Here's the first two introductory paragraphs to my seminar paper from this quarter...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings from Tegel prison are often describes as "the new theology." His Letters and Papers from Prison contain wonderful and fresh theological insights and represent a serious attempt to reconcile the reality of the revelation of Jesus Christ with the growing effects of secularization on Western religion and culture. Though unfortunately fragmented, the Letters and Papers represent some of Bonhoeffer’s most creative work. They are the result of focused study and reflection on an impressive array of scholarship, including drama, literature, music, history, philosophy and physics. He scoured the prison library for material and he managed to receive a regular supply of books from his family and friends, often smuggled into Tegel by a friendly prison guard. Of the dozens of authors that Bonhoeffer read while in prison, three had a particularly strong influence on the development of his new theology.
Bonhoeffer’s letters from the spring and early summer of 1944 represent the height of his theological reflections. During this time he was giving particular attention to questions of the philosophies of history, human life and worldview and was looking to Wilhelm Dilthey, José Ortega y Gasset and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker for insight. Dilthey and Ortega y Gasset provided a framework for Bonhoeffer to engage critically the historical emergence of science and its perceived companion secularization. Their philosophies of the radical reality of human life in the interpretation of history offered Bonhoeffer a compelling hermeneutic for interpreting God’s place in the rise of human autonomy. Weizsäcker, a physicist, argued that our evolving scientific view of the world has determined our perception of, and belief in, God; this led to an ever-retreating God of the gaps. From these authors (and certainly others) Bonhoeffer is able to refine and articulate the central aspect of his new theology. He embraces the modern world, calling it “a world come of age,” and declares that Jesus Christ has and always will be in its very midst. The false claims of religion, exposed by secularization, open wide the possibilities of the recognition of God’s nearness and grace. Bonhoeffer understands that the church can only truly follow Jesus Christ when religious constructs are shed from Christianity. He calls this separation religionless Christianity, and it is the very possibility of discipleship in a world that has come of age. This paper argues that Bonhoeffer’s understanding of this “possibility” emerges in part from his study of human life, history and worldview in Dilthey, Ortega y Gasset and Weizsäcker. Each of these three figures will be examined in terms of how their particular writings influenced the development of Bonhoeffer’s emerging theology.
