Ethics (Bonhoeffer)

Ethics
Author Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Original title Ethik
Country Nazi Germany
Language German
Subject Christlikeness
Ethics
Patriotism
Genre Christian theology
Published 1949

Ethics (German: Ethik) is an unfinished book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that was edited and published after his death by Eberhard Bethge in 1949.[1] Bonhoeffer worked on the book in the early 1940s[2] and intended it to be his magnum opus.[3] At the time of writing, he was a double agent; he was working for Abwehr, Nazi Germany's military intelligence organization, but was simultaneously involved in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.[4] The central theme of Ethics is Christlikeness.[5] The arguments in the book are informed by Lutheran Christology[6] and are influenced by Bonhoeffer's participation in the German resistance to Nazism.[7] Ethics is commonly compared to Bonhoeffer's earlier book The Cost of Discipleship, with scholars debating the extent to which Bonhoeffer's views on Christian ethics changed between his writing of the two books.[8] In The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John W. de Gruchy argues that Ethics evinces more nuance than Bonhoeffer's earlier writings.[9] In 2012, David P. Gushee, director of Mercer University's Center for Theology and Public Life, named Ethics one of the five best books about patriotism, the others being Bruce Lincoln's Religion, Empire and Torture; Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society; Shane Claiborne's and Chris Haw's Jesus for President; and A Testament of Hope, a collection of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches and writings.[10]

References

  1. de Gruchy 1991, p. 221.
  2. Muers 2007, p. 173.
  3. Metaxas 2015, p. 179.
  4. Karnick, S.T. (April 10, 2015). "The Awe-Inspiring Heroism of Dietrich Bonhoeffer". National Review. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  5. Kelly & Nelson 2003, p. 112.
  6. DeJonge 2012, p. 140.
  7. Green 1999, p. 301.
  8. Plant 2014, p. 97.
  9. de Gruchy 1999, p. 170.
  10. Gushee, David P. (June 2012). "My Top 5 Books on Patriotism". Christianity Today. 56 (6). p. 68.

Bibliography

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