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- English
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eBook - ePub
Ethics DBW Vol 6
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Yes, you can access Ethics DBW Vol 6 by Dietrich Bonhoeffer,Charles C. West in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Religion. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
History and Good (1) [1]
All that has been said thus far[2] implies that we have abandoned theabstract notion, largely dominant in ethical thought, of an isolated individual who has available an absolute criterion by which to choose continually and exclusively between a clearly recognized good and a clearly recognized evil.[3] Such an isolated individual does not exist; nor do we have such an absolute criterion of the good simply at our disposal; nor do good and evil present themselves to us in their pure form. The error of such an abstract ethical scheme is this: only the isolated individual is considered ethically relevant; only what is absolute[4] and universal is seen as normative; and only the choice between the clearly recognized good and the clearly recognized evil is acknowledged as an ethical decision. In other words, the ļ¬aw of such a scheme lies in the attempt to reduce ethics [das Ethische] to a static basic formula. The result is a ļ¬ctitious construct lacking precisely the speciļ¬cally ethical dimension. Corresponding to this abstraction is a particular kind of practical conduct, an everĀ-Ārepeated search for a solution to the ethical dilemma that is doomed to fail over and over again. What this amounts to is individuals pulling back from the living responsibility of their historical existence into a private realization of ethical ideals by which they see their own personal goodness guaranteed. In this approach, the ethical task is viewed as applying speciļ¬c principles, regardless of the consequences for the particular context. Depending on how radical these principles are, this attitude will lead, by way of withdrawing from responsibility for the whole, to a purely private bourgeois existence, or even into the monastery.[5] However, in practice the ethical isolation of the individual is a ļ¬ctitious notion. For no one can withdraw completely from human community, indeed, everyoneās life is dependent on it. That is why this understanding of ethics is doomed to fail. It fails due to the historicity [Geschichtlichkeit] of human existence.[6]
This means that a human being necessarily lives in encounter with other human beings and that this encounter entails being charged, in ever so many ways, with responsibility [Verantwortung] for the other human being.[7] History arises out of accepting this responsibility for other human beings or for entire communities or groups of communities.[8] Individuals do not act merely for themselves alone; each individual incorporates the selves of several people, perhaps even a very large number. The father of a family,[9] for example, can no longer act as if he were merely an individual. In his own self, he incorporates the selves of those family members for whom he is responsible. Everything he does is determined by this sense of responsibility. Any attempt to act and live as if he were alone would not only abdicate his responsibility, but also deny at the same time the reality on which his responsibility is based. For he does not cease to be the father of a family; rather, instead of being a good father, he is now simply a bad one. He is a good father if he takes on and acts according to the responsibility reality places on him.
The moment a person accepts responsibility for other peopleāand only in so doing does the person live in realityāthe genuine ethical situation arises.[10] This is really something different from the abstract way in which people usually seek to come to terms with the ethical problem. The subject of the action is no longer the isolated individual, but the one who is responsible for other people. The actionās norm is not a universal principle, but the concrete neighbor, as given to me by God.[11] The choice is made no longer between a clearly recognized good and a clearly recognized evil; instead, it is risked in faith while being aware that good and evil are hidden in the concrete historical situation.[12]
To act out of concrete responsibility means to act in freedom[13]āto decide, to act, and to answer for the consequences of this particular action myself without the support of other people or principles. Responsibility presupposes ultimate freedom in assessing a given situation, in choosing, and in acting. Responsible action is neither determined from the outset nor deļ¬ned once and for all; instead, it is born in the given situation. The point is not to apply a principle that eventually will be shattered by reality anyway, but to discern what is necessary or ācommandedā[14] in a given situation. One must observe, weigh, and judge the matter, all in the dangerous freedom of oneās own self.[15] One must indeed enter the sphere of relativity, in the twilight[16] that the historical situation casts over good and evil. The selfĀ-Ādenial often necessary for those who act responsibly is to prefer what is better over what is less good, since āabsolute goodā is capable, to an even greater extent, of provoking nothing less than evil. The soĀ-Ācalled absolute good would in such a case be bad, and that which is relatively better is āabsolutelyā better than the āabsolute good.ā This throws the freedom of those who act responsibly into the sharpest relief: it is freedom from servitude even to an āabsolute good.ā
Those who act responsibly take the given situation or context intoaccount in their acting, not merely as raw material to be shaped by their ideas, but as contributing to forming the act itself. It is not some foreign law[17] that is imposed on reality. Instead, the action of the responsible person is most profoundly in accord with reality.[18]
However, this concept of āaccordance with realityā [das WirklichkeitsgemƤĆe] requires further clariļ¬cation. A misunderstanding would lead to that āservile attitude toward the factsā (Nietzsche)[19] that alwaysretreats from wherever the pressure is greater, that justiļ¬es success on principle,[20] and that in any given situation chooses the expedient as being in accord with reality. Misunderstanding accordance with reality in this sense amounts to irresponsibility. Neither a servile attitude toward the status quo, nor a protest based on principle against the status quo in the name of some ideal reality, leads to genuine accordance with reality, the hallmark of responsible action. Both extremes fall equally wide of what is essential here. In any action that is truly in accord with reality, acknowledgment of the status quo and protest against the status quo are inextricably connected; for, as we have pointed out in chapter 1, the most fundamental reality is the reality of the God who became human.[21] This reality provides both the ultimate foundation and the ultimate negation of everything that actually exists, its ultimate justiļ¬Ācation and ultimate contradiction. In that God became human, and only because of that, human beings and their world are accepted and afļ¬rmed. The afļ¬rmation of human beings is based on Godās taking on humanity, not vice versa. But because of that, they really are afļ¬rmed. God did not take on humanity and become human because humanbeings were worthy of divine afļ¬rmation. Instead, it is because human beings deserved the divine No that God took on humanity and afļ¬rmed it; God became human, thus bearing and suffering, as God, the curse of the divine No upon human nature. The attempt to understand reality apart from that action of God in and upon reality means living in anabstraction; it means failing to live in reality and vacillating between the extremes of a servile attitude toward the status quo and a protest in principle against it. Only Godās becoming human makes possible an action that is genuinely in accord with reality. The world remains world. But it only does so because God has taken care of it and declared it to be under Godās rule. The world must end before the kingdom of God can come. However, this very world that has been condemned in Jesus Christ is in Christ also accepted and loved and is promised a new heaven and a new earth.[22] The world that is passing away has been claimed by God. We must therefore continue to reckon with the worldās worldliness but at the same time reckon with Godās rule over it.[23] What actually exists is given anew its legitimacy and its limits. Afļ¬rmation and contradiction come together in concrete action in the world. However, neither afļ¬rmation nor contradiction is derived from an unreal ideology, but springs from the reality of the worldās reconc...
Table of contents
- Contents
- General Editorās Foreword to Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works
- Abbreviations
- Editorās Introduction to the English Edition
- Ethics
- History and Good [1]
- History and Good [2]
- Godās Love and theDisintegration of the World
- Church and World I
- On the Possibility of the Churchās Message to the World.
- The āEthicalā and theāChristianā as a Topic
- The Concrete Commandment and the Divine Mandates
- Editorsā Afterword to the German Edition
- Appendices
- Bibliography