CMA !!!!!

Bonhoeffer AO1

• criticise the Church if it diverged from the Bible

• Pastors Emergency League in 1934 which evolved into the Confessing Church, made to oppose the state Church controlled by the Nazis

• LUTHERAN PASTOR

• conspiracy to assassinate Hitler which included Hans Oster who had recruited Bonhoeffer

• book on how Christianity needs to focus more on action in the service of God’s will- cost of discipleship

• Finkenwalde was where Bonhoeffer held an illegal secret seminary

• TRAINING SAW SUFFERING IN OTHER COUNTRIES-

• NAZI ARYAN CLAUSE- JEWISH COULDNT WORK- ROOT OUT- BON AGAINST

• Solidarity for Bonhoeffer refers to the purpose of Christian life being about relationship to God by living with and for other people- returned form america- RIGHT BEFORE WW2

• ‘no right’ to help restoring Christianity in Germany after the war unless he shared ‘the trials of this time with my people’

• Barmen declaration- shouldnt follow idolotry nazi agenda- ignore their declaration- led to confessing church

Knowing and acting on God’s will AO1

• thought that the fall corrupted our ability to have knowledge of good and evil- thought traditional human methods of ethics, including reason, conscience, virtue and duty, had all failed

• Our goal should be to become a ‘responsible person’ – someone who acts to stand their ground against evil

• highly risky and difficult, but when faced with evil we must act

• duty to god outweighs duty to state

• CHRIST ALONE WE HAVE OUR DUTY- LEADERSHIP OF CHRIST

• Even though killing is wrong and could destabilize the country, Bonhoeffer had faith it was God’s will

• best we can do is meditate on the bible and pray, hoping to get a sense of God’s will

• must risk a “bold venture of faith”- costly grace

Knowing and acting on God’s will AO2

however

• Taking part in violence goes against pacifism & the will of God- conflicts with Jesus’ teachings which seem to recommend pacifism- turn the other cheek - Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t ever use violence, let alone kill anyone- ‘it is necessary’ that Christians should obey their rulers since the rulers are ‘God’s servant for your good’

• Subjectivity issue. The Neo-Orthodox idea that a person could hear God’s voice through the Bible or by it be brought into a direct encounter with God seems far too subjective

counter

• However: Barth & Bonhoeffer’s Neo-Orthodox view of the Bible- Bonhoeffer doesn’t think the Bible is the perfect word of God- Bonhoeffer told his students to meditate daily on the bible just want to try and hear go speaking through it

• “The will of God is not a system of rules which is established from the outset

• “The knowledge of Jesus Christ … is something that is alive and not something given once for all

• Bonhoeffer called principles from previous times as ‘rusty swords’

Bonhoeffer on Church, state & civil disobedience AO1

• Bonhoeffer agreed with Luther that Christians should obey the state’s laws because order is useful for sinful creatures like us. However, human law is fallible

• rejection totalitarianism

• Church should therefore have the important political role to check gov

• Barmen declaration- shouldnt follow idolotry nazi agenda- ignore their declaration- led to confessing church

• civil disobedience- to disobey their leaders if they act against the interests of the state and God’s will

• taking part in the confessing Church and the illegal seminary at Finkenwalde- NAZI ARYAN CLAUSE- JEWISH COULDNT WORK- ROOT OUT- BON AGAINST

• ‘disciple simply burns his boats and goes ahead’- no going back- have to follow through

• ‘when christ calls a man he simply bids him to die’

Bonhoeffer on Church, state & civil disobedience AO2

• A moral system which justifies evil acts as God’s will is dangerous-

• the Nazis soldiers had the slogan ‘God on our side’ on their belt buckles- justifying the assassination of politicians-

• Hill murdered an abortion doctor and claimed to have been inspired by Bonhoeffer-

• Bush cited Bonhoeffer to justify his war on terror

• paul- ‘submit to governing authorities’ as established by god

• providing people an excuse to do what they want

• rise non violence

counter

• acting according to God’s will for Bonhoeffer requires not just that we put aside human ethic

• Jesus’ injunction to love your neighbour as yourself required selflessness of us- ‘ a new life in existence for others’

• Nazis certainly did not put aside human ethics or their personal desires. Arguably neither did Bush

• bold venture faith- can go wrong- in temporal world but not in gods eyes

eval

• depends on types of disobedience

• complicated matter

• Cox claims that Bonhoeffer’s theology is like a Rorschach test. It reveals the theological presuppositions of the reader

• doesnt always conclude murder- Bon teaching does reflect need- striking is a type of disobedience- ghandi

Bonhoeffer vs secularism

• Secularists would argue against Bonhoeffer for a complete separation between Church and state

• church is even more corruptible than the state because at least the state is voted for in elections in a democracy

• ‘the long peace’, the significant level of peace after the second world war to the present day

• due to the rise of secular liberal democracy

counter

• However, Stanley Hauerwas defends Bonhoeffer. He argues that the Church does protect against authoritarian dictatorship

• Pragmatism without truth leads to indifference which leads to cynicism. Liberal secular western societies have undermined theological and religious truth which creates a void vulnerable to being filled by totalitarian powers

• he loss of God results in a void of purpose which can be exploited by authoritarians to gain power

Cheap vs costly grace AO1 and 2

• Church preaches ‘cheap grace’ as they suggest believers don’t really have to do anything particularly difficult to receive grace

• “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ” – Bonhoeffer.- ‘too attatched to the world’

• ‘costly grace’ was the true grace and it requires us to truly suffer and sacrifice like Jesus did

• The parable of the good Samaritan also backs up Bonhoeffer’s view

• IMPORTANCE SUFFERING- REDEEMED THROUGH CROSS- become selfless- ‘suffering must be endured in order that it may pass away’

• the cheap grace of their legalistic approach to the bible and inner corruption caused them to fail to act according to God’s will which was the costly grace of putting aside cultural barriers and having faith in loving their neighbour.

counter

• The sacrifice of discipleship is irrelevant today- mphasis on suffering made more sense in his time where he was resisting Nazi rule.

• We live in times of relative peace and security and thus suffering isn’t as required.

• stuck in a negative view due to times of theology- doesnt see positive outcomes

eval

• Sacrifice is still relevant. Jesus called on us to sacrifice like he di

• Our cross might be different from his. Arguably there are still sacrifices we can and should make today to prevent evil.

• x

• There are still cultural issues like racism/sexism and global issues involving war and climate chang

• follow religionless christianity

Non-violent resistance can be successful

• King and Ghandi’s method is morally superior and more true to Christian ethics compared to Bonhoeffer’s which allows violence

• Ghandi’s liberation of India from English colonial rule

counter

• Jesus’ pacifism ‘worked’ because he was raised from the dead and thereby saved us from our sins

• it would not have ‘worked’ against Hitler, which is why Bonhoeffer thought that fulfilling God’s will required taking part in violent action in his time/situation.

• Non-violent resistance only works if the tyrant has a problem with killing peaceful protestors

• God wants of us – he wants us to act. That’s what Bonhoeffer thought he was doing

Bonhoeffer vs Aquinas on knowing God’s will, natural law ethics, civil disobedience & duty to the state AO1 and 2

• Aquinas would have disagreed with Bonhoeffer’s theology for failing to take the natural law into account

• Natural law ethics is the best approach for dealing with the issue of civil disobedience & duty to the state

• If a law goes against the ‘human good’ then civil disobedience might be justified, unless the disorder created by disobeying the law would be worse than the badness of the law itself

• “we ought to obey God rather than man”.

• Aquinas clearly thinks civil disobedience is justified but has a much clearer view than Bonhoeffer about when it is justified

• Aquinas’ approach much safer than Bonhoeffer’ using NL

counter

• Barth’s reasoning for rejecting Aquinas-influenced Catholic natural law ethics. Since human reason is corrupted by original sin, its ability to know the primary precepts of natural law cannot be relied on

• This is a problem for natural theology which wants to make use of reason.

• “the finite has no capacity for the infinite”

• Whatever humans discover through reason is not divine, so to think it is divine is idolatry

religionless christianity

• ‘this-worldliness’ and ‘religionless Christianity’ to address Nietzsche. Bonhoeffer wanted to reform Christianity and make it relevant to the modern secularised world

• about going out into the world- pope francis

• consequence of the “world come of age”

• new kind of Christianity to assert itself

• ‘religion’ cheap grace- instead take out of the curch

• irrelevant the theological baggage, rusty swords and cheap grace of traditional religion and enables us to focus on what it means to live like a disciple of Jesus and trying to follow God’s will.

relevance today

• rise of populism, authoritarianism facist politics- trump far right views

• immigration- victimising migrants by politics- oppression of minorities

• rise materialism and capitalism

• need for solidarity around the world

• southport riots- against minorities

• rise of secularism away from values - pluralism- complicated world now

• continuation of cheap grace