Books by Michael P DeJonge
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Prompted by the 2017 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, international sch... more Prompted by the 2017 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, international scholars and practitioners from both church and state examine the legacy of Martin Luther in the life, work, and reception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, asking how this contested tradition might guide the public role of the church in the future.
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A recent surge of references to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the context of political resistance shows ... more A recent surge of references to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the context of political resistance shows that the story of his struggle against the Third Reich continues to animate imaginations across a broad political spectrum. Readers have long had access to a variety of Bonhoeffer biographies, all of which devote space to his resistance, and there are more specialized historical treatments that place Bonhoeffer’s story in the broader context of resistance to the Nazis. Beyond these biographical and historical accounts, however, there has been no comprehensive and accessible account of Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking. He was, after all, not only a resistor but a theologian in resistance, trained by vocation to reflect on and write about what the message of the Bible and the tradition of Christian theology might have to say about political life. In Bonhoeffer on Resistance, leading Bonhoeffer scholar Michael P. DeJonge provides an account of Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking in the broader context of his theology. He presents Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking chronologically according to three phases and systematically according to a sixfold typology of resistance. DeJonge expertly uncovers Bonhoeffer’s surprisingly systematic, differentiated, and well-developed vision of political resistance.
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In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings, Martin Luther is ubiquitous. Too often, however, Bonhoeffer's ... more In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings, Martin Luther is ubiquitous. Too often, however, Bonhoeffer's Lutheranism has been set aside with much less argumentative work than is appropriate in light of his sustained engagement with Luther. As a result, Luther remains a largely untouched hermeneutic key in Bonhoeffer interpretation. In Bonhoeffer's Reception of Luther, Michael P. DeJonge presents Bonhoeffer's Lutheran theology of justification focused on the interpersonal presence of Christ in word, sacrament, and church. The bridge between this theology and Bonhoeffer's ethical-political reflections is his two-kingdoms thinking. Arguing that the widespread failure to connect Bonhoeffer with the Lutheran two-kingdoms tradition has presented a serious obstacle in interpretation, DeJonge shows how this tradition informs Bonhoeffer's reflections on war and peace, as well as his understanding of resistance to political authority. In all of this, DeJonge argues that an appreciation of Luther's ubiquity in Bonhoeffer's corpus sheds light on his thinking, lends it coherence, and makes sense of otherwise difficult interpretive problems. What might otherwise appear as disparate, even contradictory moments or themes in Bonhoeffer's theology can often be read in terms of a consistent commitment to a basic Lutheran theological framework deployed according to dramatically changing circumstances.
Table of Contents
0. Introduction: An Argument for Bonhoeffer Interpretation
-Taking Luther’s Ubiquity Seriously
-What is ‘Lutheran’? Issues of Definition and Method
-Arguing for the Lutheran Character of Bonhoeffer’s Thinking
1. On the Way toward Christocentrism
--Karl Holl: Luther’s Religion of Conscience
--Christ or the Conscience?
--Conscience against Conscience
--Meager Christology
--Justification as the Unconditional, Effective Word of Christ’s Personal Presence as the Church
2. Christology in Conversation with Barth and the Lutheran Tradition
-Once more, Barth and Bonhoeffer on whether the Finite is Capable of the Infinite
-The History and Pre-History of the (in)capax Phrases
---This Man Is God
---This Is My Body
---The Finite is Capable of the Infinite
-Barth’s Rejection of the capax and the Majestic Genus
---The Finite is Not Capable of the Infinite
---The Common Actualization of Divine and Human Essences in Christ
-“The is may not be interpreted any further”: Bonhoeffer’s Christology
3. Caricatures of the Two Kingdoms
-Denials of Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking
-From Luther’s Two Kingdoms to the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
---The Two Kingdoms in Luther’s Theology
---Church and State from a Lutheran Confessional Perspective
---Church and State in Confessional Comparison
---The Twentieth-Century Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
---Troeltsch and the Niebuhrs
4. The Twofold Form of Christ: Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking
-Early Two-Kingdoms Thinking
---“The Nature of the Church”
---“Lectures on Christology”
---“Thy Kingdom Come!”
---“The Church and the Jewish Question”
-The Two Kingdoms in Discipleship
-Late Two-Kingdoms Thinking
---“Protestantism without Reformation”
---“Heritage and Decay”
---Green, Rasmussen, Hauerwas
---“Ultimate and Penultimate Things”
5. Anabaptists and Peace
-Bonhoeffer’s Non-Commitment to Nonviolence
-The Doubly Curious Association of Bonhoeffer with Anabaptism through Yoder
---Yoder on Bonhoeffer
---Bonhoeffer on Anabaptists
-Bonhoeffer on Peace
--Peace and Preservation
--Orders of Preservation
--The Sermon on the Mount as Concrete Commandment
-Peace in Bonhoeffer and Anabaptists
-Interpreting Bonhoeffer on Peace
-Ecumenical Lutheranism and Lutheran Ecumenism
6. Lutheran Resistance Resources
-Luther to Hitler
-Lutheran Subservience and Bonhoeffer’s Resistance
-Luther on Resistance to Authority
-The Interims, Flacius, and the Magdeburg Confession
-Formula of Concord X
-Bonhoeffer and Lutheran Resistance Resources
7. Struggle and Resistance
-Resistance through the Confession of the Ecumenical Church
---Status confessionis
---Threats to the Gospel from outside: The State that Disregards its Mandate
---Threats to the Gospel from Inside: Heretical Legalism
---Confession, ‘the Jews,’ and Race
-Resistance through the Suffering Obedience of the Discipleship Community
---The Second Battle of the Church Struggle
---Cheap and Costly Grace
---Justification
-Resistance through the Responsible Action of the Individual
---Between Compromise and Radicalism
---Active Resistance
-Conclusion: A Lutheran Theology in Accord with Reality
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Translating Religion advances thinking about translation as a critical category in religious stud... more Translating Religion advances thinking about translation as a critical category in religious studies, combining theoretical reflection about processes of translation in religion with focused case studies that are international, interdisciplinary, and interreligious. By operating with broad conceptions of both religion and translation, this volume makes clear that processes of translation, broadly construed, are everywhere in both religious life and the study of religion; at the same time, the theory and practice of translation and the advancement of translation studies as a field has developed in the context of concerns about the possibility and propriety of translating religious texts. The nature of religions as living historical traditions depends on the translation of religion from the past into the present. Interreligious dialogue and the comparative study of religion require the translation of religion from one tradition to another. Understanding the historical diffusion of the world’s religions requires coming to terms with the success and failure of translating a religion from one cultural context into another. Contributors ask what it means to translate religion, both textually and conceptually, and how the translation of religious content might differ from the translation of other aspects of human culture. This volume proposes that questions on the nature of translation find particularly acute expression in the domains of religion, and argues that theoretical approaches from translation studies can be fruitfully brought to bear on contemporary religious studies.
Contents
Introduction, Michael DeJonge and Christiane Tietz
1. Translating Dao: Cross-Cultural Translation as a Hermeneutic of Edification, Wei Zhang
2. Historical Translation: Pseudo-Dionysius, Thomas Aquinas, and the Unknown God, Michael DeJonge
3. Philological Limits of Translating Religion: śraddhā and dharma in Hindu Texts, Carlos Lopez
4. Translating Religion between Parents and Children, Andrea Schulte
5. Thick Translation of Religion between Cultures: The Basel Mission in Ghana, Ulrike Sill
6. Habermas’s Call for Translating Religion into Secular Language, Christiane Tietz
7. Does Allah Translate ‘God’? Translating Concepts between Religions, Klaus von Stosch
8. Translating Religious Symbol Systems: Some Preliminary Remarks on Christian Art in China, Volker Küster
9. Conclusion: What’s Lost and Gained? Michael DeJonge and Christiane Tietz
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This book argues that the central concept of Bonhoeffer’s early theology, ‘person,’ positions his... more This book argues that the central concept of Bonhoeffer’s early theology, ‘person,’ positions his thought in relationship to his own Lutheran tradition as well as the two most important post-World War I theologies, Karl Barth’s dialectical theology and Karl Holl’s Luther interpretation. Barth convinces Bonhoeffer that theology must understand revelation as originating outside the human self in God’s freedom. But whereas Barth understands revelation as the act of an eternal divine subject, Bonhoeffer treats revelation as the act and being of the historical person of Jesus Christ. On the basis of this person-concept of revelation, Bonhoeffer rejects Barth’s dialectical thought, designed to respect the distinction between God and world, for a hermeneutic way of thinking that begins with the reconciliation of God and world in the person of Christ. Here Bonhoeffer mines a Lutheran understanding of the incarnation as God’s unreserved entry into history, and the person of Christ as the resulting historical reconciliation of opposites. This also distinguishes Bonhoeffer’s Lutheranism from that of Karl Holl, one of Bonhoeffer’s teachers in Berlin, whose location of justification in the conscience renders the presence of Christ superfluous. Against this, Bonhoeffer emphasizes the present person of Christ as the precondition of justification. Through these critical conversations, Bonhoeffer develops the features of his person-theology --- a person-concept of revelation and a hermeneutical way of thinking --- which remain constant despite the sometimes radical changes in his thought.
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Journal Articles by Michael P DeJonge
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 2023
Scholars of religion who make use of the concept of transcendence are likely to encounter objecti... more Scholars of religion who make use of the concept of transcendence are likely to encounter objections that this concept is too vague, too metaphysical, and too theological for use in Religious Studies. This article develops a differential-phenomenological concept of transcendence that is not susceptible to these charges and that, thanks to its complex logical structure, is potentially fruitful for use in Religious Studies.
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Kerygma und Dogma, 2022
In this paper, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's concept of mandates is interpreted socio-structurally by rea... more In this paper, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's concept of mandates is interpreted socio-structurally by reading it as a theological and ethical response to the challenge posed by the structural or functional differentiation of modern society. As Niklas Luhmann's theory of functional differentiation suggests, the emergence of modern society fundamentally challenges a unified, society-wide understanding of the good. One answer to this is the affirmation of a plural understanding of the good as expressed in Bonhoeffer's concept of mandates.
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Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2021
This article considers a common theoretical mood within the discipline of religious studies, one ... more This article considers a common theoretical mood within the discipline of religious studies, one that is skeptical about the reality of religion but confident about the reality of people doing things. Analyzing this mood within the context of recent discussions surrounding realism, I argue that this mix of anti-realism with respect to religion and realism with respect to people doing things testifies to the lingering effects of a subject philosophy. Such residual subject-philosophical realism in turn suggests the uneven reception of structure philosophy, a way of thinking that rules out straightforward reference to the reality not only of religion but of people doing things as well. A more faithful reception of structure-philosophical insights suggests opportunities for re-theorizing the reality of religion.
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Modern Theology, 2019
Response to a book symposium on 'Bonhoeffer's Reception of Luther' in Modern Theology.
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Evangelische Theologie, 2020
This paper argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his 1933 writings, treats race as an adiaphoron or... more This paper argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his 1933 writings, treats race as an adiaphoron or indifferent matter. On this basis, his thinking about race is then shown to be in tension with what the scholarship on Bonhoeffer and race generally attributes to him. Specifically, while that scholarship portrays Bonhoeffer, especially after his Harlem experience, as moving race to the center of theological reflection, his own argumentation, by treating race as an adiaphoron, resists such a move as the improper racialization of theology.
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Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 2017
It has frequently been suggested that Bonhoeffer's resistance did not draw substantively from his... more It has frequently been suggested that Bonhoeffer's resistance did not draw substantively from his own Lutheran theological tradition. Nonetheless, his reliance on the Lutheran tradition's resistance resources is evident in his use of the phrase status confessionis. The phrase is a hallmark of the gnesio-Lutheran position in the sixteenth-century intra-Lutheran adiaphora controversy, the position authoritatively endorsed in the Formula of Concord. Bonhoeffer demonstrably knew this tradition of Lutheranism and in the early Church Struggle deployed the idea of status confessionis in a way that was faithful to it. Because status confessionis arguably more than any other term conveys the theological reasoning of his early resistance activity, this alone merits the conclusion that Bonhoeffer's resistance drew substantively from the Lutheran tradition.
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After presenting Bonhoeffer’s lifelong engagement with Luther, this paper argues that his ecumeni... more After presenting Bonhoeffer’s lifelong engagement with Luther, this paper argues that his ecumenism does not diminish his Lutheranism, since he participated in the ecumenical movement as a Lutheran, nor does his Lutheranism diminish his ecumenism, since he understood Lutheranism to be fundamentally ecumenical.
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Journal of Religious Ethics (44.2), 2016
Stanley Hauerwas’s claim that Bonhoeffer had a “commitment to nonviolence” runs aground on Bonhoe... more Stanley Hauerwas’s claim that Bonhoeffer had a “commitment to nonviolence” runs aground on Bonhoeffer’s own statements about peace, war, violence, and nonviolence. The fact that Hauerwas and others have asserted Bonhoeffer’s commitment to nonviolence despite abundant evidence to the contrary reveals a blind spot that develops from reading Bonhoeffer’s thinking in general and his statements about peace in particular as if they were part of an Anabaptist theological framework rather than his own Lutheran one. This article shows that Bonhoeffer’s understanding of peace as “concrete commandment” and “order of preservation” relies on Lutheran concepts and is articulated with explicit contrast to an Anabaptist account of peace. The interpretation developed here can account for the range of statements Bonhoeffer makes about peace, war, violence and nonviolence, many of which must be misconstrued or ignored to claim his “commitment to nonviolence.”
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Theology, Vol. 118(3) 162–171, 2015
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s strong statements in support of peace have encouraged Stanley Hauerwas and ... more Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s strong statements in support of peace have encouraged Stanley Hauerwas and other interpreters to read him, explicitly or implicitly, as participating in the theological tradition of the peace churches. This paper argues that this reading misinterprets Bonhoeffer’s peace statements, which ought to be interpreted in the context of the Lutheran theological tradition with which Bonhoeffer identified. In fact, this misinterpretation of Bonhoeffer’s peace statements is one that he himself worked hard to avoid by carefully distinguishing his own position on peace from what he understood as that of the Anabaptists.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer Jahrbuch 5, 121-135, 2012
The purpose of this paper is to bring an aspect of the argumentative structure of Act and Being t... more The purpose of this paper is to bring an aspect of the argumentative structure of Act and Being to bear on the scholarly discussion of Bonhoeffer’s relationship to Martin Heidegger. The aspect of Act and Being in question is Bonhoeffer’s strategy of treating theology in terms of three conceptual levels: epistemology (concepts having to do with knowledge and faith), anthropology (concepts having to do with human existence), and theology proper (concepts having to do with God and revelation). Looking at secondary scholarship with these conceptual levels in mind, it is clear that most work on Bonhoeffer and Heidegger has concentrated on issues of epistemology and especially anthropology. Such a focus suggests that Bonhoeffer critically engages with Heidegger only in terms of the concepts that theology shares with philosophy. But attention to the three levels of conceptuality operant in Act and Being shows that he continues this critical engagement even as he turns to properly theological concerns. Specifically, he extends Heidegger’s emphasis on temporality into the concepts of God and revelation, arguing that, in the incarnation, God’s being enters time.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer Jahrbuch 4, 2010
This paper examines Bonhoeffer’s understanding of Christ’s presence against the background of his... more This paper examines Bonhoeffer’s understanding of Christ’s presence against the background of his friend Franz Hildebrandt’s dissertation, EST. Das lutherische Prinzip. Hildebrandt’s dissertation responds, in part, to Karl Barth, who argues that the Lutheran understanding of Christ’s presence compromises the divine character of revelation and prepares the way for nineteenth-century theology’s confusion of God with creation. In contrast to Hildebrandt’s defense of Christ’s presence, which relies on the logic of idealism that Barth rejects, Bonhoeffer articulates Christ’s presence with reference to what he understands as the core of the Lutheran Christological tradition: its focus on Christ’s person. By treating Christ’s presence through attention to the logic of person, Bonhoeffer purifies the Lutheran Christological tradition of its speculative tendencies, offering an account of Christ’s presence for a post-Barthian theological context.
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Book Chapters by Michael P DeJonge
T&T Clark Handbook of Suffering and the Problem of Evil, 2023
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The Oxford Handbook of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 2019
The catalyst in Bonhoeffer’s student theology was his discovery of Karl Barth. Adopting Barth’s f... more The catalyst in Bonhoeffer’s student theology was his discovery of Karl Barth. Adopting Barth’s focus on revelation brought him into tension with his teachers in Berlin whose theological methods were characterized by, to use Barth’s pejoratives, historicism and psychologism. From the perspective of a theology of revelation, Bonhoeffer criticized his teacher Karl Holl’s theology of conscience and its psychologistic appropriation of Martin Luther. However, Bonhoeffer could not square his conviction about the theological importance of the Church in its historical form with Barth’s then thin account of the relationship between revelation and history. He also discerned in Barth traces of individualistic and epistemologically oriented philosophy, which he thoroughly critiqued. For these reasons, Bonhoeffer cultivated during his student years a social, historical understanding of revelation as Christ’s (inter)personal presence in the church, often drawing insight from Luther, now interpreted Christocentrically rather than in terms of the conscience.
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Books by Michael P DeJonge
https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/theology-history-and-the-modern-german-university-9783161610547?no_cache=1
Table of Contents
0. Introduction: An Argument for Bonhoeffer Interpretation
-Taking Luther’s Ubiquity Seriously
-What is ‘Lutheran’? Issues of Definition and Method
-Arguing for the Lutheran Character of Bonhoeffer’s Thinking
1. On the Way toward Christocentrism
--Karl Holl: Luther’s Religion of Conscience
--Christ or the Conscience?
--Conscience against Conscience
--Meager Christology
--Justification as the Unconditional, Effective Word of Christ’s Personal Presence as the Church
2. Christology in Conversation with Barth and the Lutheran Tradition
-Once more, Barth and Bonhoeffer on whether the Finite is Capable of the Infinite
-The History and Pre-History of the (in)capax Phrases
---This Man Is God
---This Is My Body
---The Finite is Capable of the Infinite
-Barth’s Rejection of the capax and the Majestic Genus
---The Finite is Not Capable of the Infinite
---The Common Actualization of Divine and Human Essences in Christ
-“The is may not be interpreted any further”: Bonhoeffer’s Christology
3. Caricatures of the Two Kingdoms
-Denials of Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking
-From Luther’s Two Kingdoms to the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
---The Two Kingdoms in Luther’s Theology
---Church and State from a Lutheran Confessional Perspective
---Church and State in Confessional Comparison
---The Twentieth-Century Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
---Troeltsch and the Niebuhrs
4. The Twofold Form of Christ: Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking
-Early Two-Kingdoms Thinking
---“The Nature of the Church”
---“Lectures on Christology”
---“Thy Kingdom Come!”
---“The Church and the Jewish Question”
-The Two Kingdoms in Discipleship
-Late Two-Kingdoms Thinking
---“Protestantism without Reformation”
---“Heritage and Decay”
---Green, Rasmussen, Hauerwas
---“Ultimate and Penultimate Things”
5. Anabaptists and Peace
-Bonhoeffer’s Non-Commitment to Nonviolence
-The Doubly Curious Association of Bonhoeffer with Anabaptism through Yoder
---Yoder on Bonhoeffer
---Bonhoeffer on Anabaptists
-Bonhoeffer on Peace
--Peace and Preservation
--Orders of Preservation
--The Sermon on the Mount as Concrete Commandment
-Peace in Bonhoeffer and Anabaptists
-Interpreting Bonhoeffer on Peace
-Ecumenical Lutheranism and Lutheran Ecumenism
6. Lutheran Resistance Resources
-Luther to Hitler
-Lutheran Subservience and Bonhoeffer’s Resistance
-Luther on Resistance to Authority
-The Interims, Flacius, and the Magdeburg Confession
-Formula of Concord X
-Bonhoeffer and Lutheran Resistance Resources
7. Struggle and Resistance
-Resistance through the Confession of the Ecumenical Church
---Status confessionis
---Threats to the Gospel from outside: The State that Disregards its Mandate
---Threats to the Gospel from Inside: Heretical Legalism
---Confession, ‘the Jews,’ and Race
-Resistance through the Suffering Obedience of the Discipleship Community
---The Second Battle of the Church Struggle
---Cheap and Costly Grace
---Justification
-Resistance through the Responsible Action of the Individual
---Between Compromise and Radicalism
---Active Resistance
-Conclusion: A Lutheran Theology in Accord with Reality
Contents
Introduction, Michael DeJonge and Christiane Tietz
1. Translating Dao: Cross-Cultural Translation as a Hermeneutic of Edification, Wei Zhang
2. Historical Translation: Pseudo-Dionysius, Thomas Aquinas, and the Unknown God, Michael DeJonge
3. Philological Limits of Translating Religion: śraddhā and dharma in Hindu Texts, Carlos Lopez
4. Translating Religion between Parents and Children, Andrea Schulte
5. Thick Translation of Religion between Cultures: The Basel Mission in Ghana, Ulrike Sill
6. Habermas’s Call for Translating Religion into Secular Language, Christiane Tietz
7. Does Allah Translate ‘God’? Translating Concepts between Religions, Klaus von Stosch
8. Translating Religious Symbol Systems: Some Preliminary Remarks on Christian Art in China, Volker Küster
9. Conclusion: What’s Lost and Gained? Michael DeJonge and Christiane Tietz
Journal Articles by Michael P DeJonge
Book Chapters by Michael P DeJonge
https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/theology-history-and-the-modern-german-university-9783161610547?no_cache=1
Table of Contents
0. Introduction: An Argument for Bonhoeffer Interpretation
-Taking Luther’s Ubiquity Seriously
-What is ‘Lutheran’? Issues of Definition and Method
-Arguing for the Lutheran Character of Bonhoeffer’s Thinking
1. On the Way toward Christocentrism
--Karl Holl: Luther’s Religion of Conscience
--Christ or the Conscience?
--Conscience against Conscience
--Meager Christology
--Justification as the Unconditional, Effective Word of Christ’s Personal Presence as the Church
2. Christology in Conversation with Barth and the Lutheran Tradition
-Once more, Barth and Bonhoeffer on whether the Finite is Capable of the Infinite
-The History and Pre-History of the (in)capax Phrases
---This Man Is God
---This Is My Body
---The Finite is Capable of the Infinite
-Barth’s Rejection of the capax and the Majestic Genus
---The Finite is Not Capable of the Infinite
---The Common Actualization of Divine and Human Essences in Christ
-“The is may not be interpreted any further”: Bonhoeffer’s Christology
3. Caricatures of the Two Kingdoms
-Denials of Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking
-From Luther’s Two Kingdoms to the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
---The Two Kingdoms in Luther’s Theology
---Church and State from a Lutheran Confessional Perspective
---Church and State in Confessional Comparison
---The Twentieth-Century Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
---Troeltsch and the Niebuhrs
4. The Twofold Form of Christ: Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking
-Early Two-Kingdoms Thinking
---“The Nature of the Church”
---“Lectures on Christology”
---“Thy Kingdom Come!”
---“The Church and the Jewish Question”
-The Two Kingdoms in Discipleship
-Late Two-Kingdoms Thinking
---“Protestantism without Reformation”
---“Heritage and Decay”
---Green, Rasmussen, Hauerwas
---“Ultimate and Penultimate Things”
5. Anabaptists and Peace
-Bonhoeffer’s Non-Commitment to Nonviolence
-The Doubly Curious Association of Bonhoeffer with Anabaptism through Yoder
---Yoder on Bonhoeffer
---Bonhoeffer on Anabaptists
-Bonhoeffer on Peace
--Peace and Preservation
--Orders of Preservation
--The Sermon on the Mount as Concrete Commandment
-Peace in Bonhoeffer and Anabaptists
-Interpreting Bonhoeffer on Peace
-Ecumenical Lutheranism and Lutheran Ecumenism
6. Lutheran Resistance Resources
-Luther to Hitler
-Lutheran Subservience and Bonhoeffer’s Resistance
-Luther on Resistance to Authority
-The Interims, Flacius, and the Magdeburg Confession
-Formula of Concord X
-Bonhoeffer and Lutheran Resistance Resources
7. Struggle and Resistance
-Resistance through the Confession of the Ecumenical Church
---Status confessionis
---Threats to the Gospel from outside: The State that Disregards its Mandate
---Threats to the Gospel from Inside: Heretical Legalism
---Confession, ‘the Jews,’ and Race
-Resistance through the Suffering Obedience of the Discipleship Community
---The Second Battle of the Church Struggle
---Cheap and Costly Grace
---Justification
-Resistance through the Responsible Action of the Individual
---Between Compromise and Radicalism
---Active Resistance
-Conclusion: A Lutheran Theology in Accord with Reality
Contents
Introduction, Michael DeJonge and Christiane Tietz
1. Translating Dao: Cross-Cultural Translation as a Hermeneutic of Edification, Wei Zhang
2. Historical Translation: Pseudo-Dionysius, Thomas Aquinas, and the Unknown God, Michael DeJonge
3. Philological Limits of Translating Religion: śraddhā and dharma in Hindu Texts, Carlos Lopez
4. Translating Religion between Parents and Children, Andrea Schulte
5. Thick Translation of Religion between Cultures: The Basel Mission in Ghana, Ulrike Sill
6. Habermas’s Call for Translating Religion into Secular Language, Christiane Tietz
7. Does Allah Translate ‘God’? Translating Concepts between Religions, Klaus von Stosch
8. Translating Religious Symbol Systems: Some Preliminary Remarks on Christian Art in China, Volker Küster
9. Conclusion: What’s Lost and Gained? Michael DeJonge and Christiane Tietz
Properly understood, Bonhoeffer’s contribution to bioethical reflection in “Natural Life” comes not through his discussion of rights, but through the christologically defined anthropological concept of life that funds that discussion of rights. Natural life, says Bonhoeffer, is formed life, a life defined in terms of both form and content, understood as both means and end, and therefore lived according to both duties and rights. Because they are one aspect of this form-content structure, Bonhoeffer’s natural rights, in contrast to rights in a classical liberal context, entail duties.
Since the engine of Bonhoeffer’s thinking is this form-content structure of formed life, his contribution to bioethical reflection is a versatile one. In Bonhoeffer’s context, where the chief threat to life was the Nazi elevation of the form over the content of life, formed life stresses the rights of life. In a bioethical context where philosophies of personal autonomy threaten to elevate the content of life over its form, as I suggest occurs in contemporary America, formed life emphasizes the duties entailed by rights.