Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote.
The great masquerade of evil muddles every concept of ethics. Evil appears in the form of light, as good works--even as an historical necessity--or as justice, and utterly confuses one who comes from the traditional world of ethical ideas. For the Christian who lives by the Bible, however, these forms of evil simply confirm its abysmal wickedness. Who is able to withstand this evil? Only he to whom the last measure is not his own reason, his principles, his freedom or even his conscience--but rather his readiness to sacrifice all of these: only he who is called to deeds of obedience and responsibility in faith and single-minded communion with God; only he who will let his life become nothing, as answer to God�s request or call.
You can get something like this daily from Bruderhof. Their site is interesting.
Posted by tripp at May 5, 2004 06:46 AMtripp, thanks for pointing me to the Bruderhof site. great stuff there. i'm always looking for stuff like that.
Posted by: Geoff Holsclaw at May 5, 2004 07:59 AMThe nonseminarian asks, what the heck is Bonhoeffer talking about? The latter part of the quotation is clear, but the earlier part, mud. What manifestations of evil is he discussing?
Posted by: Megan at May 5, 2004 08:41 AMMegan, most likely it is a critique of the German political situation ca. 1930-40. The realities Bonhoeffer faced shaped much of his theological thinking. He could, at times, become a wee reactive, but mostly he just struggled. This quote is coming out of the struggle he was in with the Reich. He despised Hitler's politics and saw the alliance with the church a failure of the church to be church.
Posted by: Tripp at May 5, 2004 08:47 AMContext is all. I'm a dramaturg, we love context. :)
Posted by: Megan at May 5, 2004 10:18 AMHuzzah!
Posted by: Tripp at May 5, 2004 10:22 AMIf I may, I thought I'd add a thought or two. It's often forgotten that Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran, and quite an orthodox Lutheran at that. What some Luderans consider his scandalous redefinition of grace and faith in Discipleship, for instance, is actually closer to classical Lutheran dogmatics than many want to acknowledge. So, this brings me to the point (uh huh). Bonhoeffer, radical orthodox Lutheran that he was, wants to point out the evil that often lurks within our best works as we fight for justice and truth, and he wants to have an end to any sense that the revelation of God's grance and mercy in Jesus Christ is relativized by any historical movement which purports to be 'providential' and good. Thus his opposition to Nazism, and the context out of which this passage comes.
Posted by: Thomas at May 5, 2004 09:18 PM