Christ, Church and World

New Studies in Bonhoeffer's Theology and Ethics

Michael Mawson, Philip G. Ziegler, Michael Mawson, Philip G. Ziegler

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780567683793
• eBook ISBN: 9780567665928
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

What are the pressing questions concerning Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology? What impulses and provocations does his theological legacy offer to contemporary work in Christian theology and ethics? This volume draws together leading international theologians to critically engage Bonhoeffer's Christology, harmartiology, ecclesiology and contributions to Christian-Jewish encounter.

Chapter 1

THE ROLE OF JESUS CHRIST FOR CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

Christiane Tietz

If there is one consensus in Bonhoeffer studies it is that Bonhoeffer’s theology is essentially Christ-oriented.1 The question of ‘who is Christ actually for us today?’,2 over which Bonhoeffer pondered in prison, can be seen as the cantus firmus3 of all his writings: Bonhoeffer started his academic career in his dissertation Sanctorum Communio by defining the essence of the church through the phrase ‘Christ existing as church-community’;4 one of his few university lecture series was on Christology (in 1933);5 his 1937 book Discipleship is about how to follow Christ;6 in his Ethics, the new ethical perspective of Bonhoeffer is based upon his concept of ‘Christ-reality’;7 and Bonhoeffer’s ideas of a ‘religionless Christianity’ and a ‘world come of age’ can only adequately be understood through his late thoughts about the crucified Christ.8 Bonhoeffer is a theologian who conceives the task of theology fundamentally as thinking about Christ, not just thinking about religious communities, religious consciousness or the beauty of creation. These topics may well be important too, but theology’s first and last thought must be Jesus Christ. The first part of this chapter unfolds in general why Bonhoeffer opted for a Christ-oriented theology. The second part then discusses three particular aspects of Bonhoeffer’s theology and demonstrates the relevance of Jesus Christ for each. In all three cases we go on to consider how far these insights can be helpful for theology today.

Some contemporary theologians may think that such an intense orientation towards Christ almost amounts to some kind of fundamentalist theology and so is not open to dialogue. But I am convinced that a strong orientation towards something does not necessarily rule out commitment to dialogue: indeed, one is an even more interesting dialogue partner if one is able to bring a distinctive standpoint to the conversation. The only requirement, of course, is that such convictions do not lead to violence.

Why Jesus Christ is the orienting point of Bonhoeffer’s theology

Bonhoeffer opted for a Christ-oriented theology first of all because of an insight, which he took from Karl Barth’s dialectical theology, that there is no path from human beings to God.9 In a sermon from 1928, Bonhoeffer explains: There are ‘two strong lines …, the only possibilities available if one is to conceive of God and the human being together … one line leads from human beings up to God, the other from God down to human beings, and both exclude each other – and yet belong together.’10 Bonhoeffer parallels these two lines with the distinction of works and grace. The path from humans up to God is the path of works; the path from God to humans is the path of grace. From this, it becomes clear that only the second path from God to humans is acceptable from a Christian perspective with its emphasis on grace. To the path from human beings to God belong history and culture as well as morality and religion. In all this lies a fundamental restlessness, Bonhoeffer observes:

There is in the soul of human beings, as truly as they are human beings, something that makes them restless, something that points them toward the infinite, eternal …. The soul … wants to transcend itself … it wants to be unchangeable and immortal itself … It wants to take the path itself to the eternal, bring the eternal under its control.11

Bonhoeffer appreciates the cultural effects of these attempts at self-transcendence, but at the same time warns: ‘The human race might well point proudly to this blossom of its own sirit except for one thing, namely, that God is God, and grace is grace.’12 Human attempts in religion – and even in the Christian religion – are impressive, but always remain in the human realm and under the dominion of sin: ‘Even in their most spiritual spirituality – in religion – human beings remain human beings, and that means sinners; their religion is part of their flesh, and that means part of their desire for happiness, for blessedness, for pleasure, and that means for their own ego.’13 Human beings are not able to exit their human, sinful reality and reach and recognize God: ‘Human knowledge of God remains precisely that: human, limited, relative, anthropomorphic knowledge.’14 Bonhoeffer concludes: ‘If human beings and God are to come together, there is but one way, namely, the way from God to human beings.’15 And this way is Jesus Christ. ‘Only one thing remains, namely, that God comes to human beings and bestows grace; the path from eternity into time, the path of Jesus Christ … Not religion, but revelation and grace: this was the word of redemption, revealed to the world.’16

Why is Jesus Christ the only path between God and human beings? Bonhoeffer gives several reasons. With Barth (and Søren Kierkegaard) he names as one reason the infinite qualitative distance between God and human beings, but also human beings’ sinfulness which lets every human attempt remain within the circle of the homo incurvatus in se (the human curved in upon him- or herself).

It is also this: that God is not an idea or principle but a person.17 You can include an idea or principle in your own intellectual system and thus take possession of it. A person instead is free.18 A person cannot be extrapolated or calculated by us. A person has to reveal herself to be known, as Bonhoeffer explains in Sanctorum Communio.19 From this it follows that to recognize God, as a person, human beings need a revelation of God.

Furthermore, the form of the revelation has to be in accordance with God’s character as a person. Because of his or her freedom, a person exists in ‘once-ness’.20 The only place of once-ness is history, because here things happen contingently.21 Revelation in the once-ness of history has happened in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, God entered into history and spoke his revealing word to the world. For Bonhoeffer, Christ is not a theoretical concept, some principle of humanity or some idea of neighbourly love. The revelation of the person of God is the revelation in a person, the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth.

But how is the historical person Jesus still relevant for us today? This question is important since, as Bonhoeffer explains in his B...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents 
• List of Abbreviations
• Contributors
• INTRODUCTION Michael Mawson and Philip G. Ziegler
• Chapter 1 THE ROLE OF JESUS CHRIST FOR CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY Christiane Tietz
• Chapter 2 BEYOND BONHOEFFER IN LOYALTY TO BONHOEFFER:RECONSIDERING BONHOEFFER’S CHRISTOLOGICAL AVERSION TO THEOLOGICAL METAPHYSICS Christopher R. J. Holmes
• Chapter 3 ‘WE BELIEVE IN ONE LORD, JESUS CHRIST’: A PRO-NICENE REVISION OF BONHOEFFER’S 1933 CHRISTOLOGY LECTURES Stephen J. Plant
• Chapter 4 ADAM IN CHRIST? THE PLACE OF SIN IN CHRIST-REALITY Eva Harasta
• Chapter 5 BEARING SIN IN THE CHURCH: THE ECCLESIAL HAMARTIOLOGY OF BONHOEFFER Tom Greggs
• Chapter 6 ‘COMPLETELY WITHIN GOD’S DOING’: SOTERIOLOGY AS META-ETHICS IN THE THEOLOGY OF DIETRICH BONHOEFFER Philip G. Ziegler
• Chapter 7 CREATURES BEFORE GOD: BONHOEFFER, DISABILITY AND THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Michael Mawson
• Chapter 8 BONHOEFFER’S TWO-KINGDOMS THINKING IN ‘THE CHURCH AND THE JEWISH QUESTION’ Michael P. DeJonge
• Chapter 9 DIETRICH BONHOEFFER AND THE JEWS IN CONTEXT Andreas Pangritz
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright