Download File - Religious Studies

The Church as Community
Religionless Christianity
•a) Kant
said that when a person acts out of duty he
that heChurch
does so because he is acting in
b) knows
The Confessing
solidarity with all humankind. Bonhoeffer agreed
c) that
The no
religious
community
Finkenwalde
Christian
canatact
morally in isolation.
• Therefore the role of the church is to provide a
spiritual and moral community that will equip each
person to live a moral life.
• For this to happen, the Church must be stripped of
false pretenses of being religious (middle class
institution) and must embrace a religionless world.
Religionless Christianity
• Bonhoeffer did not think that democracy was
wrong, despite being critical of liberal societies.
• He described modern western culture as a world
come of age: this involved rightly discarding
religious superstitions. But this had come at a cost.
• Liberalism had thrown out many Christian values
but in doing so it had created the Western Void: a
moral and spiritual vacuum.
World come of age: used by Bonhoeffer to describe how the western culture has
frown up and in embracing a rational view of the world has discarded a
superstitious view of religion.
Religionless Christianity
• Although some beliefs may seem innocent, they can
develop into their own religion, for example, National
Socialism under the Nazis.
• So there was a need for Christianity without the baggage
from the past and contamination by the ideological
beliefs of the present.
• He also used the phrase “no rusty swords” to refer to
outworn ethical attitudes still used by the Church. Church
needs to rethink ethics theologically and embrace
contemporary society.
• “Christianity and ethics do indeed have nothing to do
with another.” No Rusty Swords, pg, 41.
The Confessing Church
Hitler
created the German Evangelical Church (Deutsche Evangelische
The
Confessing
Kirche) inwas
1934,
Church
a which issued the ‘Aryan Paragraph.’ This removed all
clergy thatagainst
were not of Aryan descent.
reaction
the
Nazified
Bonhoeffer
and Niemoeller organised what became the Confessing
Protestant
Church. At a Church
meeting in 1934, Karl Barth produced the Barmen
inDeclaration.
Germany which
had blended
The declaration
states that a Christian’s duty is to Christ and the Church
Christianity
with
should reject any teaching which is not revealed by Jesus Christ.
National Socialism.
Theologically, it was a firm denial of Nazi National Socialism.
The Confessing Church
• Some commented that the Barmen Declaration only
presented ‘limited disobedience” against the state.
Politically it could have gone a lot further- with
regard to treatment of minorities like Jews.
• Bonhoeffer wanted the Confessing Church to have a
more inclusive role in society.
• The Confessing Church was never meant to become
a national church, because Christian communities
should not have political, racial and national
boundaries.
The Confessing Church
• In his last days in prison, Bonhoeffer became increasingly
disillusioned by the Confessing Church.
• He felt it had become too defensive and too concerned with
itself, and therefore less engaged with the world.
• “The church is her true self when she exists for humanity.”letters from prison.
Religious Community at Finkenwalde
• On his return from the USA in 1935, he set up a
community at Finkenwalde to train ministers
for the Confessing Church.
• Since the Nazis had taken control of the
German church and appointed a ‘Reich bishop’
the number of suitable clergy had greatly
declined.
• In August 1937 the Nazi regime announced the
Himmler Decree which declared the training of
Religious Community at
Finkelwalde
The purpose of the community of Finkelwalde was to
develop practical Christian living. The central practices
at Finkelwalde included:
• Discipline (life was simple, almost monastic. The
body as much as the Spirit needed to be disciplined)
• Mediation (the foundation of prayer)
• Bible (reading and studying the Bible is at the heart
of Christian living)
• Brotherhood (community bound together by love of
and for Christ, sustained by Holy Spirit. Director
The Role of the Church
The role of the Church:
a) Religionless Christianity
b) The Confessing Church
c) The religious community at Finkenwalde
The Cost of Discipleship:
a) Ethics in action
b) Costly Grace
c) Sacrifice and Suffering
d) Solidarity
The Cost of Discipleship
• Bonhoeffer’s ethics was centered on what the
will of God is, rather than being sidetracked with
good and evil.
• How do we discern what the will of God is?
• Rather than creating an ethical code to answer
the question, the question to help us answer
this should be, “who is Christ for us today?”
• Luke 10:38-42. How would Bonheoffer would
Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he
came to a village where a woman named Martha
opened her home to him. She had a sister called
Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what
he said. But Martha was distracted by all the
preparations that had to be made. She came to
him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister
has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to
help me!”
a) Ethics in Action
• Most important intellectual encounter: at
Finkenwalde with Karl Barth
• Barth taught that if Christianity was to mean
anything, it couldn’t be abstract- LINKs to
revealed theology, through Jesus Christ
• Bonhoeffer took it further: if God is the only one
that can act in the world, we are passive
recipients of his revelation. He linked this to the
a) Ethics in Action
• Ethics is action and action is liberating
• Action is prompted by conscience:
– conscience is the experience of disunity with oneself,
with God and with others.
• Ethical decisions are always ones of conflict and
action
• Love overcomes disunity: love is not a human
attitude but is revealed by Christ.
b) Costly Grace
Religion as an institution is a human invention. In order for Christianity
‘Cheap
grace is the preaching of forgiveness without
not to be used for political and personal ends, Bonhoeffer argued it
requiring
baptism
without
needed to berepentance,
separate to the state,
but this
comes at Church
a cost.
discipline, Communion without confession.” – Cost of
The
cost for Christians
is that,
taking
Discipleship,
2001,
page
4. on the world, in unjust situations,
can
put Christians
in dangeroushad
situations.
Authentic
Christianity
to based on the three
fundamentals:
• Only Christ
• Only scripture
unmerited favour. His goodness to those who have done nothing to
• Grace:
OnlyGod’s
faith
earn his favour.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=costly+grace+spoken+word
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=FhvXOIVs
Rv4
Costly Grace
Grace: God’s unmerited favour. His
goodness to those who have done nothing
to earn his favour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhvXOIVsRv4
Costly Grace
“For me to live is Christ, to die
is gain.” –Philippians 1:21
b) Costly Grace
Grace cannot be earned or bought by ticking religious boxes and
going through the motions of religious duties. This is cheap grace.
Costly grace therefore is “costly because it costs man his life, and
it is grace because it gives man the only true life…Above all, it is
costly because it cost God the life of his son.” –the cost of
discipleship, pg 5
Grace: God’s unmerited favour. His goodness to those who have done nothing to
earn his favour.
c) Sacrifice and Suffering
‘“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.” One of my
favourite verses from my favourite psalm.’Bonhoeffer: The way to Freedom 1996. pg 247
The experience of suffering is Christianity’s engagement with the world as
reflected in the cross.
In a world come of age, God is not the supreme leader, but, as he is revealed in
Christ, weak and powerless in his struggle against the world.
He is the
suffering God who acts in solidarity with his creatures.
World come of age: used by Bonhoeffer to describe how the western culture has
frown up and in embracing a rational view of the world has discarded a
superstitious view of religion.
c) Sacrifice and Suffering
Costly grace underpins Bonhoeffer’s realization
that he would in all probability have to pay the
ultimate sacrifice of death.
But he did not seek to suffer and he never saw
himself as a martyr.
“He was distinctly a martyr despite the lingering
disclaimers
of the German Churches. Bonhoeffer’s
Theology of crisis: teaches that the crisis of human sinfulness can only be
overcome
by God’s
judgement (krisis
Greek) and faithof
in his
resistance
was
essentially
an inexpression
hisgrace and
redemption through Jesus Christ
theology.”- Klemens von Klemperer: The terrible
Romans 8:1-4, 18-21
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ
Jesus, the law of the spirit who gives life has set
you free from the law of sin and death. For what
the law was powerless to do because it was
weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin
offering, and so he condemned sin in the flesh, in
order that the righteous requirement of the law
d) Solidarity
“I am afraid that Christians who dare to stand with only one leg on earth
•stand
One
Bonhoeffer’s
favourite
descriptions of
withof
only
one leg in heaven.”
–
Jesus was that he was ‘the man for others.’
Bonhoeffer’s letter to Maria von Wedemeyer
• As the Church is described as the body of Christ,
it therefore makes sense that it must be ‘the
Church for others.’
• Bonhoeffer really felt the Church had failed at
this because it had not acted in solidarity with
humanity, particularly those who Jesus really
valued.
i) Solidarity against Injustice
He
feltChurch
the Churchshould
has failedbe
andfighting
must confess
that:
The
political
injustice,
according
to Bonhoeffer.
In ‘the Church
“…she has witnessed
the lawless application
of brutaland
force,the
the
physical
spiritual suffering
of countless
innocentmust
people,fight
Jewishand
Question’
he stated
the Church
oppression, hatred and murder, and she has not raised her voice on
discrimination
three
ways:
behalf of the victimsin
and
has not
found ways to hasten to their aid.”Dietrich
Bonhoeffer:
Ethics (1995/2005)
1. Question
whether
the State’sp.93
actions are
legitimate (holding the State responsible for
their decisions)
2. Help all victims of injustice, whatever faith and
ii) Solidarity with the Jews
• In April 1933, after the boycott of Jewish
businesses, Bonhoeffer wrote, “The Church and
the Jewish Question,” which called for solidarity
to all those persecuted by Nazism.
• After Kristallnacht in 1938, he publicly rejected
the common view that this was God’s
punishment of the Jews for rejecting Jesus. He
called it an act of a godless regime.
The role of the Church:
a)
Religionless Christianity
b) The Confessing Church
c)
The religious community at Finkenwalde
The Cost of Discipleship:
a)
Ethics in action
b) Costly Grace
c)
Sacrifice and Suffering
d) Solidarity
Can his ethics address Global
Is Bonhoeffer relevant today?
Politics?
• Some have argued that his ethics were
developed at a particular time under extreme
circumstances. E.g. He compromises absolute
pacifism only because in his circumstances it
was weak.
• His ethics focus on a single threat to humanity.
In modern society, threats to western society
are
far
more
complex
than
Bonhoeffer’s
more
Post Christian Society: A society which still employs Christians moral values as
localised
notion
of politics.
part of its culture
but does
not practice or believe in Christianity as a belief
system.
 Some would argue that theology is not
Can his ethics address Global
Politics?
His ethics of engagement with the world gives a
place for Christianity as a moral/spiritual
conscience in the state’s involvement with
politics.
Hauerwas argued that Bonhoeffer’s emphasis
on truth in politics in much needed in western
democracy. This is crucial role the Church can
Post Christian Society: A society which still employs Christians moral values as
play
liberal
societies
truth, as a belief
partin
of reminding
its culture but does
not practice
or believe of
in Christianity
where there is a void of moral/spiritual truth,system.
as
Are his ethics compatible with
plural moral societies?
It is generally thought that there is no one moral
code in contemporary post-Christian societies.
In plural society, as each group pursues their own
ethical codes, the notions of right and wrong are
not absolute but relative to that person or group
depending on the situation.
In many ways Bonhoeffer appears to support this
view that we should be tolerant of other’s moral
until they cause harm to others. Fletcher
Are his ethics compatible with
plural moral societies?
Fletcher approved of Bonhoeffer’s argument
that telling the truth depends on the situation
and place, concluding that Bonhoeffer is “as
radical a version of the situational method as any
Christian relativist could call for.” (situation
ethics, pg 149)
• Some disagree with Fletcher’s interpretation of
Bonhoeffer’s ethics. He is not a moral relativist
because in his view, Christian ethics are formed
Are his ethics compatible with
plural moral societies?
Many would argue that although Bonhoeffer’s
ethics may seem incompatible with
contemporary moral pluralism, it actually acts as
a constant reminder of whether society has lost
sigh of what true community is.
Are his theological ethics
compatible with multi-faith
societies?
• Despite his work to defend and protect Jews
from the Nazi Regime, many argue that his belief
is that eventually Jews should have converted to
Christianity.
Despite this theology, he did maintain that the
state should give all citizens equal rights.
• Does this cause mistrust?
Are his theological ethics
compatible with multi-faith
societies?
• Bonhoeffer experienced society
– As a Christian- part of the dominant religion, the
source of power and control in society
– A a Christian- persecuted and discriminated against
• This experience has led some to suggest that
Bonhoeffer’s costly grace is a guide to multi-faith
society because we truly experience sympathy at
the suffering of others.
Essay question
“The church should decide what is morally good.” Discuss.
“Bonhoeffer’s most important teaching is on leadership.” Discuss.