christian moral action Flashcards
the confessing church/ Finkenwalde
He joined the Pastors Emergency League in 1934
founded by Bonhoeffer in opposition to Hitler’s founding of the German Evangelical Church in 1934
Finkenwalde was where Bonhoeffer held an illegal secret seminary. This was a form of civil disobedience.
Bonhoeffer’s example is so important because it forces Christians to ask fundamental questions about the nature of faith, Christian moral obligation and Christianity itself.
Knowing and acting on God’s will
Bonhoeffer thought that the fall corrupted our ability to have knowledge of good and evil.
Our goal should be to become a ‘responsible person’ – someone who acts to stand their ground against evil
The best we can do is meditate on the bible and pray, hoping to get a sense of God’s will, even though we can’t be sure of it. We must risk a “bold venture of faith”
“We must get into action and obey. You can only learn what obedience is by obeying. It is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth”
Taking part in violence goes against pacifism & the will of God - Bonhoeffer did not turn the other cheek to Hitler
was willing to stand by the convictions of his belief and even set aside established Christian principles such as ‘Do not Kill’ in his interpretation of the requirements of his Christian faith.
Yoder - “Jesus renounced control by violence… He inaugurated a style of life in which the only kind of coercion acceptable is the coercion of love.” - pacifism and the ethics of Jesus
BUT If the Bible were the perfect word of God then knowing God’s will would be a simple matter of following what the Bible says
The will of God is not the stale set of ancient ethical rules written in the Bible. It is alive in a Christian church community - Finkenwalde was an example of an attempt to create such a community
‘Single minded obedience’ is what he called for - reason, conscience, and responsibility all stand in the way of this
Bonhoeffer on Church, state & civil disobedience
Bonhoeffer agreed with Luther that Christians should obey the state’s laws because order is useful for sinful creatures like us.
- human law is fallible and governments can become corrupted by their power into thinking they are justice itself, which only God has a right to think
- Church should keep the government in check due to the state’s authoritarian tendencies
- saw duty to god as far outweighing duty to the state
Love requires injustice to be actively challenged and resisted
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.
acting according to God’s will requires not just that we put aside human ethics but also our own desires
- in order that it be a truly selfless act - Arguably those conditions make his recommendation less susceptible to justifying terrible things
Bonhoeffer vs secularism
Secularists would argue against Bonhoeffer for a complete separation between Church and state
- might argue that the church is even more corruptible than the state because at least the state is voted for a democracy
argument refers to ‘the long peace’, the significant level of peace after the second world war to the present day.
Hauerwas defends Bonhoeffer - He argues that the Church does protect against authoritarian dictatorship
Liberal secular western societies have undermined theological and religious truth which creates a void vulnerable to being filled by totalitarian powers - without God we lack meaning, purpose and moral guidance.
Cheap vs costly grace
strongly attacks the idea of ‘Cheap Grace’ - this is Grace that is easy, comfortable, and given to people without the need for them to act bravely and be outspoken as a Christian
it is the idea that Christian living is easy, cosy, comfortable and conformist
offers an alternative - ‘Costly Grace’ is the idea that to be a Christian one must be ready to give up everything and carry the cross of belief just as Jesus did
responding to the message and demands of Christ even when it is uncomfortable, dangerous and difficult.
Grace is tied inextricably with action for Bonhoeffer - to receive grace is to change your life utterly for the demands of Christ.
Bonhoeffer argued that ‘costly grace’ was the true grace and it requires us to truly suffer and sacrifice like Jesus did.
‘cheap grace amounts to a denial of the living word of God, in fact, a decimal of the Incarnation of the Word of God
Mark 8:34-35 ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’. This suggests that costly action is required for true discipleship.
Bonhoeffer’s emphasis on suffering made more sense in his time where he was resisting Nazi rule. We live in times of relative peace and security
essentially saying to figure out how to resist the evil in your time/situation and have faith that it is God’s will to act on that
Religionless Christianity/ This-worldliness
This-worldliness is a concept Bonhoeffer uses to describe the way in which he thinks Christianity should be less about the personal pursuit of salvation and more about ‘sharing God’s sufferings in the world’
- focuses Christians on the concrete actions and sacrifices they would have to make in this world to stand their ground against evil
Bonhoeffer also wanted to rise to the challenge of making religion work in the new secular age
a Christianity free from: i) the religious baggage of the past; and ii) the ideological beliefs of the present (embodied in their most pernicious forms in the likes of the Nazis). This is what Bonhoeffer means when he says that there should be ‘no rusty swords’: rusty swords are outdated ethical attitudes that may have been effective in the past but which have no use today
- humanity has reached a level of maturity such that it no longer depended on the traditional legalistic form of religion of the past
- Bonhoeffer thought this could be a good opportunity for a new kind of Christianity to assert itself
