Dietrich Bonhoeffer

What led Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his momentous decision to be involved in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944? What is the relation between his resistance activities and his theological and ethical reflections? Exploring these and other intriguing and complex relationships in Bonhoeffer's life and throughout the turbulent 1930s and 1940s, Larry Rasmussen characterizes Bonhoeffer's resistance as an enactment of his Christology lived out with utter seriousness. Originally published in 1972 and now updated with a new introduction by the author,Dietrich Bonhoefferremains the defining study of Bonhoeffer's views of Jesus Christ, his ethics, and his resistance against Hitler and the Nazi regime.

Larry L. Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics Emeritus at Union Theological Seminary (NY)

Introduction to the 2005 Edition

7

(9)

Key

9

(2)

Preface

11

(4)

Part I. THEOLOGY, ETHICS, AND RESISTANCE

15

(79)

Reality, Christology, and the Structure of Ethics

15

(17)

The Claim

Reality, Theologia Crucis, and ``The Man for Others''

Contextuality: The Gestalt Christi in Time and Space

A ``Filled'' Ethic: The Move away from Atomism

The Media of Conformation: The Mandates

Personal-Relational: Koinonia Ethics

Christological Ethics and Resistance

32

(42)

Resistance and Christological Expansion

The Gestalt Christi and Resistance

Questions and Claims

Responsibility and Deputyship

Correspondence with Reality

The Deed of Free Responsibility

Freedom and Responsibility

Acceptance of Guilt and Responsibility

The Guilt Accepted

The Biography of Acceptance of Guilt

``After Ten Years''

``After Ten Years'' in Ethics

The Gestalt Christi and Nazi Morality

Letters and Papers from Prison and Resistance

74

(14)

Preliminaries

Christology and Resistance in the Prison Letters

The World Come of Age and Religion

Summary and Conclusions of Part I

88

(6)

Part II. PACIFISM AND TYRANNICIDE

94

(55)

The Character of Bonhoeffer's Pacifism

94

(33)

Introduction

The Literature

Summary and Conclusions from the Literature

A Straight Line?

Theological Modifications, Pacifism, and Conspiracy

Summary and Conclusions of the Chapter

The Measuring of Tyrannicide

127

(22)

Background

The Operative Guidelines

Postscript

Part III. CRITIQUE

149

(72)

Critique of Methodology

149

(25)

Introduction

The Question

The Grenzfall

The Exceptional Command---Its Methodological Meanings

Earnest Self-proving

Casuistry, Principles, and Pragmatism

The Caricature of Formalism

Conclusion

Unanswered Questions

Reality and Epistemology

A Christological Confusion?

Critique of Resistance---Bonhoeffer as a Moral Profile of the Military/Political Conspiracy

174

(47)

The Term

The Educated Elite

The Legal and Nonviolent Core

The Nobility of Motives

The Confluence of Values

The Lack of Political Vision

Summary

Appendixes

Bonhoeffer, Gandhi, and Resistance

213

(5)

Letters from Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Reinhold Niebuhr

218

(3)

Index of Names

221

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials