I had the privilege of lecturing at last week’s Acton University on the topic of Lutheran Social Ethics. In preparing for that session, I was struck again at just how “Lutheran” Dietrich Bonhoeffer sounds every time I read him.
Here’s an example. Last week I asked, “Whither justice?” and noted some of Luther’s words on the subject. Here’s Bonhoeffer, from Life Together, virtually echoing Luther:
What does it matter if I suffer injustice? Would I not have deserved even more severe punishment from God if God had not treated me with mercy? Is not justice done to me even done to me a thousand times over even in injustice? Must it not be beneficial and conducive to humility for me to learn to bear such petty ills silently and patiently?
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Category: Acton University, Bible and Theology
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bonhoeffer, humility, injustice, justice, luther, mercy, punishment, suffering
Have you published anything about Bonhoeffer?
Dieter
July 22, 2009
8:14 am
I have indeed. Here’s a list of some scholarly pieces directly related to him:
―”Bonhoeffer in America—A Review Essay,” Christian Scholar’s Review 37, no. 4 (Summer 2008): 465–82.
―”The Aryan Clause, the Confessing Church, and the Ecumenical Movement: Barth and Bonhoeffer on Natural Theology, 1933–1935,” Scottish Journal of Theology 59, no. 3
(August 2006): 263–80.
―”Christ in Creation: Bonhoeffer’s Orders of Preservation and the Question of Natural Theology,” Journal of Religion 86, no. 1 (January 2006): 1–22.
I’m also planning on taking up a book-length project in relation to Bonhoeffer’s ethics within the next year or so.
Jordan J. Ballor
July 22, 2009
8:40 am