The cost of discipleship

Question 1

What was Bonhoeffer’s distinctive ethical contribution?

Answer 1

Bonhoffer aimed to focus attention on obeying the will of God rather than being side tracked into the issues of good and evil.

Question 2

How did Barth influence Bonhoeffers view on christianity?

Answer 2

Calvinist Theologian-Karl Barth taught Bonhoeffer that:

-if christianity was to mean anything, it cannot be an abstract system of human thought.

Question 3

What is Barth’s notion of God ?

Answer 3

‘It is not we who know God but God who chooses to reveal himself to us’

Question 4

What does Barth’s notion suggest about God’s revelation?

Answer 4

God’s revelation is not general but special.

Question 5

What did Bonhoffer think about Barth’s notion?

Answer 5

Bohoeffer agreed but argued that Barth had not gone in depth.
-we can conclude that if only God can truly act in the world then we can be no more than passive recipients of his revelation.

Question 6

What did Bonhoeffer link Barth’s notion to?

Answer 6

Bonhoeffer compared this to the Pharisees who were good at hearing God’s commands but did nothing to act on his behalf.

Question 7

What did Bonhoeffer argue in his book of ethics?

Answer 7

• hearing the law must include being a doer of the law evident in the story of Mary and Martha.
• martha acts but doesn’t hear or listen to jesus’ teachings.

Question 8

What is a summary of Jesus’ teachings?

Answer 8

-ethics is action and action is liberating
-action is prompted by conscience, conscience is the experience of disunity in oneself with God and with others.
-Conscience is a moment of self knowledge, as Bonhoeffer experienced in America in the ‘terrible alternative
-ethical decisions are always of conflict and action , the conflict is between knowing good and evil and the action is distinguishing between them.
-love overcomes disunity.Love is not a human attitude but is revealed in God’s love for humanity-jesus christ.
‘Only in Jesus Christ do we know what love is, namely, in his deed for us.’

Question 9

What are the three fundamentals that religion is based on in the teaching of costly grace?

Answer 9

• Christ
• Scriptures
• Faith

Question 10

What had to occur for Christianity not to be used for political and personal ends?

Answer 10

Bonhoeffer argued that it was essential to seperate religion from the state

Question 11

What is Costly grace?

Answer 11

‘Costly grace is the gospel that must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.’ -Bonhoeffer

Question 12

What did Bonhoeffer argue about costly grace?

Answer 12

• God’s grace can not be bought as if it is a commodity by going through rituals, this is cheap grace
• costly grace is costly because it costs a man his life,it gives a person true life
• Jesus died on the cross, reflects costly grace.

Question 13

What is the experience of suffering ?

Answer 13

This is Christianity’s engagement with the world, shown on the cross.

Question 14

How is suffering reflected in the ‘world come of age’?

Answer 14

God is not seen as the supreme leader but through Christ he is shown as weak and powerless in his struggle against the world.
- he is the struggling God who acts in solidarity with his people.

Question 15

What is the theology of crisis?

Answer 15

This teaches that the crisis of humans sinfulness can only be overcome by God’s judgement (Krisis) and faith in his grace and redemption through Jesus Christ.

Question 16

What is the great christian paradox?

Answer 16

This is the belief that because of the crisis of the world, God reveals the gift of grace and his judgement of sin and redemption through Christ.

Question 17

How did costly grace link to Bonhoeffer’s realisation?

Answer 17

Costly grace underpins Bonhoeffer’s realisation that he may have to pay the ultimate sacrifice of death.
but he did not want to suffer nor viewed himself as a martyr
-letters from prison ,shows he did not dwell on suffering but affirmed the christian life in his continuing stand against wickedness.

Question 18

What was Bonhoeffer’s favourite description of Jesus?

Answer 18

Jesus was the ‘man for others’
As the church is represented as the body of Christ
It must be the ‘church for others’

Question 19

What was Bonhoeffer’s view of the church under the teaching of solidarity?

Answer 19

Bohoeffer stated that the church had failed in this role,
it had not acted in solidarity with humanity
the church had not helped the weak, vulnerable and oppressed(ppl that the church should value the most)
-the church is the true path to salvation
-the church should not judge others

Question 20

What was Bonhoeffer’s teaching of solidarity against injustice?

Answer 20

Bonhoeffer believed that it was the church’s obligation to fight against political injustice which he stated in his essay-‘the jewish question’
He wrote that the church must fight jewish discrimination.

Question 21

What are the 3 ways the church must fight jewish discrimination?

Answer 21

• The church must question whether the state’s actions are legitimate and it can call on the state to be fully responsible for its decisions.
• The church must help all victims of injustice of whatever faith or belief.
• The church must fully engage in resistance to reverse the machinery of injustice. The church must take direct action ‘not just to bandage the victims under the wheel but to put a spoke in the wheel itself.’

Question 22

What did Bonhoeffer state about solidarity in injustice in his book ‘Ethics’?

Answer 22

The church has failed to fight injustice and must confess that:
‘she has witnessed the lawless application of brutal force, the physical and spiritual suffering of countless innocent people, oppression, hatred and murder, and she has not found ways to hasten to their aid.’

Question 23

What is Bonhoeffer’s teachings of solidarity with the Jews?

Answer 23

In April 1933 following the boycott of Jewish businesses, Bonhoeffer wrote ‘the church and the jewish question’ which explicitly criticised the Nazi regime and called for solidarity to all those persecuted by Nazism

• After ‘the night of the broken glass’, he publically rejected the common view that this was God’s punishment for their rejection of Jesus Christ and called it an act of a Godless and violent regime.
• Later they collected a large sum to aid Jewish immigrants , which followed in his arrest and execution.