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| Pastor Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
EPISODE 01: Searching for Bonhoeffer
The Rise of Bonehoeffer Podcast
Sep 17, 2024Join Dr. Jeffrey Pugh & Dr. Tripp Fuller as they delve into the complex life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The story flashes forward to a powerful juxtaposition: on February 1, 1933, two days after Hitler became Chancellor, both men addressed Germany. Hitler promised to restore national pride, while Bonhoeffer warned against creating an idol out of a leader. How did Bonhoeffer come to see the Nazi threat while so many others didn't? This episode begins the story by turning to his early life, his burgeoning critiques of National Socialism, and how his family, education, and travels deeply influenced his evolving theology. Discover how Bonhoeffer's early liberal theological perspectives, grappling with German nationalism, eventually led him to challenge authoritarianism and develop a profound ethical and theological stance against the Nazi regime.
Want to learn more about Bonhoeffer? Join our open online companion class, The Rise of Bonhoeffer, and get access to full interviews from the Bonhoeffer scholars, participate in deep-dive sessions with Tripp and Jeff, unpack curated readings from Bonhoeffer, send in your questions, and join the online community of fellow Bonhoeffer learners. The class is donation-based.
- You can get more info here: www.RiseOfBonhoeffer.com
- Check out the Newsletter: www.ProcessThis.substack.com
- Follow the podcast here: www.BonhoefferPodcast.com
Featured Scholars in the Episode include:
Victoria J. Barnett served from 2004-2014 as one of the general editors of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, the English translation series of Bonhoeffer's complete works. She has lectured and written extensively about the Holocaust, particularly about the role of the German churches. In 2004 she began directing the Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum until her retirement.
Andrew Root is Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker: A Theological Vision for Discipleship and Life Together, Faith Formation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, The Congregation in a Secular Age, Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Church after Innovation, and The End of Youth Ministry? He is a frequent speaker and hosts the popular and influential When Church Stops Working podcast.
Robert Vosloo is professor in Systematic theology at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and a senior researcher at the Beyers Naudé Center for Public Theology at the same institution. His most recent book is entitled Reforming Memory: Essays on South African Church and Theological History.
Gary Dorrien is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. He is also the author of Anglican Identities: Logos Idealism, Imperial Whiteness, Commonweal Ecumenism, Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American Tradition, American Democratic Socialism and In a Post-Hegelian Spirit: Philosophical Theology as Idealistic Discontent.
Who Is Dietrich Bonhoeffer?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer remains one of the 20th century's greatest theologians and witnesses to radical faith. He was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has been described as a modern classic.
Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison and later Flossenbürg concentration camp. After being accused of being associated with the July 20th plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was quickly tried and then hanged on April 9, 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing, 21 days before Adolf Hitler committed suicide.
ASYNCHRONOUS CLASS: You can participate fully without being present at any specific time. Replays are available on the Class Resource Page.
COST: A course like this is typically offered for $250 or more, but we invite you to contribute whatever you can (including $0) to help make this possible for everyone!
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AI Overview
Dialectical theology is a Protestant theological approach that emphasizes the difference between God and humans; and that God is unknowable to humans. It's also known as neo-orthodoxy or theology of crisis.
Here are some characteristics of dialectical theology:
- Transcendence of God - Dialectical theology focuses on God's transcendence and the idea that God is beyond human comprehension.
- Opposition between God and humans - Dialectical theology emphasizes the difference between God and humans, and that humans' attempts to overcome this difference are "sin".
- Faith over reason - Dialectical theology holds that God is unknowable to humans through reason, and that faith must replace reason.
- Paradoxical nature of Christian existence - Dialectical theology emphasizes the paradoxes and ambiguities of Christian existence.
- Reaction to liberal theology - Dialectical theology developed after World War I as a reaction against 19th-century liberal theology.
German theologian Karl Barth introduced dialectical theology in his 1919 Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.
- Reevaluation of Reformation teachings - Dialectical theology re-evaluated the teachings of the Reformation, which had been in decline since the late 18th century.
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AI Overview
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's dialectic theology is based on a number of ideas, including:
Lutheranism
Bonhoeffer's theology is grounded in the objective Word of God in Christ, and he summarized his own view of the human situation as "simul justus et peccator" (both justified and a sinner).
Costly grace
Bonhoeffer differentiated between "cheap grace" and "costly grace" in his book The Cost of Discipleship. "Cheap grace" is the grace that Lutheranism has tended to preach, while "costly grace" demands obedience and true discipleship.
Christology
Bonhoeffer's Christology begins with the assertion of Christ as the authoritative Logos of God. This high Christology allowed him to oppose Nazi policies that violated the command of Christ.
Revelation
Bonhoeffer believed that God's truth is revealed even through fallible words spoken or written by human instruments, such as the apostles.
Church and State
Bonhoeffer believed that Church and State should limit each other in one reality under Christ.
Theology of grace
Bonhoeffer embraced Barth's theology of grace revealed in Jesus Christ as the Word of God.
Dialectical reading of Paul
Bonhoeffer realized that his dialectical reading of Paul was open to abuses, as evident in the Lutheran church of his day.
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Study Resources
Scholarship @ Claremont
https://scholarship.claremont.edu › viewcontent
by KTC Cheung · 2022 — The theology/philosophy of Karl Barth, A. N. Whitehead, and Meister Eckhart is utilized. They represent three distinctive theological forms: revelational, ...
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the most significant Protestant theologians of the twentieth century, a legacy sealed by his imprisonment in a German concentration camp and eventual execution. His resistance against Nazism and pivotal role in the Confessing Church movement have been key points of illumination for many on the nature of Christian political witness and action. Millions have been inspired by his rich reflections on the Christian life, especially his beloved works on discipleship and ethics. As a professor, seminary leader, and ecumenical theologian, Bonhoeffer's work also profoundly shaped academic theology, especially systematic theology, and the life of the church.
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Using the acclaimed Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English translation and adapted to a more accessible format, these new editions of Discipleship, Ethics, Letters and Papers from Prison, and Life Together feature the latest translations of Bonhoeffers works, supplemental material from Victoria J. Barnett, and insightful introductions by Geffrey B. Kelly, Clifford J. Green, and John W. de Gruchy.Originally published in 1937, Discipleship soon became a classic exposition of what it means to follow Christ in a modern world beset by a dangerous and criminal government.Life Together gathers Bonhoeffers 1938 reflections on the character of Christian community, based on the common life experienced at the Finkenwalde Seminary and in the Brothers House there.Ethics embodies the culmination of Dietrich Bonhoeffers theological and personal odyssey and is one of the most important works of Christian ethics of the last century.Letters and Papers from Prison presents the full array of Bonhoeffers 19431945 prison letters and theological writings, introducing his novel ideas of religionless Christianity, his theological appraisal of Christian doctrines, and his sturdy faith in the face of uncertainty and doubt.This four-volume set of Bonhoeffers classic works allows all readers to appreciate the cogency and relevance of his vision.
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| Karl Barth, 1965 |
BRITANNICA
World War I to the present - European Lutheranism
At the beginning of the 20th century, European Lutheranism remained divided between liberal and conservative wings. It was also marked by varying degrees of loyalty toward the 16th-century Lutheran confessions. The experience of World War I, which was widely understood by theologians as demonstrating the bankruptcy of optimistic theological liberalism, triggered both a conservative reaction and an interest in interconfessional cooperation.
Most Lutheran theologians followed the general reorientation of Protestant theology away from liberalism and toward a synthesis between religion and culture, theology and philosophy, and faith and science. Known as “dialectic theology” in Europe and “neoorthodoxy” in North America, this movement emphasized the “otherness” of God and the pivotal importance of the Word of God. The key theologian of neoorthodoxy was the Reformed theologian Karl Barth of Germany and Switzerland. As Barth’s theological premises, which related all divine revelation to Jesus Christ, became increasingly clear [other more liberal] Lutheran theologians such as Werner Elert and Paul Althaus developed an analogous conservative Lutheran perspective based on a traditional understanding of Martin Luther’s thought.
The end of World War I also brought the disestablishment of the Lutheran churches as state churches in Germany. The constitution of the Weimar Republic provided for the separation of church and state, though it granted Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches continued modest privileges. Unhappiness with the Weimar Republic, along with the political conservativeness of most Lutheran leaders and Luther’s concept of the orders of creation (see below Church and state), contributed to the acceptance of Nazi notions by many Lutherans when Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in January 1933.
The ensuing crisis in the Lutheran churches in Germany arose as a result of the efforts of one pro-Nazi church, the German Christians (Deutsche Christen), to obtain control of the Lutheran regional synods in Germany. The German Christians propounded a Christianity devoid of any Jewish influence (they rejected the Old Testament and declared Jesus to have been Aryan); they also advocated a single, centralized Protestant church in Germany, an objective that contradicted the long-standing tradition of autonomous regional synods but was subtly supported by the Nazi government.
In 1934 Lutheran church leaders and theologians joined Reformed leaders to form the Pastors’ Emergency League, out of which came the Barmen Declaration (see Barmen, Synod of). This statement affirmed traditional Protestant doctrine and led to the formation of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche), which comprised pastors and congregations loyal to traditional confessional standards. The remainder of the decade was marked by continued theological and political confrontation between the confessionally minded camp and the German Christians. This controversy, known as the German Church Struggle, led a minority of Lutheran church leaders, such as Martin Niemöller, a decorated World War I submarine captain, to question the legitimacy of the Nazi regime; some, including the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even became active in the anti-Nazi opposition.
By the middle of the 20th century, European Lutheranism continued to enjoy privileged status in several traditionally Lutheran countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany). Regular church attendance, however, was declining, and more and more people formally left the church. The number of church members declined slowly during the first three decades of the century, dwindled dramatically in Germany during Nazi rule, and continued to decline through the rest of the century.
The Theology and Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019
Presenter: Professor Lori Brandt,
Hale of Augsburg University
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