Why this book matters now: Ethics by Bonhoeffer

At the end of December, SCM Press publish a new English-language edition of renowned German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Ethics. Tim Judson gives us his thoughts on the importance of this, Bonhoeffer's final work.

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What has a dead, white man got to say to us today? Moreover, what can a Lutheran pastor and theologian from early 20th Century Germany possibly contribute to contemporary challenges and opportunities for faith, Christian community, politics, economics, philosophy, social justice etc? A few years ago, I may have suggested that Bonhoeffer had all the answers. I was swept up with the tide of hagiography that painted him as a stand-alone hero of the faith who somehow saw things more clearly than anyone. To an extent, I still love him. Bonhoeffer’s thought and his life has been an example to me personally amidst my own struggles and questions, a fellow companion along the way when trying to discern how to be truly human sometimes seems confusing. Yet, there is a risk with Bonhoeffer, as there is with many witnesses who have gone before, that he could be seen as the be all and end all. While I no longer think this is the case, funnily enough, this has enabled me to appreciate him more, and I am positive he would have wanted no more than that, conscious as he was of his own faults, failures and fallibility.

Bonhoeffer’s Ethics obviously needs to be read within context, and having a sober perspective on what he is addressing as he writes opens up new ways of reading him in dialogue with our historical moment, or moments. This is a book that offers a hugely imaginative and compelling perspective for anyone seriously wanting to grapple with notions of morality, responsibility, faith and obedience, Christian formation, the relation between church and state, legacies of colonialism and institutional guilt, the sanctity and interconnectedness of life; these themes and many more are engaged by Bonhoeffer within his posthumous essays.

One of the things I find really grounding about Bonhoeffer’s Ethics is that he seems to address and challenge all of us, whilst also recognising his own embroilment within the drama of world history. He senses a personal responsibility for and with the events around him, both local and global. Yet he also envisions a form of being human that does not gaze beyond his limitations and finitude. A good word for describing his perspective on human life is sober. He has a sober view of political action, a sober view regarding institutional status quo, a sober view of almost every ethical framework, of the state and church, of social justice, of reality itself. In short, Bonhoeffer looks at his world (locally and globally) and wonders how “good” and seemingly intelligent people can become participants in a regime that steals, kills and destroys. For him, the whole ethical framework of the West has been exposed as rotten, and as such, Bonhoeffer has a sober view of the human ability to be good or evil. In fact, much of his whole project is steering readers away from thinking primarily in these terms because our very focus on what we perceive to be good is itself a fall away from the heart of who we are: that is, found in Jesus Christ.

One of the things I find so refreshing, if a bit alarming at times, is the way Bonhoeffer seeks to orient us to the dynamic and ever-confronting reality of Jesus Christ, who presently calls us not to cling primarily to our visions of the “good” but to surrender that very thing at times so that we might genuinely be free to serve and be formed by him in relation to others and the world. This is not really postmodernism, but many postmodern thinkers would find him refreshing, albeit sober! At the same time, he is deeply grounded in the here and now of earthly life, recognising the abiding presence of systems and structures that, whilst fallible and fallen, nevertheless exist as means to an end. Church, family, work, government, these things are not an end in themselves, and they certainly are not perfect! But their ultimate goal is to serve the reality of God’s reconciliation in Christ, whether they realise and embrace this or not.

In our contemporary culture wars, it strikes me that many of us can become siloed within echo chambers of morality. Far left and far right (not to mention high, low, and every other direction!) are not necessarily evil. What I mean is that I do not think many people wake up in the morning with the intention to bring assault upon others or on creation in and of itself. In my classes, I remind my students that the Pharisees, the Zealots, and even the Romans were not “evil” people, but were acting with a desire to be good, and their vision of the “good” was holiness, liberation, peace or whatever. What continues to haunt me is that my very desire to be faithful to Christ can be the very thing that leads me to reject him, because my focus remains on me being faithful or good instead of letting Christ take form over and against my introspective ethical sensibilities. Reading Bonhoeffer over the years has given me humility to not totally disregard those who think and act differently to me, even when a person’s views or culture seems alien. Instead, I am learning to be open to encountering Christ through the other, not in a way that necessarily gives them dominion over me (that is fanatical), but which has a sober view of myself and others, as well as my ability to even perceive the encounters I have. In short, I think Bonhoeffer’s Ethics is important for those of us today who wrestle (or need to wrestle) with the reality of being truly human, and for Bonhoeffer, that begins, is governed by and ultimately ends in Jesus Christ. 

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Ethics is available to pre-order now via our website.

Tim Judson is a Lecturer in Ministerial Formation at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, and Pastor of Honiton Family Church, Devon. His book, The White Bonhoeffer, will be published next month.