Best of It: Dietrich Bonhoeffer - The Christian and the Church in and for the World (Part 2)

[Series Index]

Today we continue our discussion of the chapter on Dietrich Bonhoeffer in John Stackhouse's Making the Best of It.

One Reality. Bonhoeffer rejected the Lutheran notion of two kingdoms in any strong sense. There is one reality, and Christ rules over all. There is the spiritual office and the kingdom of worldly authority, which should not be mixed, but God rules above both realities, and they answer to him. Stackhouse makes this observation:

Thus the state ought to recognize the church's claim to, and right to, enough space in which it can perform its central task of proclaiming "the reign of Jesus Christ over the whole world." The state – for its own sake, as a servant of God that needs a healthy, functioning church for its own healthy functioning – must no encroach on the church's territory and role (as the Nazis were doing). Without the church and its proclamation of Jesus is Lord, the state becomes, ironically, something other than truly and properly worldly. Lacking a divine reference point, it becomes idolatrous instead, as "the worldly will always seek to satisfy its unquenchable desire for its own deification." (131-132)

Obedience and resistance to the state. Because the state is also of God and because we simply can't know all that goes into decisions about any given situation, Bonhoeffer believed deference should be given to the state. God establishes it and we owe our obedience. This deference is not absolute, but when outright resistance is needed, it should focus narrowly "on those elements that have forfeited their mandate," as Stackhouse says.

Orders of preservation. Bonhoeffer was not a utopian. He believed life was deeply affected by the Fall but not dominated by it. God understood God to have created human institutions to promote good and restrain evil. Writing in Ethics:

Only insofar as church, family, work, and government mutually limit each other, insofar as each is beside and together with the others, upholding the commandment of God each in its own way, are authorized to speak from above to speak. None of these authorities can identify itself alone with the commandment of God. … (136)

Later in life, he speculated that the mandates listed might also be expanded to include things like education and culture. Stackhouse doesn't mention it, but this seems very similar to Kuyper's sphere sovereignty in some ways.

Stackhouse writes:

Bonhoeffer thus distinguished between life we now live as ordered by these institutions and the life to come in which Christ’s Lordship is direct and unimpeded. Yet he also sees that this life, what he calls the “penultimate,” is also given shape by, judged by, and inspired by the life to come, what he calls the “ultimate.” He therefore eschews both radicalism, which despises the penultimate, and capitulative compromise, which despairs of the ultimate. Instead he recommends the way of Christ, which means travelling through the world, doing what one can in the world, and confronting the world – informed and encouraged by the Christian Story (creation, Fall, redemption, and consummation) and especially by the story of Christ. These stories, of course have at their heart the divine project of redemption. (138-139)

Tomorrow we will conclude our discussion of this chapter on Bonhoeffer.

[Previous] [Next]

Comments

[David Murdoch]

This is interesting. Luther thought that people should obey monarchs even when they were oppressive and evil... which of course in sharp contrast to the philosophy that created the United States, wherein so many of the world's protestants have their home. Bonhoeffer, if he did think that resistance was sometimes justified, would be outside of that interpretation, however.

I think that that deference that people should give to rulers ought to be as Paul says:

Colossians 3:22-24 Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ.

We should have deference to the authorities, but not in order to make the authorities happy but rather to do what pleases God. We shouldn't be obedient to the state and pay our taxes because we want some kind of reward from the state or from society, but rather because we seek a reward from God, which we may not even see in this life.

I think especially of what St Thomas More said shortly before he was executed for not taking the oath of supremacy: "I am the King's most loyal servant, but God's first."

God Bless,

[Michael W. Kruse]

Thanks David.

"I am the King's most loyal servant, but God's first."

I love it.

[RonMck]

Michael
I doubt it.
You cannot serve two masters.