Christian moral action

Question 1

What does Bonhoeffer ask himself?

Answer 1

What should a Christian do when a key part of their faith is undermined by the law?

Question 2

Context to Bonhoeffer:

Answer 2

• German Lutheran Pastor.
• Lived in National Socialist state (Nazi).
• Founding member of the confessing Church in Finkenwalde, which rejected the ideologies accepted by the Christian church (Nazism).

Question 3

What did Bonhoeffer focus on in the Confessing Church?

Answer 3

• Promoted ethic of responsibility for others.
• Focused on the Cost of Discipleship and the suffering in entails.

Question 4

Nazism in the Christian community:

Answer 4

• Lead to split in German Protestant Churches, 1934.
• Those who incorporated Nazism.
• Those who wanted to remain purely Christian. (Confessing Church).
• Became the Reich Church, Hitler seen as the leader of Christianity.
• Leaders of Christian communities wore brown, linked them to national socialism.
• Promoted Aryanism- Jews could not be ministers.
• Campaigned to remove Old Testament from the Bible, which were Jewish scripture.

Question 5

Why is it ironic that Jesus was seen as on par to Hitler?

Answer 5

Jesus himself was a Jew.

Question 6

Bonhoeffer makes moves against Nazism:

Answer 6

-Ordained as a Christian minister 1931. Joined a group of ‘young reformers’.

Accused German Christians of not:
- Confessing their faith.
- Being true to discipleship.
- Following the commands of God.

Question 7

Synoptic link to Bonhoeffer as a rebel:

Answer 7

• Jesus was a rebel, ‘I came to bring a sword not peace’.
• Both end up executed.

Question 8

Bonhoeffer preaches the message:

Answer 8

• 1935, leaders of the confessing church asked Bonhoeffer to lead an illegal seminary.
• Seminary closed 1937 by Gestapo.

Question 9

What did Bonhoeffer say his rebellion was like?

Answer 9

What it was like to live under the word of God.

Question 10

What are the key themes in this topic?

Answer 10

• Discipleship.
• Obedience.
• Solidarity.

Question 11

Discipleship:

Answer 11

• Call to discipleship entails the exclusive obedience to the leadership of Jesus. Law below Jesus. This links to Aquinas’ tiers of law in NL.
• You’re meant to leave all life behind
• Only real faith.
• God’s call demands action. Links to Liberation theology calling for ‘orthopraxy’.
• Called for ‘single minded obedience’. Just like Jesus called Peter to walk on the sea and risk his life.

Question 12

Examples of single-minded obedience in the Bible:

Answer 12

‘God gives us the boat and oars, but then tells us ‘It’s up to you to row’’.

Question 13

What does Bonhoeffer think distracts us from obedience?

Answer 13

Reason:
Kant telling us to do our duty.
Teleological.
We should act radically according to extreme situations.

Conscience:
Aquinas- ‘the mind of a man making moral decisions’. We shouldn’t just strive to be ‘moral’ now we should strive to do the right thing.

Question 14

What is fundamental to discipleship?

Answer 14

• Suffering and sacrifice.
• Jesus’ crucifixion.
• The binding of Isaac.

Question 15

What is the name of Bonhoeffer’s book?

Answer 15

The Cost of Discipleship.

Question 16

Disobedience:

Answer 16

• Said that Hitler was the ‘anti-Christ’.
• Duty to God more important than duty to the state.
• Spoke out against Nazism in university he was employed. Lost job.
• Allegedly joined plot to assassinate Hitler 1944.

Question 17

Justification for Civil disobedience:

Answer 17

10 Commandments, you must respect your parents.
What if they’re terrible people?

Question 18

Disadvantage to Bonhoeffer’s thinking:

Answer 18

• Could be argued that he is promoting terrorism and extremism.

Question 19

Bonhoeffer’s idea of grace:

Answer 19

• God’s love and mercy. It is universal and offers eternal life to all.

Question 20

What does Bonhoeffer’s idea of grace contrast?

Answer 20

‘The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats’.

Question 21

Types of Grace:

Answer 21

Cheap and costly.

Question 22

Cheap grace:

Answer 22

• ‘deadly enemy of the church’.
• It’s superficial, acting immoral knowing you are to be saved.
• Criticising that Christian life should be easy.

Question 23

Costly grace:

Answer 23

• ‘Treasure in a hidden field’.
• Something worth sacrificing everything for.
• ‘It is costly because it costs man life’.

Question 24

Solidarity:

Answer 24

• Says we should ‘exist for others’.
• Links to JSM’s altruism (unselfish love for others).
• He escaped safety from the USA because he felt so wrong. After 21 days.
• Smuggled Jews to Switzerland.
• Arrested by Gestapo and executed.

Question 25

How is Bonhoeffer described?

Answer 25

‘Ultimate role model for Christians today’.
‘Ultimate witness to a world that is not Christian’.
Eric Metaxas

Question 26

What metaphor does Bonhoeffer use?

Answer 26

• Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7.
• Jesus’ followers must be like ‘salt’ and ‘light’.
• Metaphor of salt shows Christians need to add ‘flavour’ to their community.
• ‘Light’ means Christians must be leading an example, and must be visible in the community.

Question 27

Religionless Christianity:

Answer 27

Wrote of this as an ideal time after the war where Christians will focus on being moral rather than ‘religion’.

Question 28

Term to describe Jesus’ crucifixion:

Answer 28

‘Died to the flesh’ Romans.