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?

  • Dieter

    Have you published anything about Bonhoeffer?

    • http://blog.acton.org/ Jordan J. Ballor

      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.

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