Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis: Recovering the True Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

by Mark Nation

Once again, in the midst of his reflections on responsibility, Bonhoeffer challenges the Kantian notion of universal principles. In specific situations, norms for behavior are not derived from “a clearly recognized good and a clearly recognized evil.” Rather they are known in the encounter with “the concrete neighbor, as given to me by God.” Choices for behaviors are “risked in faith while being aware that good and evil are hidden in the concrete historical situation” (221). Bonhoeffer continues: “Those who act responsibly take the given situation or context into account in their acting, not merely as raw material to be shaped by their ideas, but as contributing to forming the act itself. It is not some foreign law that is imposed on reality. Instead, the action of the responsible person is most profoundly in accord with reality”