Conclusion

This brief, final chapter, summarizes the main points made in the previous chapters to demonstrate the relevance of Bonhoeffer’s theology for our time. In creatively appropriating biblical and patristic anthropology for our modern age, Bonhoeffer contributes important insights to Christian reflection on current debates about human nature, politics, and secularity. In drawing his insights from the Christ-centered, incarnational theology of the greater tradition, Bonhoeffer’s work also possesses a deeply ecumenical appeal much needed for our time. His Christian personalism, together with his careful correlation of the nature-grace relation appeals to Eastern Orthodox theologians and strongly resembles the integral humanism of Catholicism in thinkers like Henri de Lubac and Jacques Maritain. Given our present postmodern, secular culture, Bonhoeffer’s hermeneutic theology, his humanist ethics, and integral humanism offer exactly the biblically based, philosophically informed and ecumenically appealing model of engaging life, i.e., the kind of Christian humanism, Christians ought to consider in responding to current cultural issues.

Bonhoeffer’s Hermeneutic Theology

Chapter 5 explains and delineates the fundamentally hermeneutic quality of Bonhoeffer’s theology or what may be called his Christological hermeneutic. The chapter begins by describing Bonhoeffer’s hermeneutic consciousness evident from structural similarities between philosophical hermeneutics and hermeneutic elements in his early works. It then describes Bonhoeffer’s Christ-Reality as the hermeneutical circle that grounds his participatory ontology and enables a hermeneutic phenomenology, i.e., a fundamentally interpretive stance toward human experience. This hermeneutic stance is then illustrated by the concept of simple minded obedience of discipleship, exemplified by the unified self, described in the previous chapter. Contrary to critics like John Webster, Bonhoeffer deliberately combines single-minded obedience with the need for hermeneutical discernment. The final sections of this chapter further deepen the hermeneutics of discipleship as engaged knowing by describing the importance of the incarnational structure of manger, cross, and resurrection together with the eschatological structure of ultimate-penultimate things for Bonhoeffer’s Christological hermeneutic. Both structures determine the interpretive discernment required for striving to live a Christ-shaped life characterized by the kind of freedom Bonhoeffer calls “realistic responsibility.”

Bonhoeffer’s Theological Anthropology and the Greater Tradition, Part II

Chapter 3 continues to outline parallels in patristic and Bonhoeffer’s theology. The first two segments focus on the humanist significance of the church as Christ’s body. Bonhoeffer’s relational understanding of God’s image disallows an individualistic understanding of salvation. His view of the church as “Christ existing as community,” with its transformative ethical implications mirrors Irenaeus’ and Augustine’s ecclesiology. In Bonhoeffer’s deeply sacramental understanding of the church as God’s presence in the world his theology of Stellvertretung, the eucharist, and his ethics converge into a depiction of Christianity as transformative humanism. The chapter then elucidates the biblical roots of “being in Christ,” along with the often overlooked, deeply Trinitarian structure of this participatory ontology in Bonhoeffer. The remainder of the chapter compares his anthropology to the teaching of deification that defines patristic theology. Once deification is properly understood as becoming Christlike, Bonhoeffer’s Christian humanism aligns most clearly with the synergistic, ethical view of the Cappadocian fathers of the Christian life as becoming truly human in conformity to Christ.

Recovering the Natural: Humanizing Politics

Chapter 8, sketching out Bonhoeffer’s political vision to argue its validity for modern, secular states, falls into two main parts. The first section offers a detailed analysis of Bonhoeffer’s recovery of the natural for Protestant theology in the contexts of Protestant and Catholic thought of his time. It becomes clear that prompted by Nazi atrocities, Bonhoeffer recovers Reformational natural law theory in a particular Christ-centered way that is similar to the nature-grace relation proposed by Henri de Lubac, and to the concept of natural law propounded by Jacques Maritain. The second part of the chapter describes Bonhoeffer’s political theology as reflected in his view of church-state relations. The chapter shows that Bonhoeffer appropriates the greater Christian tradition from Augustine to Luther’s two-kingdom theory for his own day. He envisions a secular society and forum of public reasoning on the basis of the natural, a society in which the church bears witness to Christ’s true humanity and labors for the common good of a humane society.

The Vulnerability of the Word

Chapter 7 demonstrates the importance of biblical interpretation to Bonhoeffer’s Christian humanism. Beginning with the Barthian inspiration for a theological reading of scripture as the book of the church, Bonhoeffer develops a biblical hermeneutic for transformative, humanist reading of the Bible that incorporates historical critical tools in seeking out God’s address in concrete life situations. After describing Bonhoeffer’s incarnational approach to the biblical text, and his criticism of verbal inspiration, the middle portion of this chapter describes Bonhoeffer’s theological interpretation of the Old Testament, pointing out striking parallels to patristic interpretation, including the Bible’s sacramental role for Christformation. The same sacramental ontology that governs his general hermeneutics and ethics also help explain Bonhoeffer’s often misunderstood notions of non-religious interpretation of biblical concepts, non-religious Christianity, and a world come of age. The remainder of the chapter clarifies the meaning and humanist implications of these ideas, showing their congruence with Bonhoeffer’s increasing appreciation of the Old Testament’s importance for a this-worldly Christianity that celebrates God’s presence in the midst of life.

Bonhoeffer’s Theological Anthropology and the Greater Tradition, Part I

Chapter 2 (together with the subsequent Chapter 3) explores the similarities between Bonhoeffer’s theological anthropology and patristic views of human nature to show that Bonhoeffer’s anthropology is not a reversal of patristic thought but rather its creative continuation. The common root of their humanistic theology is Christology, particularly the recapitulation of humanity in Christ. After discussing the possible extent of patristic influence on his theology, the chapter outlines patristic humanism based on the fathers’ Christological interpretation of the imago dei and then aligns this view with the centrality of the incarnation in Bonhoeffer’s work. The remaining sections unfold further theological parallels between Bonhoeffer and patristic humanism in the Eucharist, the doctrine of the logos, Trinitarian communion, deification, and especially the congruence between Irenaeus’ recapitulation and Bonhoeffer’s Stellvertretung (vicarious representation). Already in earlier works, but particularly in Discipleship and later in Ethics, Bonhoeffer clearly shares Irenaeus’ assumption that Christ summed up and renewed in himself all of humanity, wherefore Christianity is not a belief system or religion but participation in the new humanity of Christ and therefore sharing in a new human reality.

Living Freely before God

Chapter 6 outlines the main features of Bonhoeffer’s Christian Humanist ethics. Bonhoeffer’s ethical realism and rejection of moralistic legalism is based on ethics defined as participation in Christ whose incarnation and person structure reality as a whole. The chapter begins by showing that the personal and eschatological structure of this Christological realism exonerates Bonhoeffer from the charge of collapsing reality into Christ. The next section delineates the goal of Bonhoeffer’s ethics as Christformation with its essential aspects of renewal into the divine image through the work of the Holy Spirit, through ecclesial communion, through Christian action in the world, and by means of the sedimentation of Christian virtues in cultural traditions. Next, the chapter takes up from the previous one the hermeneutic element of discernment in describing ethics with Bonhoeffer as realistic responsible action. Realistic responsible action denotes the call to action in response to concrete circumstances within a creation oriented toward Christ. Such realistic action includes the risk of freedom along with the assumption of guilt. Realistic responsible action explains the meaning of this famous and often misunderstood concept of guilt bearing in Bonhoeffer rooted in his sacramental, participatory ontology. The chapter ends with a summative description of Bonhoeffer’s Humanist ethics as living freely before God.

In God’s Image

Chapter 4 falls into two parts. The first relates Bonhoeffer’s interpretation of the imago dei in the biblical creation account to patristic readings. Bonhoeffer’s anthropology stresses freedom, relationality, embodiment, and stewardship of creation, affirming a human bond with animals and the earth. Bonhoeffer warns against the distortive effects of disordered desire that perverts these relations. The second part describes Bonhoeffer’s highly original phenomenology of the Christian self that informs his humanism. Based mainly on his distinction between the pathological Sicut Deus and the restored Imago Dei states of selfhood, Bonhoeffer accords a central role to conscience as indicative of a divided self whose freedom for discerning moral action in Christ is only restored through God’s healing power of grace. Only in communion with God does a unified self and holistic, fully human existence become possible. The chapter ends by outlining implications of Bonhoeffer’s anthropology for the existential humanisms of Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus.

Bonhoeffer and the Idea of Christian Humanism

Chapter 1 prepares the ground for depicting Bonhoeffer’s theology as a form of Christian humanism. This preparatory work begins by delineating Bonhoeffer’s own initially negative use of the term humanism for all forms of thought that fail to acknowledge human beings’ radical need for God’s transforming grace: ancient Greek philosophy, secular humanism, and secular Protestantism. Even the later Bonhoeffer’s more positive attitude toward humanism remains ambivalent, resulting in the contrast between his rhetorical use of the term and the actual agreement of his theology with the substance of Christian Humanism as defined by the Christian tradition. The remainder of the chapter engages European cultural history to contextualize Bonhoeffer’s theology in light of Christian humanisms (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) and secular or existentialist humanisms of his time.