Dietrich Bonhoeffer Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

One month after Glen told me that he had terminal cancer, I was sitting with him at his dining table in Pasadena, California, discussing an autobiography that he intended as his final book. Glen asked me, "What should I include in my autobiography?" I insisted that he finally write about race. I knew that the topic was important for him as one of the central concepts influencing the connection he made between the way of Jesus and justice within his overall project in theological ethics. Throughout his long and fruitful career that included active participation in the Civil Rights Movement, advocating for human rights, opposition to the death penalty, opposition to torture, advocacy for Palestinians, for the environment, and for just peacemaking, one could hear an underdeveloped response to racism. But it was subtle, and awkward. He wanted to talk about it to improve his understanding. I was sure that he should finally do so in his autobiography. Glen had stories. During the Civil Rights Movement he was an activist, partnering with other activists who struggled for an end to Jim Crow segregation. His family was involved in that work as well, in a collective advocacy for a better society and in opposition to practices of authoritarianism and domination that target society's most vulnerable. Glen's activism stemmed from his formative childhood years in a Christian family that valued integrity and fairness and paid attention to social issues.

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- Anthropology, Aesthetics, Race and Racism, Reinhold Niebuhr

The basic thesis of this paper is that, by assigning discipleship the same starting point as Christology, Bonhoeffer provides an account in which, on the one hand, the task of Christology is an act of discipleship, and, on the other hand, discipleship is grounded in and shaped by Christology. Thus, I will argue that by attending to Bonhoeffer’s Christology of the counter Logos a corresponding understanding of discipleship emerges in which harmful conceptions of self and group identity must be consistently challenged and broken down. As a case study, I will look at how this plays out in relation to white supremacy in the church.

- by Koert Verhagen
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- Christology, White Supremacy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship

Excerpt from book published by Pickwick publications, 2014

- by Geoff Broughton
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- Restorative Justice, Christology, Luke-Acts, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- by Lisa E Dahill
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- Christian Spirituality, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Contemporary political theology often defines itself against Lutheran social ethics, which is portrayed as politically disengaged and overly deferential to state power. At the same time, contemporary political theology often embraces the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an exemplary political theologian. This incongruity is generally resolved by distancing Bonhoeffer from his tradition, at least on matters of political theology. But Bonhoeffer's political theology was thoroughly Lutheran. Throughout the years of his political-theological engagement, from the Nazi rise to power in 1932-33 to the drafting of Ethics and related writing in 1940-43, he participated in ongoing conversations within Lutheran social ethics on the issues of, among others, the two kingdoms and the orders. In the process, he critically appropriated these elements of Lutheran thinking into an especially dynamic and christocentric framework that in turn informed his positions on various issues such as the church's proclamation against the Nazi state and the ecumenical church's witness for peace. Bonhoeffer is an example of Lutheran political theology, one that suggests the need to revise at least the more sweeping judgments about Lutheran theology as inherently incompatible with political engagement.

- by Michael P DeJonge
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- Theology, Historical Theology, Lutheranism, Liberation Theology

This handbook provides a comprehensive resource for those wishing to understand the German theologian, pastor, and resistance conspirator Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) and his writings. It contains sections on Bonhoeffer’s life and context, his contributions to all areas of systematic theology and ethics, constructive uses of Bonhoeffer for engaging contemporary issues, and resources for studying Bonhoeffer today. Contributors include leading Bonhoeffer scholars, historians, theologians, and ethicists.

- by Michael Mawson
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- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Introducing Dietrich Bonhoeffer to the field of communication rests upon one key assertion--Bonhoeffer's life and work provide us with insight into a communication style that is responsive to diverse ideas in a time of crisis. His communicative manner is dissimilar from that of those who contend with one another from a standpoint of conviction while being oblivious to the pragmatic importance of self-doubt. Bonhoeffer's position takes us far beyond the impulse of blind defense of one's own ideas, revealing the pragmatic importance of unifying what, at first blush, look like contradictory communicative actions: conviction and doubt. Bonhoeffer's communicative wisdom did not permit him to succumb to the temptation of conviction without question; he tempered his own and others' enthusiasm for assuming the undisputed correctness of their convictions.

- by Ronald C Arnett
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- Communication, Dialogue, Communication Ethics, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Woord en Dienst 69 nr. 1 (2020), 24-25.

- by Herman Paul
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- Secularization, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Der 20.Juli ist in Deutschland dem Andenken des deutschen Widerstandes während der Nazi-Diktatur gewidmet. Er ist aber auch dem gewidmet, was wir das „Gewissen“ nennen, weil es beim deutschen Widerstand sich um einen extremen Konflikt von Gesellschaft und Individuum handelt. Wenn sich Individuen entscheiden, nicht nur gegen einen Teil, sondern gegen die Gesellschaft als Ganze sich zu verhalten, werden sie automatisch in einen inneren – moralischen – Konflikt getrieben. Diesen Konflikt hat Graf Stauffenberg in seinen berühmten Sätzen so ausgedrückt: „Derjenige, der etwas zu tun wagt, muss sich bewusst sein, dass er wohl als Verräter in die deutsche Geschichte eingehen wird. Unterlässt er jedoch die Tat, dann wäre er ein Verräter vor seinem Gewissen.“ In meinem Beitrag analysiere ich den Begriff des Gewissens in Hinsicht auf seine existentiellen, moralischen, und religiösen Aspekte.

- by Christian Lotz
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- Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Conscience, G.W.F. Hegel

The argument being made in this thesis is that Karl Rahner’s views on prison ministry, although valuable and of significance in their context, are not adequate to deal with the more complex needs and demands of prison ministry in the twenty first century. A greater pastoral appreciation is necessary of the traumas, conflicts and suffering experienced by prisoners, prison pastors, prison staff and, indeed, in the wider world. The subjective world of the prisoner also needs to be addressed in an effort to engage with his/her innate human desire for meaning and fulfilment. Consequently, a more contemporary approach to prison ministry is required today which will draw on concrete experience of the above-mentioned traumas and conflicts and which will be sensitive to and inspired by the search for meaning as experienced by prisoners/facilitated by prison pastors. Such an approach leads to a theology based on empowerment that can be found through a creative and meaning-centred response to suffering, as illustrated by the lives of Viktor E. Frankl, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn and Etty Hillesum.

The paper discusses the distinction between content (core, nucleus) and linguistic formulation of theological statements as a fundamental hermeneutical structure of modern theology. Adolf von Harnack, Rudolf Bultmann and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are examined as representatives of this theological "Denkform", with its limits, but also with its permanent topical interest.

- by Fulvio Ferrario
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- Systematic Theology, Hermeneutics, Theological Hermeneutics, Protestantism

Although it has been claimed that Dietrich Bonhoeffer's controversial 1933 essay on "The Church and the Jewish Question" is riddled with inconsistencies, I argue that the essay is entirely consistent at least on the issue of church action with respect to the state. Seeing this requires recognizing that the essay is driven by the logic of the two kingdoms, that Lutheran way of understanding God's action in two dimensions of life, the spiritual and temporal.

- by Michael P DeJonge
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- Theology, Historical Theology, Lutheranism, Jewish - Christian Relations

Este texto e fruto de um estudo sobre a historia de Dietrich Bonhoeffer, tendo sido desenvolvido com a metodologia de pesquisa bibliografica sob o vies da traducao de mais de uma dezena de obras, cujas discussoes elucidam a cristologia bonhoefferiana. A vida e a obra desse martir estao enfocadas no significativo ato de falar de Jesus naquela epoca e na contemporaneidade. O legado do pastor mostra que um cristao nao e vencido pelas barreiras politico-sociais.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's story is of great relevance for bringing the life and writings of a martyr who serves as a living testimony of the Christian faith to other times. From this insight, the object of this study is Bonhoeffer's contribution to the act of speaking of Jesus today, meaning that time of World War II and the present day. This pastor's biography aggregates productions that emphasize Christ as the center. In this north, the main objective is to present Bonhoefferian thinking about Christology, the new theology, and the majority of the world. The specifics objetives are to show contexts of Bonhoeffer's life and work; demonstrate the characteristics of Christology and aspects of Christianity; understand his theology and the idea of adulthood and highlight the importance of his recognized legacy in the world. The justification comes from the interest of continuing what was studied during the theology course made by the researcher and of adding knowledge to the first formation in the area of medicine, which makes it possible to receive the Master of Religious Studies. The methodology is a qualitative bibliographic research, whose works in English were translated by the researcher, having as authors Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1966; 2009), James W. Woelfel (1970), Ralf K. Wüstenberg (1998), Wayne Whitson Floyd (Wayne Whitson Floyd Jr. (1999), Ernst Feil (2007), Sabine Dramm (2007), Larry L. Rasmussen (2009), Haynes and Hale (2009), Eberhard Bethge (2010), John W. de Gruchy (2010), Eduardo Delás Segura (2011), Michael P. DeJonge (2012). These are the main theorists that underlie the discussions, where the main question is what does it mean to speak of Jesus Christ today? This is the question that emerges in Bonhoeffer's speeches recorded at different times in his productions. The work is divided into three chapters, by which the importance of this research is evidenced. The thought of this martyr is revealed in the writings that recorded how he lived, highlighting the most difficult phases that have made him a witness to the Christian faith in all times.

- by Ivoni Richter Reimer
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- History, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teología, Etic

Near the end of 1945, just a few weeks before his execution, Dietrich Bonhoeffer laid his thoughts to illegal scraps of paper in what eventually became part of the posthumous collection of writings entitled Letters and Papers from Prison. Bonhoeffer believed that the citizens of Germany had been “made stupid” by the smothering social atmosphere and pageantry of the Nazis. Unable to make sense of their realities, too many people were unable to recognize the horrors they were complicit in. Fortunately, “stupidity” is not all powerful and recent experiments in cognitive science seem to show that developing efficient accuracy in the connection between our thoughts, beliefs, and reality is not impossible, but takes a lot more time, practice, and discipline than our common assumptions would have us believe. Furthermore, there are few better places than the social constructed space of a church context capable of providing the support and encouragement needed to burn away the fog of stupor resulting from propagandistic efforts. Bonhoeffer believed “only an act of liberation not instruction, can overcome stupidity,” and that this internal cognitive liberation could only proceed via external liberation. A liberation possible only by living a “responsible life before God,” self-sacrificing, and devoted to radically serving and loving one’s neighbor. In light of this, I make the claim that it is an ethical imperative for those declaring devotion to God to do their best to provide and cultivate space for the possibility of a liberation from “stupidity.”

- by Jordan Loewen-Colón
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- Religion, Cognitive Science, Ethics, Propaganda

1. Definition von Gemeinwesendiakonie 2. Geschichte der Gemeinwesendiakonie 3. Wozu eine theologische Begründung der Gemeinwesendiakonie? 4. Dogmatische Begründungen der Gemeinwesendiakonie 5. Theologisch-ethische Begründungen der... more

1. Definition von Gemeinwesendiakonie
2. Geschichte der Gemeinwesendiakonie
3. Wozu eine theologische Begründung der Gemeinwesendiakonie?
4. Dogmatische Begründungen der Gemeinwesendiakonie
5. Theologisch-ethische Begründungen der Gemeinwesendiakonie
6. Praktisch-theologische Begründungen der Gemeinwesendiakonie

- by Alexander Dietz
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- Theology, Christology, Dogmatic theology, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A reflection on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's *Life Together*.

- by E.J. Hutchinson
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- Practical theology, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Confessing Church, Practical Theology

Reggie Williams provides a vivid primer on the christologies of key African American writers in the Harlem Renaissance as well as portraying the social conditions that surround the movement. The book extends their protest by drawing stark lines between black and white Christs, sustaining the subtitle’s ethic of resistance if not probing more deeply into Bonhoeffer’s critique of an enduring rift.

- by David S Robinson
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- Theological Ethics, Race and Ethnicity, Harlem Renaissance, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"In a book of intriguing title, which ensued from a doctoral disertation, Brant M. Himes connects life and thinking of two Christian theologians about discipleship. What does a Dutch Calvinist, founder of a university and a political party, pastor, journalist, and prime minister (Abraham Kuyper) have in common with a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, spy, and a co-c onspirator on Hitler’s life (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)? Apart from the obvious answer that both were Christians, they shared a rich theological and practical commitment to following Jesus Christ in discipleship that did not stop at their personal or even ecclesial lives but continued to influence the world. Indeed, both were 'worldly' Christians, not in terms of their engagement with immorality and sin as Christians most commonly use this term, but in terms of their commitment to the well-being of the world."

- by Miroslav Balint-Feudvarski
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- Systematic Theology, Calvinism, Lutheranism, Abraham Kuyper
- by Anatoliy Denysenko
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- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Partiendo del principio protestante del "sacerdocio de todos los creyentes", que propuso Lutero , se plantean las implicaciones teológicas y eclesiales de este "sacerdocio universal", como la confesión de la "sanctorum communio". Se hace una intersección con la salud mental, en cuanto la comunidad cristiana responde, desde una ética del dolor, a las experiencias de sufrimiento psíquico. Se plantean las miradas de comprensión de dicho sufrimiento desde la psicopatología y los abordajes psicoterapéuticos, así como se plantean las formas de intervención desde las comunidades de fe para el crecimiento y la curación.

- by Victor Hernandez
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- Community Psychology, Psychotherapy, Mental Health, Community Resilience

The unpublished seminar paper seeks an interpretation of Bonhoeffer's thought on the basis of the assumption that for him Christian theory and praxis formed a unity. It therefore takes as its starting point his book Discipleship (Nachfolge) and argues that 'Nachfolge' is a very helpful concept to grasp the unity of Bonhoeffer's life and thought.

- by Johannes Zachhuber
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- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Imitation of Christ
- by Rhys S Bezzant
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- Book of Psalms, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Bonhoeffer's Ethics

Nonviolent resistance is a term we least hear in today’s society. However, the world has witnessed two great martyrs of nonviolent resistance. These are Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Mahatma Gandhi. The two advocates of nonviolence and non-resistance engaged themselves in their lifetime to resist oppression without any resort to violence. To Bonhoeffer, a call to follow Christ is a call to die. His ransom work The Cost of Discipleship continues to influence ethical discussion and Christian lifestyle. Gandhi, known as the champion of nonviolence, saw non-violence as a soul-force or moral response to an unjust government; a principle he stood for in all of his entire life and died for it. These two moral idealists are models of transformational ethics who remain as great martyrs of the modern era. This paper examines the major theories of these two champions of nonviolence and how their values influenced political liberations in both India and South Africa.

The contribution of Bonhoeffer’s work to theology cannot be considered without attending to the social ontology that he introduces in his early writings and later performs in his pastoral and ecclesial work. Reexamining the structure and development of Bonhoeffer’s social ontology from Sanctorum Communio to Life Together provides the basis to identify a Bonhoefferian approach to social analysis, which complements two prominent approaches in theology and ethics that reflect Stanley Hauerwas’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s influence. A Bonhoefferian approach incorporates the insights of each approach and also addresses their intrinsic limitations. The life together envisaged by Bonhoeffer describes and performs an approach to social analysis that attends to the structure of community, the transformation of organization, the priority of ecclesial relations, and the practices that comprise the condition for possibility for encounter under the Word.

- by Dustin Benac
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- Social Sciences, Ecclesiology, Pierre Bourdieu, Stanley Hauerwas
- by Katherine Steinly
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- Education, Christian Spirituality, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Children
- by Jos Douma
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- Spirituality, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditation

At the Berlin Sports Stadium in 1933, in front of 20,000 supporters, the cross was denounced as 'a ridiculous debilitating remnant of Judaism, unacceptable to National Socialists.' Nazis believed that it was un-aryan to let Jesus take our sins on the cross. Bonhoeffer responded by forming the Confessing Church movement which rejected racism and hatred of others. The Confessing Church started five seminaries/centres for training future pastors. Many Confessing Churches were firebombed by gangs of Hitler Youth. On December 1935, the Nazis declared the Confessing Church to be illegal.

- by Dr Ed Hird
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- Antisemitism (Prejudice), Second World War, Antisemitism/Racisms, World War II

Communio (portuguesa) 3 (2016), pp. 325-340

- by Ivica Zizic
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- Liturgical Studies, Liturgy, Franz Rosenzweig, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Friendship has been valued since classical times and is also an important category from a theological perspective; Christians are even called ‘friends of God’ (Jn 15:15). For a theological reflection on friendship, we will be drawing upon the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Jürgen Moltmann in this contribution. While numerous differences exist in Bonhoeffer and Moltmann’s theology, both have written about the Christian community extensively. We will examine friendship as the theological environment in which we learn how to relate to others
not only privately, but also in the public arena, seeking the common good. Friendship, we argue, should not remain in an enclosed area within the personal relationship where we remain friends with those who are similar to us. Rather, friendship, as a theological model, is the space where we can practice the attributes of friendship to enable us to live this out within the broader society with those with whom we are not necessarily friends, but with all people. Friendship can form the environment for us to be ‘trained’ in the characteristics of theological
friendship where we are friends in freedom and without hierarchy, and, in so doing, learn to treat all human beings as equal.

- by Manitza Kotzé and +1
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- Friendship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jürgen Moltmann
- by Anatoliy Denysenko
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- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Religionless Christianity, World Come of Age

We tend to view the narrative of a church and its involvement in mission as describing
predominately either a social phenomenon or a “divine image.” To do so, however,
leaves us with a single-dimensional narrative. Under the term Sanctorum Communio,
Bonhoeffer developed an ecclesiology that blends these two narratives into a
single, multidimensional entity. Using Bonhoeffer’s perspective, I retell the history
of Golongane Wong Kristen kang Mardika, Sadrach’s Javanese nineteenth-century
community, not merely as a historical community or a divine “product,” but as a
liberatio communio. This ecclesiological identity involves the transformation from a
peccatorum communio to a sanctorum communio

- by Yoshua B Harahap
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- Theology, History of Missions, Ecclesiology, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- by David Rossé
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- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In this paper the author contends that the normative response to state sanctioned violence is Christian pacifism. This is not a passive type of existence but a call to enter into the transnational, and global community seeing residents of all countries as brothers and sisters in Christ. Christian Pacifism therefore sees peace as a gift already given to us, and that we bear the burden of bringing that to a world wedded to nationalism by showing the shared humanity of us all. Therefore in living out the gift of peace we enter the world's conflict seeking to show resolution in the midst of tragedy.

- by Shoshanna E . Carroll
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- Peace and Conflict Studies, Pacifism, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas
- by Robert Vosloo
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- Systematic Theology, Continental Philosophy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer