Eberhard Bethge’s definitive
biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer runs to over 1,000 pages in length, and
contains only three references to St. Augustine. Bethge first mentions that Bonhoeffer took a seminar on
Augustine’s City of God from Adolf
von Harnack in the winter semester of 1925-1926.[1] During the same period, Bonhoeffer was
reading Reinhold Seeberg’s Textbook of
the History of Doctrines, from which Bonhoeffer first gained his knowledge
on Augustine.[2] Lastly, Bethge mentions that Bonhoeffer
had an affinity for Augustine’s saying that “the heart is restless until it
rests in God”; while an assistant pastor in Barcelona in 1928-1929, Bonhoeffer
used this quote in several different sermons.[3] By Bethge’s account (and there is little
reason to take issue with it) Martin Luther and especially Karl Barth played a
much more prominent role in the shaping and development of Bonhoeffer’s
theology. This seems to suggest
that Augustine is present in a number of ways, especially early in Bonhoeffer’s
development, but does not readily stand out as a key figure that had a direct
and lasting influence on his theological formation.
Bonhoeffer
does make explicit and significant use of Augustine in his doctoral dissertation,
Sanctorum Communio, but the great
Church Father seems to fade quickly into the background of his subsequent
theological work. Bonhoeffer
scholarship at large consequently limits the discussion of Augustine to the
early period.[4] Yet, careful analysis of the primary
sources reveals a lasting Augustinian influence in Bonhoeffer’s thought. The direct citation and appropriation
of Augustine retreat after the Barcelona sermons, but the foundations are set
for a lifetime of creative and direct application of Augustine’s theology.
Augustinian
influence on Bonhoeffer’s work is particularly evident in regards to his
consideration of the Psalms – his favorite portion of Scripture. The Psalms helped shape his devotional
life and influenced his theology, especially during times of considerable
hardship and anxiety. Bonhoeffer was
particularly attentive to the message of the psalmist during his time as
director of the preacher’s seminary at Finkenwalde from 1935 to 1937. Life
Together and the short essay Prayerbook
of the Bible were both composed during this period and both contain
significant reflections on praying the Psalms. Here, Bonhoeffer employed a decidedly Augustinian approach
to exegesis and hermeneutics; he placed Jesus Christ and the church at the very
center of interpretation. This was
Augustine’s approach, in common with many of the Church Fathers, and even
Luther much later, but entirely out of step with Bonhoeffer’s education at the
University of Berlin, where historical-critical methodology was commonly (if
not universally) employed.
This
paper proposes that Bonhoeffer’s commitment to a Christ-centered interpretation
of the Psalms derives in part from his continuing appreciation of – and
interaction with – Augustine. Admittedly,
Augustine is not the only or even the most important influence upon Bonhoeffer’s
Christ-centered approach to exegesis; surely both Barth and Luther played a
more active role in this regard.
But to minimize (or overlook altogether) Augustine’s influence on Bonhoeffer’s
theological development would lead to a distorted view of Bonhoeffer’s own
theological reflections and constructions, especially in regards to
Bonhoeffer’s work on the Psalms. More specifically, the unique meaning of his Prayerbook of the Bible and a pastoral
document titled “Meditations on Psalm 119” from 1939-1940 is revealed only when
they are read alongside Augustine’s Expositions
of the Psalms. Not only is Bonhoeffer’s
interpretive methodology for the Psalms clearly elucidated through the lens of
Augustine, but Augustine’s own exegesis of Psalm 119 finds surprising parallels
in Bonhoeffer’s “Meditation on Psalm 119.” Scholars have recognized that Bonhoeffer had in his
possession a marked-up copy of Augustine’s Expositions
on the Psalms from 1936. Even
though Bonhoeffer neglected to make reference to (or cite) Augustine in his
work on the Psalms, this paper will illustrate that Augustine remained a
faithful and vital theological and pastoral interlocutor for him at this
crucial time in his life.
To
make this argument, it will be necessary first to set out the specific origins
of Augustine’s thought on Bonhoeffer.
Of particular importance will be Bonhoeffer’s discovery of the
Augustinian use of the concept sanctorum
communio. Not only did this
become the title of Bonhoeffer’s doctoral dissertation, the concept became a
defining aspect of his entire theology.
Next, the investigation will describe how Augustine and Bonhoeffer each
came to significant interaction with the Psalms. Their similar, yet distinct, interpretive methods will then
be displayed in a comparison of their exegetical work on Psalm 119:1-3. Finally, the conclusions of
Bonhoeffer’s work with the Psalms will be applied to a larger theological
project that is seeking to describe the development of Bonhoeffer’s theology of
discipleship. For Bonhoeffer,
praying the Psalms was an integral aspect of the “action of discipleship,”
which found its true form as Christ-centered belief-obedience.
[1] See Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A
Biography, rev. ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress,
2000), 67.
[2]
See Bethge, Bonhoeffer, 70.
[3]
See Bethge, Bonhoeffer, 112.
[4]
See Barry Harvey, “Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in the Theology of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer,” in Bonhoeffer’s Intellectual
Formation: Theology and Philosophy in His Thought, ed. Peter Frick
(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 11-18.
