BOOK REVIEWS
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed.”
Francis Bacon (d. 1626)
Reviewed by Adam C. English, Assistant Professor of Theology and Philosophy.
Campbell University, North Carolina
Ethics: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 6.
Edited by Clifford Green, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005, $55.
The title of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s unfinished masterpiece, Ethics, belies its content. It is not a treatise on ethics, but on the end of ethics. Bonhoeffer does not set out to show all the various ways the knowledge of good and evil can be used in a fallen world, he sets out to overcome the knowledge of good and evil. He says that the name “Christian ethics” should be invoked “only as the critique of all ethics” (300). He explains in the opening paragraph to the work:
Those who wish even to focus on the problem of a Christian ethic are faced with an outrageous demand—from the outset they must give up, as inappropriate to this topic, the very two questions that led them to deal with the ethical problem: “How can I be good?” and “How can I do something good?” Instead they must ask the wholly other, completely different question: what is the will of God? (47)
Coming on the fiftieth year anniversary of the first publication of Ethics in English, this new translation and edition is nothing short of paradise for Bonhoeffer devotees and scholars. Complete with a lengthy introduction and afterward, rich footnotes that cross-reference other Bonhoeffer works, a brimming bibliography, a glossary of names, a chart comparing previous editions of Ethics with the new edition, and even a timeline for the writing of Ethics, this is the definitive edition. My wife pokes fun at me for getting so enthusiastic, but it really is great. True, you can buy the 1955 N. H. Smith translation, which has been recently reissued by Touchstone, for $13.00. But, the $55.00 you spend on the new Fortress edition is well worth it.
Since Bonhoeffer died before completing the text, the format, order, and number of chapters is left to editorial discretion. The editors of this new Fortress edition have rearranged the chapters and added some material not printed in older editions. For instance, they include an earlier version (in addition to the later version) of the chapter entitled, “History and Good.” In this important section Bonhoeffer offers a theological rationale for joining the Abwehr plot to assassinate Hitler, even though the decision went against his pacifist commitments.
As two recent films (Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace, 2001 and Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Pacifist, and Nazi Resister, 2003) and a number of recent books and essays attest, interest in Bonhoeffer’s role in the conspiracy abounds. The Ethics provides tremendous insight into his decision to become involved in the plot. Throughout the text, the reader observes Bonhoeffer coming to grips with the fact that “everyone who acts responsibly becomes guilty” (275). Even Christ, who remained sinless, took on the guilt of the human race when he entered history and became responsible for their sins. In like fashion, those who try to act responsibly without getting their hands dirty divorce themselves from reality and Christ’s work of reconciliation. “They place their personal innocence above their responsibility for other human beings and are blind to the fact that precisely in so doing they become even more egregiously guilty” (276). Bonhoeffer goes so far down this line of thinking to suggest that there may be a legitimate suspension of the law for the sake of affirming it, renewing it, and bringing about a higher good. “The suspension of the law must only serve its true fulfillment. In war, for example, there is killing, lying, and seizing of property solely in order to reinstate the validity of life, truth, and property” (297). According to this provocative statement, it seems those involved in the Abwehr’s attempt at tyrranicide are more than justified in their lying, deception, and plans to kill. And yet, Bonhoeffer is not content with such a simplistic justification. He refuses to have his argument reduced to “The ends justify the means.” In truth, ends do not justify means. Immediately after the sentence quoted above, Bonhoeffer adds, “Breaking the law must be recognized in all its gravity” (297). Although the ends may supersede the ends, they do not justify them. Lying is still lying, killing is still killing. There is real guilt that attends such breaking of the law, even when it is nevertheless necessary to break the law in service of God and neighbor.
Bonhoeffer’s Ethics proves today, as it did fifty years ago, to be a milestone in Christian moral thinking and radical discipleship. The new Fortress edition offers a fine opportunity to become acquainted or reacquainted with it.
