Bonhoeffer relevance today Flashcards
What does the topic of Bonhoeffer’s relevance look at?
This looks at how theological ethics engage with issues of this world.
-This is explored through Bonhoeffer’s life due to what he experienced in his time.
Can ethics address global politics?
Critics argue that Bonhoeffer’s ethics was developed during Nazi Germany, it may only be relevant in extreme circumstance.
However, others may argue that it gives a place for christianity in the state’s involvement with politics.
What is an example of how Bonhoeffer’s ethics can only be used in extreme circumstance?
Bonhoeffer compromised christian pacifism as he found himself in an extraordinary situation.
What is a criticism of Bonhoeffer’s ethics?
His ethics focused on a single threat to humanity whereas in today’s world there is a greater/complex to humanity e.g. terrorism, powers struggles between US and China.
What is an advantage of Bonhoeffer’s relevance today in addressing global politics?
Bonhoeffer’s ethics of engagement with the world gives place for Christianity as a moral/spiritual conscience in the state’s involvement with politics.
What does Stanley Hauerwas argue about Bonhoeffer using this ethics to address politics?
Stanley argues that Bonhoeffer’s concern for truth in politics is a much needed challenge to the pragmatism of western democracy.
-this allows the christian church to remind political leaders not to confuse tolerance with a lack of engagement with the truth.
What did Stanley comment about societies that only practice tolerance?
A society which only practices tolerance for pragmatic reasons without any idea of truth quickly falls into indifference and ‘indifference leads to cynicism.’
What did Bonhoeffer also note in his own situation about undermining the truth?
Liberal societies can undermine the truth creating a ‘void’ which is quickly filled by totalitarian powers.
What is moral pluralism?
Moral pluralism suggests that each person/group pursues its ethic code the notions of right and wrong are relative not absolute to the person or group depending on the situation.
What do plural societies assume about moral values?
Plural societies assume that each person should be tolerant of other people’s moral values up to the point where they seem to cause harm to other
Are there moral codes in christian contemporary societies?
It is assumed that there is not just one moral code in contemporary post christian societies.
What is the example presented by Joseph Fletcher?
Fletcher refers to the example of Mother Maria given by Bonhoeffer.
-Mother Maria volunteered to sacrifice her life to save a Jewish girl in a concentration camp
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What did Fletcher infer from this incident of Mother Maria?
Fletcher stated that this is why killing innocent people cannot be absolutely wrong because the rightness or wrongness of killing can only be judged by God and linked to the principle of Christian love.
What was Fletcher’s view of Bonhoeffers’ argument that ‘telling the truth depends on the situation and place’?
Fletcher approves of Bonhoeffers argument that telling the truth depends on the situation and the place.
-Fletcher also concludes that Bonhoeffer ‘is as radical a version of the situational method as any Christian relativist could call for’
