Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Christomonic Radically Orthodox Ethic!



"Whoever wishes to take up the problem of a Christian ethic must be confronted at once with a demand which is quite without parallel. He must from the outset discard as irrelevant the two questions which alone impel him to concern himself with the problem of ethics, 'How can I be good?' and 'How can I do good?' and instead of these he must ask the utterly and totally different question "What is the will of God?'"

Bonhoeffer's ethics is in line with the RO project in that he sees no 'secular' space for thought or being, there is only God. "The knowlefge of good and evil seems to be the aim of all ethical refelction. The first task of Christian ethics is to invalidate this knowledge." His project is a little different from RO in that he emphasises Jesus Christ in his incarnation as central to all life and knowledge whereas RO works with the Trinity, but this is a minor different as long as Bonhoeffer is understood to view the Trinity in his reconciliation of God and Man through Christ. What about Christ though?

"Jesus Christ said of Himself: 'I am the life', and this claim, and the reality which it contains cannot be disregarded by any Christian thinking, or indeed any philosophical thinking at all. This self-affirmation of Jesus is a declaration that any attempt to express the essence of life simply as life is foredoomed to failure and has indeed already failed."

Here we have a radical ethic, one which demands the Christian perspective first and foremost; no ethical thinking or speaking is possible unless one does so under the rubric of Christ. This is because for Bonhoeffer it is in Christ that life exists, and only in Christ. Through him the world was created, loved, condemned, and reconciled. Speaking of the world or man without Christ is speaking about something that does not exist. Because of the incarnation we are forced to speak of Christ when we talk about the world, life, or man; to do otherwise is to be speaking half-truth at best and a nihilistic lie at worst (thank you RO).

According to Bonhoeffer the entire reason for existence is to become "real men", which means nothing other than to correspond to reality - but not a 'secular' or 'neutral' reality, for reality is nothing other than the life of Christ; or more exactly Christ.

"Reality is first and last not lifeless; but it is the real man, the incarnate God. It is from the real man, whose name is Jesus Christ, that all factual reality derives its ultimate foundation and its ultimate annulment, its justification and its ultimate contradiction, its ultimate affirmation and its ultimate negation. To attempt to understand reality without the real man is to live in an abstraction to which the responsible man must never fall victim; it is to fail to make contact with reality in life."

Like Barth Bonhoeffer sees Christ as the "Ja" and "Nein" to all in the world; his incarnation brings condemnation and salvation, it declares the world bankrupt and broken but also restores and recreates it through the death and resurrection. Reality then is not some abstraction, it is the personal presence of Jesus Christ, or in RO terms the participation of the Triune God with his creation. This means that any thinking, especially ethically, does not come from the abstract but from the personal; ethics is responsibility, responsibility to God and man but lived in the life of Christ.

There can be no "abstract" ethic then if Christ is reality; ideologies will simply not do. "All ideological action carries its own justification within itself from the outset in its guiding principle, but responsible action does noy lay claim to knowledge of its own ultimate righteousness. Ultimate ignorance of one's own good and evil, and with it a complete reliance upon grace, is an essential property or responsible historical action. The man who acts ideologically sees himself justified in his idea; the responsible man commits his action into the hands of God and lives by God's grace and favour."

This is not to say that there are no moral "principles" in life; rather it is to say that they are all derived and will be found in the personal incarnation and life of Jesus Christ. All ethics is a following of him in the most serious sense. We do not live life according to abstract rights and wrongs, we live them in conversation and partnership with the real man, Jesus Christ. Ethics is personal - we are always making decisions for or against a person, not a principle. This is a truly radical ethics in that it denies the Roman Catholic principle of "natural law" and makes grace the only possibility. All our actions are done in shame and guilt, we depend on the grace and favour of Jesus Christ and his work to sanctify any.

Any action must go through and be done by Christ in order for it to be considered righteous. In Bonhoeffer then we have a truly Protestant ethic; one which demands the continual intercession and grace of Christ baptizing all our thoughts, words, and deeds. To do something outside of Christ is to fail in the sight of God, no matter what action is taken. To live outside of Christ is to live to yourself and ultimately only to damnation and condemnation, for you live to an abstraction and a nothing - nihilism in its ethical form.

To act ethically then is to act as Christ and nothing can be conceived of except in Christ - for the world only exists in his reconcilliation of it to God. This reconcilliation means a curse on all our deeds, for although they may be "reasonable" or "right" before man, they are always condemned before God. "Before other men the man of free responsibility is justified by necessity; before himself he is acquitted by his conscience; but before God he hopes only for mercy."

Bonheoffer's ethics is both Protestant and Radically Orthodox - it both forces all action and life through the reconcilliation of God and Man by Jesus Christ and denies the existence of any "secular" reality. Reality is nothing other than Christ continually reconciling the world to God - his eternal priesthood and kingship until the final consummation of the new heavens and the new earth. "Behold, I am making all things new! (Rev. 21.5)"