was one of Bonhoeffer’s major foci. The first world war destroyed the optimism of liberalism. This left people, such as Dietrich’s brothers, bitter towards a church that did not speak to the reality of life. Bonhoeffer also saw a lack of social action within the German church. Later, he witnessed the German Christians follow Nazi leaders blindly as the Nazi’s took over the church and massacred the Jews. Much of his life and ministry was focused on working to reform the church.The Communion of the SaintsBonhoeffer studied at the University of Berlin under the Harnack. He used sociology to study the church and found a lack of theological insight on the sociological categorization of the church. He defended his dissertation Sanctorum Communio: A Dogmatic Inquiry into the Sociology of the Church (The Communion of the Saints) on Dec. 17, 1927. This dissertation used sociology to identify the categorization of the church in sociological terms, but balanced with dogmatics to give a biblical view of the church. Bonhoeffer wanted to identify the individual, evaluate sociological community terminology, and explain the Christian community. The sociology within Bonhoeffer’s dissertation is important for understanding his theology. He believed that sociology could be utilized for a better understanding of theology.I-ThouBonhoeffer first identified the individual using the I-thou relationship of Martin Buber, in contrast to Kant. The living human is an individual, but only becomes a person when interacting with a ‘thou’. This ‘thou’ can be another person or God. The presence of a ‘thou’ creates a barrier for the ‘I’ and the ‘I’ becomes a person when faced with a moral dilemma, interacting, with a ‘thou.’ Since every ‘thou’ is made in the image of the divine ‘thou,’ God, not the human ‘thou,’ makes man a moral person. The Christian man has the divine ‘thou’ in him as an ‘I,’ and he therefore acts towards the other ‘thou’ as an expression of God’s love. The I-thou relationship forms the basis for the community.Initially, God created man and they formed a perfect community. The ‘I’ of man and the ‘I’ of God existed in a love relationship with one another. This ‘I’ and ‘I’ relationship of love should be exemplified in the church. Sin destroyed the immediate social relationship between man and God and between man and man. Genesis 2 shows that all spiritual and moral conduct of man can only be done in community, therefore, God said that it was not good for man to be alone. In an encounter with a ‘thou’ the ‘I’ recognizes that he is different from the ‘thou’ and thus recognizes his self-consciousness because of the ‘thou.’ This understanding forms the basis for the munityMan is not brought into community by physical impulses because even animals form groups based on these impulses. Rather, communities are formed by acts of will. When men will the same goals, they form a community. A classroom is not a community, but rather the mass because they are joined by a formal agreement rather than an act of will. The unity of will that forms a community, however, does not fuse the men together, but instead the men retain their distinct identities as ‘I.’ The society is built upon the community, but those within the society are unified by pragmatism. Objective SpiritThe objective spirit is formed in every community. It is the combination of the individual wills and history of the community that form the will of the community. The more individuals within the community increase the ability for others to join the community and conform to the objective spirit. The objective spirit of a society is limited by time because once the society uses the objective spirit, the means, to reach the end the objective spirit dissolves. However, in a community, the objective spirit is the end in itself, and so it is not bound by time. A church can only be a community because it is not bound by time.Original SinThe fall destroyed the relationship of love between ‘I’ and ‘thou’ and turned relationships into self-seeking endeavors. Bonhoeffer believes the biblical material says that “when Adam sinned, he sinned as an individual and as the race.” His sin was imputed to all mankind, and no man will act differently then Adam in sinning. Bonhoeffer then traces the historical progression of the doctrine of original sin. He then concludes that each man, as an individual, represents the race and so when the individual sins all mankind falls. “Every act is at once an individual act, and one in which mankind’s general sin is brought to life again. In this way we have established the universality of sin as necessarily given along with and in individual sin.” God has spread the effects of the fall upon all man, but the nature of this spread cannot be ascertained. The understanding of original sin helps us to see that “mankind is the universal community comprising all communities.” Every man is in Adam, but some men are also in Christ. Those in Christ are the sanctorum communio.Sanctorum Communio The remaining 119 pages all deal with the doctrine of the church. The previous pages laid the foundation for understanding the church as a community. Those outside the church belong to the peccatorum communio, but, even though those in Christ have been justified and dead to sin, the sanctorum communio are still in the peccatorum communio. Not until eternity will those in Christ have Adam removed from them. The church claims to be God’s church by presupposing that it is. Therefore, don’t use apologetics because people must believe in order to understand the church. Faith comes before understanding. New Testament view of the ChurchThe New Testament views the church as a universal congregation. However, the local congregation may also be called the church because it “is the concrete form of the whole church of God.” The church was eternally chosen in Christ, built on Christ, and is the Body of Christ. The presence of the Holy Spirit within the individual believers is what forms the community of will. Believers are to be Christ to the world, the collective body of one person. The Realization of the Church in ChristSin separates man from God and fellow man. When God restores communion of man with himself, he also restores communion of man with man. Christ’s vicarious life and death are the reason for the new community that has communion with God. Christ entered the community of the Jews to fulfill the law and showed that “essentially the whole community has fallen away from God.” The Jews needed to be reconciled with God through Christ. The resurrection of Christ made the church possible, but the work of the Holy Spirit made the church real. Jesus formed a religious community with his disciples, but they helped form the Christian church. The church is not identical with the kingdom of God, for it is the hope of all believers, but God sees the kingdom in all of time in the church. The Spirit in the Church The Spirit, living in all believers, is what makes the church possible. The gathering of individuals is not what makes the church, but rather the Spirit working within individual believers forms the community which makes up the church. This community of love is not humanly possible, but rather is made a reality through faith in Christ. This love is the will that the Spirit gives to all the members of the community that they would love God and love God in the neighbor. The end goal of this community is to do God’s will. Application of the Doctrine of the ChurchSince the church is a community, all the gifts given to the individual must be used for the body as a whole. It is against the spirit of love to withhold spiritual gifts. As a community, the church prays for one another. When one member of the community hurts, the whole community hurts and therefore intercedes for the hurting member. God works through prayer and corporate prayer ought to have a central place in the Christian community. The individual may also forgive the sins of another because as a member of Christ, he died with Christ. Unity within the church is mentioned in Scripture and is a vital aspect of the community. Enmity between people for any reason is destroyed in the body of Christ because of the union from the Spirit. The Empirical ChurchThe empirical church is the visible body of Christ. Within it are regenerate and unregenerate people and therefore it cannot be identified as the community of the saints. The fact that the church is filled with imperfect humans and sinners, inhibits the work of the Spirit through the community of love. “Communion with God, and likewise human Communion, are continually being broken and renewed.” Sinning saints form the objective spirit which needs to be changed by the Holy Spirit. Additionally, unregenerate within the church do influence the objective spirit and often push it away from the truths of Christ. Each age has its failing and following ages, through the guidance of the Spirit, correct the faults in the objective spirit of previous ages while adding their own faults. The objective spirit of the empirical church does not agree with the Holy Spirit, yet the Holy Spirit does use it for his purpose. The empirical church contains many more members than the kingdom of Christ. The presence of the national church seems to contradict the community of will. All within the true church, essential church, belong to the community of will, but because the Word reaches to those without the church, a national empirical church may exist without contradicting the essential church making up the community of will. Within the empirical church are local empirical churches. Each of these are the body of Christ amid the whole body of Christ. There are not multiple bodies of Christ, but one body represented in the essential church and in the smallest community of saints. Each individual community of saints is a worshipping congregation.The preaching of the Word of God and the proper administration of the sacraments are the marks of a true church. The primary function, and ministry, of the local church is to preach the word. The ministry of preaching implies a congregation. Christians must be attached to a congregation because in the congregation, the Holy Spirit’s gifts are given and used. Because some people are unable to attend congregations, “invalids, castaways, etc.”, the congregation is not necessary for the salvation of the individual. God uses the congregation to encourage believers in love and unity, and it is his means for spreading his kingdom on earth. Additionally, the church is to care for the souls of its members. As priests, each believer can counsel others by using the objective spirit of the church in teaching obedience to the church whose authority is derived from the Word. Therefore, believers should obey the doctrines and commands of the church unless by obedience to the word and through love of the church an individual is directed by God to disobey. Bonhoeffer next discusses the preaching, sacraments, and the Word of God, but since the doctrine of the Word will be dealt with later, that section will be skipped. Bonhoeffer explains that preaching removes the sociological possibility of the congregation being labeled a mass because the intellect of each individual is challenged and addressed. In regards to the sacraments, the sacrament of infant baptism is only beneficial because the church is a community. The infant does not have faith, but the faith of the community believing that the infant will join the church places the infant probationally into the church. All the elements of the Lord’s Supper must be given to the individual because the Supper belongs to the community. Christ has given it to the church and he is spiritually present in the Supper. The preaching of the Word, however, is more important to the church than the sacraments, for preaching is what brings the congregation into being.In determining the specific sociological type, Bonhoeffer explains that though the church is a community, it is closer sociologically to the family. Some claim that the church is an institution, and when compared to the Roman Catholic church that typology is correct, but the Protestant church is not an institution because it requires a congregation and it requires preaching. It is not an association because an act of will, not qualification, is the requirement for entrance. Finally, Bonhoeffer deals with practical issues in the church of his day. He argues that sects may still be part of the essential church if they preach the Word and practice the sacraments. The national church is a better option then denominations because it offers the gospel to all with greater effectiveness and can withstand times of inactivity better than denominational churches. The church must constantly seek to progress in understand which is seen in the history of the Protestant church. A correct understanding of the church defies socialism because it forces men to be equal whereas the church is built on inequality, but all are given the priesthood. Though the empirical church does not live up to what it should, we must still be involved in the church because it is the body of Christ on earth to the world. In contrast to mysticism, the church does not need experiences, but rather more faith.The Church and EschatologyAt the end of this age, God’s judgment will be on individuals as well as communities. “Individuals being judged not only alone but equally as a member of the collective persons. A people, a family, a marriage.” The empirical church “can expect eternal life,” but not all the individuals within the empirical church are within the essential church so they will be rejected. We do not understand what this rejection is, but it is religious death for all outside of Christ. In the eternal state the believers will be fully sanctified, and the objective spirit will be the Holy Spirit. Eschatology is the hope of all believers. Life and Thought to WWIIAfter receiving his licentiate, doctoral degree, in 1927 Bonhoeffer became a curate in Barcelona, Spain. This time in Spain further developed his passion for the church and its need for reformation. He saw the church as outdated and unprepared to meet the modern world. Barcelona revitalized his interest in ethics. During this time he prepared The Communion of the Saints for publication and worked on his next dissertation Act and Being to qualify for professorship. In Act and Being, Bonhoeffer seeks to follow the philosophies of act and being throughout systematic theology and critique theologians for adopting these philosophical methods unquestionably. These two philosophical school based on God’s acting or God being undergirded all of the new theologies and Bonhoeffer wanted to mediate between the two positions. Bonhoeffer shows that adopting the pure form of either approach cannot adequately answer the question of revelation. In Act and Being Bonhoeffer critiques many theologians including Barth, Holl, Gogarten, and Tillich. Though this dissertation is declared to be about philosophical schools, the main question focuses on how do we interpret what God has revealed. Bonhoeffer, therefore, spends a great deal of time on revelation and the church. His doctrine of the church is fairly consistent with The Communion of the Saints, but his doctrine of revelation is developed in Act and Being.After successfully defending his second dissertation, Bonhoeffer went to America to study for a year. This trip opened his eyes to the division within the church caused by denominationalism and motivated him to join with the ecumenical movement to help promote unity within the church community. Additionally, in America he saw a lack of theology, but an abundance of social work which he perceived lacking in the German church.On his return to Germany, he lectured, preached, and led a confirmation class of the most difficult students. In order to help confirm his class, he moved into their neighborhood. Thus showing a concept that motivated Bonhoeffer to stay in Germany through the war. In order to minister to people, you must suffer with them. Additionally, he joined the ecumenical movement as the youth secretary in the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches, a position that he would hold until 1937. The early 1930’s saw the rise of Nazism in Germany. Bonhoeffer stood against Nazism and the Semitism that they promoted. Hitler began maneuvering to place German Christians in positions of authority within the national church. The confessional church was formed, though remained within the national church, with the Barmen Declaration that Bonhoeffer influenced. Bonhoeffer’s stance against Nazism cost him his university position, his ability to work in Berlin, and eventually his freedom to speak in public. In 1935, the seminary at Finckenwalde was established and Bonhoeffer was the leader. This seminary was a community for those who wanted to minister in the confessing church. Bonhoeffer focused on sanctification and living as a community. In the midst of this turmoil, Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together.The ethical failure of the Germans during this time period roused the “angry” response from Bonhoeffer that the Germans needed to wake up from their blindness and work out their salvation. The Cost of Discipleship would show Germans what it meant to follow Jesus. Immediately in chapter one, Bonhoeffer presents a dichotomy of ‘cheap grace’ versus ‘costly grace.’ Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate…Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: ‘ye were bought at a price,’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life.This concept is fleshed out in the rest of the book through an exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount followed by a section on how the church and discipleship are connected. Much of the book also revolves around the concept of “only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes” (emphasis original). The Christian is to die to self, and take up the cross that Jesus has chosen. Believers must not justify their cheap grace by removing the simple, literal commands of Scripture. Discipleship is a constant battle to be focused on following only Jesus and doing as he commands. Man needs to be conformed to the image of Christ, by allowing Christ to live in and through him.Life Together focuses on fellowship and how believers should live in community. Christians are united together on a doctrinal, rather than emotional, basis because of the presence of the Spirit and the work of Christ. He then explores what a typical day in a Christian community would entail. Believers in the community must both minister the word of God and listen to the word of God. Christ is the sole authority in the community, and it seeks to be guided by the simple wisdom of Christ. Confession is one of the main sources of life in the community. As believers confess their sins to each other they understand their own wickedness and learn to live under the cross.WWII and the Unfinished WorksBonhoeffer had left Germany in 1939, but returned when he realized that war was inevitable because he wanted to suffer with the people he was called to minister to. While in Germany, he joined the resistance to Hitler and also joined the Abwehr, the German military intelligence, to gain access outside the country. However, after the assassination attempt at Smolensk, Bonhoeffer was arrested and remained in prison for a year and a half until he was executed on April 9th, 1945. During his participation in the resistance and some of the time in prison, Bonhoeffer worked on his Ethics, and the letters he sent from prison were collected and turned into The Letters and Papers from Prison. Since Bonhoeffer was unable to finish Ethics, the editor chose to place the framework for Ethics in the first half and random essays on specific ethical issues in the second half. Bonhoeffer uses the simplicity concept that he earlier developed in The Cost of Discipleship to say that meditation on Christ is the path to wisdom and correct ethics. Christian ethics is about becoming like Christ, but this can only be done in the church. The believer becomes like Christ through confession, and can begin to understand reality which is only found in God. Bonhoeffer saw the world as unified in the kingdom of Christ, and the church is where God’s kingdom can be seen. Living in the will of God is the key to all ethical behavior.Letters and Papers from Prison is a mixed bag. Because of the separation Bonhoeffer faced from the Christian community that he held so important to spiritual life, it is possible that some of these letters reflect ideas caused by bitterness and sorrow instead of careful reflection. Therefore, as some of Bonhoeffer’s letters do not seem to match his earlier theology it is difficult to know if they truly reflect Bonhoeffer. The Letters from April 30 and May 4 of 1944 introduce the topic of religionless Christianity. However, these questions do not represent the conclusions of Bonhoeffer, though some take them to be conclusions. Instead, Bonhoeffer later has a book outline on how to reform the church in the August 3 letter of 1944. This letter does not advocate religionless Christianity, but rather a revitalization and redefinition of the church.Doctrine of the WordA key aspect of Bonhoeffer’s thought that showed development over time was his doctrine of the Word. The Bible is not the Word of God, but it may become the word of God when it is preached in the church. The Word is the Word the church preaches. Not the Bible, then? Yes, the Bible too, but only in the church. So it is the church that first makes the Bible into the ‘Word’? Certainly, in so far, that is, as the church was first created and is maintained by the Word. The question as to what came first, the Word or the church is meaningless, because the Word as inspired by the Spirit exists only when men hear it, so that the church makes the Word just as the Word makes the church into the church. The Bible is the Word only in the church, that is, in the sanctorum communio. The Word is concretely present in the church as the Word of Scripture and of preaching—essentially as the latter. There is no distinction between these in themselves, since so long as they are not inspired by the Spirit they remain the word of man. The Spirit has not united himself in substance with the word of the Bible. The authority of the Word is not dependent on the preacher that is proclaiming the Word, for he may not be part of the sanctorum communio, but the preaching of the Word is still effective through the work of the Holy Spirit. In Act and Being the final act of revelation is God living in the church as a whole.Conclusion Bonhoeffers development of the church and of the Word were unique to him through his sociological lens. Furthermore, his courage to return and suffer with the people he was to minister to is commendable. Bonhoeffer’s The Call to Discipleship has been used to motivate many to godly living, and his concept of cheap grace versus costly grace is helpful. From an orthodox prospective, however, the theology of Bonhoeffer is dangerous. He is unwilling to see the Bible as the Word of God in written form, and the implications from many of his prison letters are entirely unorthodox. Altizer, Thomas J. J., and William Hamilton.?Radical Theology and the Death of God. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1968.Bonhoeffer, Dietrich.?Prisoner for God: Letters and Papers from Prison. Translated by Reginald H. Fuller. New York: Macmillan, 1959.Bonhoeffer, Dietrich.?The Communion of the Saints: A Dogmatic Inquiry into the Sociology of the Church. Translated by Christian Kaiser Verlag. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.Bonhoeffer, Dietrich.?The Cost of Discipleship. Translated by Kaiser Verlag Munchen. New York: Macmillan, 1979.Bonhoeffer, Dietrich.?A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Edited by Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton. Nelson. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1990.Dumas, Andre?.?Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologian of Reality. Translated by Robert McAfee Brown. New York: Macmillan, 1971.Fletcher, Joseph F.?Situation Ethics. Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1986.God, Desiring. "Q&A on Bonhoeffer with Eric Metaxas and John Piper." YouTube. May 03, 2013. Accessed April 16, 2019. , John D.?The Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960.Kuhns, William.?In Pursuit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dayton: Pfaulm Press, 1967.Marsh, Charles.?Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. New York: Random House, 2015.Marty, Martin E., ed.?The Place of Bonhoeffer: Problems and Possibilities in His Thought. New York: Association Press, 1962.Moltmann, Ju?rgen, and Ju?rgen Weissbach.?Two Studies in the Theology of Bonhoeffer. Translated by Reginald H. Fuller and Ilse Fuller. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967.Ott, Heinrich.?Reality and Faith: The Theological Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Translated by Alex A. Morrison. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972.Roark, Dallas M.?Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Edited by Bob E. Patterson. Makers of the Modern Theological Mind. Waco: Word Books, 1975.Robertson, Edwin Hanton.?Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Makers of Contemporary Theology. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1966.Weikart, Richard. "Metaxas's Counterfeit Bonhoeffer." California State University Stanislaus. Accessed April 22, 2019. , Richard. "The Troubling Truth of Bonhoeffer's Theology."?Christian Research Journal35, no. 6 (2012).Woelfel, James W.?Bonhoeffer's Theology: Classical and Revolutionary. New York: Abingdon, 1970. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download