DCT - The life and teachings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Flashcards
Define discipleship
following Jesus’ teachings to live a moral life
How was Jesus a threat to authorities?
.Liberator – spoke out against injustice
.Religious authorities, Messiah – sent by God
.Worked on the Sabbath – performed miracles, allowed disciples to eat corn from the field
.Teacher of wisdom, people were not listening to the Pharisees anymore
.Challenged the view on women
.Cleared the temple
.Political authorities, Romans
Outline the life of bonhoeffer
.Born in Germany in 1906 to Lutheran parents
.Even at the age of 13 he had a vision of how the Church should be transformed
.He went to university in 1923 and completed his doctoral thesis Act and Being in 1930, before becoming a lecturer at the University of Berlin
.He began developing a much more radical form of Christianity
.He believed the Church should be much more active in challenging the state
.He believed that without questioning and challenging its authority, Christianity is undermined
.Bonhoeffer moved to America where he was impressed with their teaching on Christian social responsibility
.He was hugely influenced by members of Black Christian congregations
.He realised that Christianity needed to build relationships between its different churches without racial or geographical boundaries
.When Hitler came to power, he was openly critical of the Fuhrer
.He placed himself against the state and became a member of the Confessing Church
.The Confessing Church refused to accept that only Aryan Germans could become members of the Church
.He also joined the Resistance
.Bonhoeffer was living in America when he decided to join the Resistance, after years of investigation by the Gestapo
.He knew he would be called up to serve in Hitler’s army, and if he refused he’d be labelled a pacifist – which would go against his theology of radical challenge and damage the reputation of the Confessing Church
.He realised he must return to Germany to stand in solidarity with those who were oppressed
.Bonhoeffer joined the counterintelligence section of the armed forces, unofficially he continued to work for the resistance to overthrow Hitler’s regime
.He was able to uncover information for the Resistance and support the victims of the Nazi State
.In 1943 the Gestapo arrested Bonhoeffer on the grounds that he had helped Jewish immigrants escape to Switzerland
.He spent 18 months in prison, writing many letters and a novel
.When the failed attempt to kill Hitler was uncovered, Bonhoeffer was implicated
.He was moved to several concentration camps, including Buchenwald, and executed on 9th of April 1945 at Flossenburg (which was then liberated by US forces on the 23rd April)
dont need all the points but get the general idea
What was the most influential moment of bonhoeffers life?
- I think the most influential moment of Bonhoeffer’s life was the influential theologians he studied with in the US, who impressed him with their teaching on Christian social responsibility. He was also hugely influenced by members of Black Christian congregations when he was in America. This mean that he realised that Christianity needed to build relationships between its different churches without racial or geographical boundaries – an idea I believe influenced the decisions he made later in life.
Did Bonheoffer make the right decision to return to Germany?
- I do think he was right in deciding to return to Germany, if he refused he’d be labelled a pacifist – which would go against his theology of radical challenge and damage the reputation of the Confessing Church. Also, he was able to join the counterintelligence and work for the resistance, supporting victims of the Nazi state.
Bonhoeffer’s engagement with black pastors in America allowed him to what?
see Christianity from a different perspective
While in New York, Bonhoeffur attended which church?
Abyssinian Baptist Church
Bonhoeffeur heard Adam Clayton Powell Sr. preach the Gospel of Social Justice, and became what?
sensitive to not only social injustices experienced by minorities but also the ineptitude of the church to bring about integration
.Adam Clayton Powell Sr. has been credited with teaching Bonhoeffer about what?
love of enemies, resisting systems of justice, Christs presence with the poor, and the doctrine of ‘cheap grace’
How did Bonhoeffur begin to see things in America?
‘from below’ – from the perspective of those who suffer oppression
Finish the Bonhoeffur quote ‘Here one can truly …
… speak and hear about sin and grace and the love of God … the Black Christ is preached with rapturous passion and vision.’
Yehuda Bauer quote
‘Thou shalt not be a victime, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander’
.Jewish people call the Holocaust the ‘Shoah’, which means what?
‘destruction’ or ‘catastrophe’
.It is estimated that _ million Jewish people died in the Holocaust
6
What ddid the Nazis do to minorities?
- Exterminated half a million Roma Gypsies
- Put a quarter of a million mentally ill and disabled people to death
- Sterilised deaf people
- Imprisoned homosexuals
- Considered that Slavic people were sub-human and intended to starve up to 30 million Soviet civilians and prisoners of war
What is the Lutheran church?
Protestant denomination that has its roots in the work of Martin Luther, who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation
Name some denomonations of christianity
.Pentecostal .Baptist .Catholic / Western orthodox .Methodist .Latter day saints (Mormons) .Jehovah’s Witnesses .Lutheran .Gospel .The New Church .Eastern orthodox – Russian and Greek .Evangelical Protestants .Fundamentalist .Church of England .Salvation Army
Why could a theonomous approach be considered dangerous in Nazi germany?
‘Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities.’ Romans 13:1
Difference between the protestant church pre and post nazi involvement?
Pre-Nazi protestant church – .Ministers .The Bible free to be interpreted .Presents a Christian message at services Reich Church – .Reich ministers .Nazi’s distortion of the Bible .Presents Nazi message at services
Finish the Nazi propoganda, ‘Hitler’s fight and Luther’s …
… teaching are the best defence for the German people.’
Describe the 3 different churches in Nazi germany
- German Christians – for the Nazi’s, had a distorted bible, presented Nazi message
Confessing Church – against the Nazi’s and opposed their doctrine
Catholic Church – initially suspicious of the Nazi’s but in the end stayed away from it all and were neutral
What is Kirchenkampf?
- Kirchenkampf means ‘church struggle’ and refers to a debate and struggle for control between those who sought a ‘Nazified’ church and those who opposed it
There are quotes from the Bible which suggest that the Nazi’s are in the right as they are the governing authority at the time, what are these quotes?
- ‘Then Jesus sad to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”’ Mark 12:17
‘For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities and ministers of God, attending to this very thing’ Romans 13:6
‘Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities’ Romans 13:1
What is the Barmen declaration?
a declaration that set out the basic belief of the Confessing Church in opposition to the Reich Church which was strongly influenced by Nazism. It was largely influenced by Karl Barth.
.Lutherans kept their public and private life separate, keeping their public life under the authority of what?
the state
Lutheran Christians in Germany generally did not attend public protests because they thought what?
that this amounted to trying to build God’s Kingdom by earthly efforts, and it was resisting the state
.Lutheran Christians believed that they could rely on God in the long run to sort things out, in the short term they thought a Christian’s duty in their public life was to what?
to follow the laws and commandments of their superiors
Who rejected the Lutheran understanding of public and private life?
Bonhoeffer
What is the private life of a Christian?
- Be a good father, mother, sister, brother etc.
- Go to Church
- Read the Bible
- Obey the Ten Commandments
- Rely on God to change the world
What is the public life of a christian?
- Be a good public servant, a good citizen
- Be obedient to the state and its orders
- Do what you are told to do because God has put the ruling authorities in place
- Be a good soldier, teacher, lawyer by following whoever is in charge
- Wait for God to change the world
What was Bonhoeffer’s major shift in theology?
From separating your public and private life (Lutheran), to having both public and private life influenced by Jesus (Bonhoeffer)
Finish the Bonhoeffer quote, ‘There are not two realms of sacred and secular; …
… there is one reality under the cross of Christ.’
In 1933 Bonhoeffer published a paper for the Churches called ‘The Church and the Jewish Question’. In it he suggested three courses of action, what are they?
- The Church provides care for victims of injustice including Jews
- The Church must protest and question the state rather than being silent
- The Church must actively seek to disrupt the state when it was doing immoral things
What was the Barmen Declaration of Barmen 1934?
.The Barmen Declaration of Barmen 1934 was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the Deutsche Christen (German Christians) movement
.The German Christians had corrupted church government by making it subservient to the state and had introduced Nazi ideology into the German Protestant churches that contradicted the Christian Gospel
The Barmen Declaration includes six main ideas, what are they?
- The source of revelation is only the Word of God – Jesus Christ. Any other possible sources (for example, earthly powers) will not be accepted
- Jesus Christ is the only Lord for all aspects of personal life, there should be no other authority
- The message and order of the church should not be influenced by the current political convictions
- The Church should not be ruled by a leader, there is no hierarchy in the Church
- The state should not fulfil the task of the church and vice versa, State and Church are both limited to their own business
- Therefore, the Barmen Declaration rejects the subordination of the Church to the state
Finish the quote from the Barmen declaration, ‘We reject the false doctrine, as though …
… the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.’
Who wrote the Barmen declaration?
.The declaration was mostly written by the Reformed theologian Karl Barth but underwent modification s a result of input from several Lutheran theologians
What did Bonhoeffer make of the Barmen declaration?
.Bonhoeffer agreed with this understanding
.The Church, he argued, must be separate from the state, not just a tool of the state
.Its job is to be under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and, if need be, protest at injustice and immorality
.Tragically many Christians in the Lutheran Church decided to not oppose Hitler
.Some even supported him, why?
since they thought that he was God’s instrument to unify Germany and persecute the Jews who were thought of as being guilty of killing Christ
.Bonhoeffer together with Christians who opposed Hitler, formed what?
the confessing Church
What does ‘no rusty swords’ mean?
Bonhoeffer’s metaphor to describe the out sworn ethical attitudes which the Church has used, and which now have no use today
What is civil disobedience?
- Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government
When approaching moral quandaries, there are two routes to take, what are they?
- Deontological – a theory, which focuses on the actions themselves being right or wrong
- Teleological – a theory, which focuses on the consequences or outcome of the actions being classed as right or wrong
What did Bohoeffer argue that Christians must do in the face of the western void?
a Christian was morally obliged to reject outdated attitudes of the Church
What is the western void?
The Western Void was Bonhoeffer’s term to mean the state of the Western secular world without Christianity
Bonhoeffer believed Christian ethics should be _____
distinctive
21st century scholar ____ ____ was heavily influenced by Bonhoeffer’s theology
Stanley Hauerwas
When considering the events occurring in Europe as a result of the Nazi State, the Christian Church clearly had not been effective
.Since many Christians believed that religion should be a purely private matter, they had not interfered with the state’s actions
.As a result of this, millions were suffering and living under oppression
.Bonhoeffer advocated for change, what did he say?
He said that there must be no more ‘rusty swords’
What did Bonhoeffer mean by ‘rusty sword’?
By this he means attitudes that had become outdated
.A Christian must be prepared to take on some guilt for others, following in Christ’s footsteps
Finish the Bonhoeffer quote, ‘No man in the whole world can change the truth. One …
… can only look for the truth, find it and serve it. The truth is in all places.’
Duty to God and State in a Nutshell
- Many German Christians separated their lives into private and public, only in the private life was the Church significant, outside you must submit to the state which is God’s representative
- Many believed that it was God’s role to change the world, not the Christian
- Bonhoeffer rejected both these beliefs, the Christian life must be a seamless whole with no moral distinction being made between the public and private realms – he believed in ‘one realm’
- Sometimes responsible action might well be considered immoral, the Christian must be prepared to take on guilt for the sake of others
State the excerpt and whether it is for or against civil disobedience, Mark 12:17
‘Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s’
Against
State the excerpt and whether it is for or against civil disobedience Romans 13:1
‘Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.’
Against
State the excerpt and whether it is for or against civil disobedience Mark 2:17
‘On hearing this, Jesus said to them. “It is not the healthy who need doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’
For
State the excerpt and whether it is for or against civil disobedience Luke 23:2
‘We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.’
For
