Dietrich Bonhoeffer Part 2

Question 1

What is cheap and costly grace for Bonhoeffer?

Answer 1

• Cheap Grace is grace from God which is merely given through Christian rituals
• Costly Grace is grace that can cost someone their life, as it did Jesus’ and its true grace as it results in salvation

Question 2

Why did Bonhoeffer believe Christianity should not be an institution?

Answer 2

• Argued that Christianity must focus on ‘Only Christ, only scripture, only faith’

Question 3

How is suffering a vital part of Christianity? (Quote Psalms)

Answer 3

“Good for me that I was afflicted… I might learn thy statutes”

• Suffering in Christianity is part of a “world come of age” where God is not a supreme leader but suffering in solidarity with humankind (Christ)
• Bonhoeffer knew he might die but was “distinctly a Christian martyr” - Von Klemperer as he did not focus on suffering but on obeying the will of God v

Question 4

What is Bonhoeffers take on ‘crisis’ and Karl Barths use of it?

Answer 4

• Krisis = dispute and judgement

- Due to crisis of the world, God reveals his crisis (judgement)

Question 5

What was Bonhoeffers take on the Church acting out of solidarity?

Answer 5

• Jesus was a ‘man for others’ therefore we must have a ‘Church for others’
• Despite Jesus’ mission to act in solidarity with the weak, ill and marginalised the Church had not done so
• Church in Germany had failed

Question 6

Bonhoeffer on solidarity against injustice? (Quote)

Answer 6

• Essay ‘The Church and the Jewish Question’
  1) The Church must question whether state actions are legitimate and hold them accountable
  2) Must help all victims regardless of beliefs
  3) Must engage in resistance to reverse injustice and ‘put a spoke in the wheel itself’
  “She has witnessed… suffering of countless people” - Ethics

Question 7

Bonhoeffer on solidarity with the Jews?

Answer 7

• After April 1933 boycott he condemned the actions and met with American theologian Paul Lehmann with his brother and drafted a message to Rabbi Stephen Wise (US Jewish Leader)
• After Kristallknkackt he rejected the common view that this was God’s punishment for Jewish rejection of Christ and called it a godless and violent regime
• Him and his brother collected large sums of money to aid Jewish immigrants

Question 8

What is the argument against Bonhoeffer’s ethics working with global politics?

Answer 8

• Some argue his ethics only applicable to the extreme circumstance of the Nazi era
  1) He compromises Christian pacifism in a bizarre situation where it is untenable
  2) Western threats to stability, e.g China, USA, Middle East, is multiple threats, more complex not just one common enemy
  3) Theology cannot deal with life in a stable, liberal democratic society

Question 9

What is the argument for Bonhoeffers ethics working with global politics?

Answer 9

• Stanley Hauerwas argues that his concern for truth challenges the pragmatic view of the Western World, reminds political leaders to not confuse tolerance with a lack of engagement with truth
• A society that only practices tolerance for pragmatic reasons without idea of truth, leads to indifference, indifference leads to cynicism
• Lib societies undermine truth which leads to the void filled by totalitarian regimes

Question 10

What is a plural moral society?

Answer 10

• A society in which each group/person pursue their own ethical code which is not absolute but relative to a persons situation
• We are tolerant of these views up until they begin to do harm

Question 11

How does Joseph Fletcher interpret Bonhoeffer’s ethics?

Answer 11

• He believed Bonhoeffer was a moral relativist
• He used example of Mother Maria who gave up her life for a Jewish girl to show how killing cannot be an absolute wrong
  “radical a version of the situational method as any Christian relativist”

Question 12

Why might people argue against Fletchers view of Bonhoeffer?

Answer 12

• He is not a moral relativist as he believes ethics are formed outside of secular society through Christian discipline
• He believes in truth and doesn’t believe in relativising truth as lib societies do
• Telling a lie still remains WRONG, regardless of the situation, we must act through faith and conscience
• In pursuit of being non-judgemental contemporary society has lost sight of what is absolute trugh

Question 13

What is the argument against Bonhoeffers ethics not being compatible with multi-faith societies?

Answer 13

• Bonhoeffer often talked of how Jews should eventually convert to Christianity
• Though he did not reinforce this critics suggest it could cause resentment and hatred

Question 14

What is the argument for Bonhoeffers ethics being compatible with multi-faith societies?

Answer 14

• Essay ‘After Ten Years’ he wrote about experiencing life ‘from below’ where he was oppressed
• He found the experience of sympathy is not merely tolerance but the experience of belonging to a faith that is prejudiced and discriminated against
• All religions can take this idea of sympathy as ‘costly grace’ as developing a genuine multi faith society incurs costs and sacrifices