Suffering as an Ecumenical Paradigm in Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Edith Stein

• Authors: Samuel Randall

Abstracts

EN

Edith Stein and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, were both twentieth century ‘martyrs,’ who experienced personal loss and suffering. However, it was suffering for others, deliberately chosen and consciously endured, that was of theological significance for both of them. This paper seeks to demonstrate that for Stein and Bonhoeffer suffering was understood by them as providing an essential example or model of Christian discipleship and that both utilised the expression Stellvertretung-vicarious suffering-to describe this. This theological interpretation of suffering for others illustrates a fundamental ecclesial reality which is of ecumenical significance because of its Christological significance, which is why such suffering transcends confessional and denominational differences and is of paradigmatic significance. Furthermore, this paper will suggest that both Stein and Bonhoeffer understood that the Christian disciple, in vicarious suffering, becomes a Schuldübernahme: a bearer of the sins of others.

• Publisher: Ewangelikalna Wyższa Szkoła Teologiczna we Wrocławiu
• Journal: Theologica Wratislaviensia
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 11 Dietrich Bonhoeffer na 500 lat Reformacji
• Pages: 125-143

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Samuel Randall

• St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

2054926