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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.