Bonhoeffer and Non-Violence

• Authors: Jens Zimmermann

Abstracts

EN

Jens Zimmermann closes this volume with a nuanced statement of Bonhoeffer’s involvement in the conspiracy to overthrow the government of Nazi Germany, including the attempted efforts to assassinate Hitler. Zimmermann responds both to those who argue that Bonhoeffer, as a pacifist, never took part in or condoned the plans to kill Hitler (see Nation et al., Bonhoeffer the Assassin?), and to those who claim that Bonhoeffer abandoned his earlier pacifism to adopt Reinhold Niebuhr’s “critical” or “Christian” realism. Zimmermann shows that Bonhoeffer argued instead that such extreme forms of political resistance are unique personal acts of free responsibility for the sake of others in obedience to Christ, and therefore do not provide theological or ethical justification for the use of violence.

• Publisher: Ewangelikalna Wyższa Szkoła Teologiczna we Wrocławiu
• Journal: Theologica Wratislaviensia
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 11 Dietrich Bonhoeffer na 500 lat Reformacji
• Pages: 197-211

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Jens Zimmermann

• Trinity Western University, Langley, BC

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

2054937