Description
This course is a study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology, spirituality and ethics in view of the major challenges posited to the Christian church by the rise of secularism, totalitarianism, persecution, racism, war and injustice. Special attention will be given to Bonhoeffer’s creative re-reading of the Lutheran tradition, the use of Scripture and the confessions, the outlines of his political theology, his re-introduction of the notion of status confessions in the face of the “Jewish Question,” his consideration of natural law and the State, Christian responsibility, mandates, vocation, peace and love, and the meaning of faith in a religion less world. His ethical paradigm will be analyzed in relation to the Roman Catholic understanding of natural law and the Reformed use of the third use of the law.