Succession (Bonhoeffer)

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Christ preaches ( Rembrandt ). Bonhoeffer hung up changing Rembrandt etchings in the Finkenwalde seminary to support the course content

The successor is the title of a book that Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote as director of the Finkenwalde seminary . It emerged from the courses in Finkenwalde in the years 1935–1937. When the seminar wasclosedby the Secret State Police in September 1937, Bonhoeffer's manuscript was already finished and was at the Chr. Kaiser Verlag . The book was available in print for Advent 1937.

Emergence

According to Eberhard Bethge , Bonhoeffer had already worked out the subject of succession before 1933. The first text that can be considered a forerunner for a passage in the book is, however, a devotion on Lk 9,57-62  LUT , which Bonhoeffer wrote for his London congregation on New Year 1934. He then gave several sermons on texts from the Sermon on the Mount that have not survived.

According to Bethge's memories, Bonhoeffer's first Finkenwalder course on the successor in 1935 had a different structure than the later book. He began with a consideration of the biblical disciple callings (the call to the discipleship) , followed by The discipleship and the cross , the discipleship and the individual and the detailed exposition of the Sermon on the Mount . The entire second part of the book with its relatively loose sequence of chapters was a revised version of the New Testament main lectures that Bonhoeffer gave in the second to fifth Finkenwalder courses. Bonhoeffer's manuscripts on his succession no longer exist.

content

Martin Honecker sums up the basic idea of discipleship as follows: discipleship is a bond with Jesus Christ regardless of any program. The author tries to derive standards for doing what is just. Bonhoeffer, however, leaves it in the balance as to whether the succession shapes attitude or behavior, and also whether it binds the individual or the community.

First part

The dear grace

Bonhoeffer begins with a sharp criticism of the Protestant church of his time. She used the doctrine of justification to offer “cheap grace”, specifically: “Sermon of forgiveness without repentance , ... baptism without discipline , ... Lord's Supper without confession of sins, ... absolution without personal confession”. Bonhoeffer, on the other hand, places the call of Jesus Christ in the discipleship for which a person gives up everything. When Christianity became the state religion, monasticism on the fringes of the church kept alive the knowledge that grace was dear. The medieval church endured monasticism, but at the same time intended it as a special path for a few. “Luther's way out of the monastery back into the world meant the sharpest attack that had been waged on the world since early Christianity ... The Christian had come upon the world. It was hand-to-hand combat. ”But a slight shift in emphasis in Lutheranism turned Luther's radical path into a church of cheap grace. She has discouraged many individuals who wanted to follow Jesus and tried concrete steps. These Christians are addressed by Bonhoeffer as readers of his book.

The call to followers

Bonhoeffer interprets the disciples vocations in the Gospels: follow hot commitment to Jesus, not to a program. In addition, it is necessary to take concrete steps through which a new situation is created. (From this emphasis on the first steps, Bethge draws the line to Bonhoeffer's later distinction between the penultimate and the last in ethics .)

The simple-minded obedience

Bonhoeffer now analyzes how Lutheranism, with the intention of avoiding “legalism”, discourages concrete steps of succession. All the requests in the Bible are bent in such a way that nothing at all has any effect on one's own behavior. He caricatures this using the example of a “pseudo-theologically trained” child who is supposed to go to bed and makes the following considerations: “The father says: go to bed. He thinks you are tired; he doesn't want me to be tired. I can also get over my tiredness by playing. Well, the father says: go to bed! But he actually means: go play. "

The discipleship and the cross

According to Bonhoeffer, attachment to Jesus means suffering. However, a Christian should not actively seek this “cross”; it is available in every biography. It could, but need not, lead to martyrdom .

The succession and the individual

According to Bonhoeffer, succession also implies a break with all “immediacy”. People are separated from one another by an insurmountable distance; therefore the disciples were called in the Gospels to forsake everything. Succession could take place “in a break with family or people”, and a new community, the community, would then emerge from the many subsequent individuals. (Bethge notes a critical tip against mass movements here.)

The Sermon on the Mount

The interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount takes up about a third of the work. Bonhoeffer interprets the Sermon on the Mount Christologically , with which he places himself in the Lutheran tradition of interpretation, even if he does not emphasize the inability of people as much as it does.

According to Bonhoeffer, the Beatitudes apply to the disciples, i. H. those who follow, and tear open a gap between them and the listening people. "The world fantasizes about progress, strength, future", but the followers of Christ could not participate. Inevitably they would attract aggression. "It is important that Jesus also praises his disciples blessed where they are not persecuted directly for the confession of his name, but for the sake of a just cause."

In the interpretation of the Logia of Salt and Light, Bonhoeffer emphasizes that the point is that the “good works”, and that are the concrete steps of the suffering succession, are visible. The antitheses of the Sermon on the Mount give Bonhoeffer the opportunity to present such concretizations of the discipleship. The Sermon on the Mount is always about the extraordinary, irregular (περισσόν) of Christian life.

  • "Whoever comes to the Word and the Lord's Supper with an unreconciled heart receives his judgment through it."
  • In the area of ​​sexuality, Jesus demands “perfect purity, i. H. Chastity of His Disciples ”, which can be sought both in marriage and in celibacy .
  • Bonhoeffer is critical of the fact that the Reformation churches gave the secular authorities the right to require the citizen to take the oath: The oath can only be taken “where, firstly, there is complete clarity and transparency about what is included in the oath; Secondly, a distinction should be made between taking oaths that relate to ... facts that are known to us, and those that have the character of a vow ”(for the oath as a vow see also: Führereid ).
  • When it comes to retaliation, Bonhoeffer contradicts the traditional distinction between private and public officials . In doing so, the reformers justified the participation of Christians in prosecution or in war. With this antithesis, Jesus freed the disciples from the “political and legal order, from the national figure of the people of Israel”.
  • On the subject of loving one's enemies , Bonhoeffer inserts a long quote from August Vilmar , in which he sees a general persecution of Christians looming.

According to Bonhoeffer, the “extraordinary” of Christian action is visible, but paradoxically it is also hidden. Bonhoeffer illustrates this idea using the example of prayer. The secrecy that Jesus demands is a disregard of oneself. The subject of fasting gives Bonhoeffer the opportunity to emphasize against the Protestant Church of his time: “A life that remains completely without ascetic practice ... will be difficult to prepare for the service of Christ . ”But as a self-chosen suffering, asceticism is also in danger of seeking public attention.

The Sermon on the Mount ends with the parable of the house built on rock and sand. Bonhoeffer emphasizes that the Sermon on the Mount knows the alternative between doing and not doing and that there is no third one, namely “wanting to do and yet not doing”.

The messengers

Here Bonhoeffer draws a line from the sending out of the apostles, who according to Mt 10: 9-10 have no possessions, to the situation of the pastor. He should renounce class privileges and wear the "service dress of poverty" like the apostles. But Jesus does not demand that you make yourself conspicuous "as a beggar, with torn clothes".

Second part

The Church of Jesus Christ and Following

Bonhoeffer assumes that Jesus is calling into disciples today through the word of the Bible. This is done when attending church services, in the sermon and sacrament of the Church. However, one must avoid playing off biblical narratives against one another. "Scripture does not introduce us to a number of Christian types to which we should conform if we choose, but it preaches to us the one Jesus Christ at every point."

Baptism

Bonhoeffer advocates the baptism of believers . Jesus' call to discipleship requires “a visible act of obedience”. The infant baptism was valid baptism and unrepeatable, but just so she could be granted "in a vibrant community" only.

The body of Christ

Christians receive communion with the living Jesus Christ, as Bonhoeffer explains, through the two sacraments baptism and the Lord's Supper. The sermon alone does not do this. The church should not be thought of as an institution, but as a living organism: “The church of Christ is the present Christ in the Holy Spirit .” In this ecclesiological chapter, Bonhoeffer draws on the Old Testament texts on the Jerusalem temple ; these are prophecies towards Christ. The temple / body of Christ / the church is "the place of acceptance, reconciliation and peace between God and men".

The visible church

In the following , Bonhoeffer writes community where the term church would be expected. According to Bonhoeffer, the community can shape its organizational form differently over the course of time. But this order should not be interfered with from outside. According to the Confessio Augustana , Bonhoeffer names the pure doctrine and proper administration of the sacraments as a characteristic of the community and, on the subject of pure doctrine, problematizes the distinction between permissible school opinion and heresy.

With baptism, the baptized enter a living community that includes all life relationships: “Anyone who allows a baptized brother to participate in worship but denies him fellowship in daily life, abuses or despises him, is guilty of the body of Christ. "

Bonhoeffer then comments on the chapter Rom 13 : 1–14  LUT . Paul does not address the tasks of the state (the authorities ), but only the tasks of Christians vis-à-vis the state. A digression into church history ends with the vision of a world that has become completely anti-Christian, which also harasses the Christian in his private sphere. "But then the end will be near, when Christianity will have the last space on earth taken."

The Holy

The New Testament calls all Christians saints . Bonhoeffer explains the relationship between justification and sanctification , from which he deduces the following consequences:

  • There is no personal sanctification outside of the visible church.
  • The saints had broken with the world and separated themselves (here Bonhoeffer unfolds the catalogs of vice from the New Testament letters, which paint a gloomy picture of the pagan environment); but the church is not ideal. Therefore, in the church, sin must be called sin and repentance preached (church discipline).
  • Individual Christians and the congregation should not assess their progress in sanctification themselves, but leave this to God.

The image of Christ

Bonhoeffer explains the quote from Paul, Rom 8,29  LUT , according to which Christians are made like Christ in following Christ. He distinguishes three dimensions of this Christ-form:

  • The image of the incarnate : According to Bonhoeffer, the incarnation of Christ establishes the dignity of every individual.
  • The image of the crucified: For Christians, life in following Christ is a path of suffering, but only a few are honored for martyrdom.
  • The image of the resurrected: During earthly life, which is all a suffering, the transformation into the divine image takes place. Christians participated in the life of the risen Christ ( Gal 2.29  LUT ).

reception

The successor met with keen reader interest during the years of the Nazi dictatorship , which was evident from the sales figures. The second edition appeared in 1940. There were no detailed reviews of the book before 1945. By the time the prison letters were published, the followers formed the image that the public had of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In the GDR, Bonhoeffer's work was received more strongly, also conveyed by the Bonhoeffer student Albrecht Schönherr . For the rethinking after 1945, the succession was important, combined with Bonhoeffer's vitae as a resistance fighter.

The book's high sales figures are disproportionate to the low level of attention that Bonhoeffer's successor receives in the professional world; here the interest is directed more towards Bonhoeffer's late writings. Karl Barth refers in the church dogmatics approvingly to the succession , but stands alone with it.

Text output

  • Succession. With an afterword by Eberhard Bethge. 14th edition. Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-459-01374-5 .
  • Successor (= Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke. Volume 4). Edited by Martin Tuske and Ilse Tödt. 3. Edition. Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 978-3-579-01874-4 .
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Successor. In: evangelischer-glaube.de. Dr. Thomas Gerlach, 1937, accessed November 10, 2019 .

literature

  • Eberhard Bethge : Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A biography. 3. Edition. Chr. Kaiser, Munich 1970.
  • Martin Honecker : Introduction to Theological Ethics. Basics and basic concepts. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1990, ISBN 3-11-008146-6 .
  • Florian Schmitz: "Succession". On the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (=  research on systemic and ecumenical theology. Volume 138). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-525-56404-2 .
  • Bernd Liebendörfer: The reception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's “Succession” in German-speaking theology and the church. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-17-032493-0 .
  • Bernd Liebendörfer: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's idea of ​​succession and its potential in the present. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-17-031920-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 523 .
  2. ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 516 .
  3. ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 516-517 .
  4. ↑ Martin Honecker: Introduction to Theological Ethics . S. 148 .
  5. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 14 .
  6. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 19 .
  7. ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 522 .
  8. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 55 .
  9. ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 521 .
  10. ↑ Martin Honecker: Introduction to Theological Ethics . S. 277 .
  11. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 83 .
  12. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 88 .
  13. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 105 .
  14. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 112-113 .
  15. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 115-116 .
  16. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 144-145 .
  17. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 173 .
  18. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 181 .
  19. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 198 .
  20. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 204 .
  21. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 206 .
  22. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 215 .
  23. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 219 .
  24. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 229 .
  25. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Succession . S. 240-241 .
  26. ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 518-519 .
  27. ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 523 .