Redeeming the penultimate: discipleship and Church in the thought of Søren Kierkegaard and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/1474225x.2011.547317
ISSN1747-0234
Autores Tópico(s)Literary and Philosophical Studies
ResumoAbstract There are striking parallels between the theologies of discipleship advanced by the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard and the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer's notion of 'costly grace' closely resembles Kierkegaard's critique of the misuse of the Pauline-Lutheran doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. After the publication of Cost of Discipleship, however, Bonhoeffer's view of discipleship moves in a different direction from that of Kierkegaard. Whereas Kierkegaard takes discipleship to mean that the Christian must be in irrevocable conflict with the world, Bonhoeffer sees discipleship as living in the world and cultivating a 'worldly holiness'. This article tracks the reasons why their initially similar theologies of discipleship result in Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer developing different understandings of Christian discipleship and church. The discussion is organised around the distinction Bonhoeffer makes in his Ethics between the 'ultimate' and the 'penultimate'. Kierkegaard emphasises the ultimate to such an extent that the penultimate is virtually eliminated and the Christian disciple is called upon to live in a state of constant eschatological opposition to the world. For Bonhoeffer on the other hand the penultimate is not to be condemned but to be transformed in the light of the ultimate. The article argues that the differing notions of discipleship advanced by Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer arise from the different political contexts in which they were living and writing. Whereas Kierkegaard's historical situation prompted him to affirm the ultimate by confronting his contemporaries with New Testament Christianity's radical opposition to the world, Bonhoeffer's resistance to the Nazi régime prompted him to reflect on how the ultimate can be integrated into the penultimate and how the Christian disciple can engage with the world without being of the world. Keywords: KierkegaardBonhoefferdiscipleshipjustificationultimatepenultimatetotalitarianismsecularism Notes 1For discussions of these developments see Andersen, Survey of the History of the Church in Denmark; Hovde, The Scandinavian Countries; Koch and Kornerup, Den danske Kirkes Historie, vols. 6 and 7; Elrod, Kierkegaard and Christendom, esp. ch. 1; Kirmmse, Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark, part 1; Pattison, Kierkegaard and the Crisis of Faith. 2Kierkegaard, For Self-Examination, 17. 3Ibid., 16. 4Ibid., 16–17. 5Ibid., 17. 6Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship. 7Ibid., 3–4. 8Ibid., 3–4. 9Ibid., 10. 10Ibid., 4. 11Ibid. 12Ibid., 5; original emphasis. 13Ibid. 14For discussions of Kierkegaard's reception in the early twentieth century see Schjørring, Theologische Gewissensethik und politische Wirklichkeit; Greve, 'Kierkegaard im Dritten Reich'. For a discussion of Hirsch's treatment of Kierkegaard in his Kierkegaard-Studien, see my 'Christian Discipleship in Kierkegaard, Hirsch, and Bonhoeffer'. 15Künzli, Die Angst als abendländische Krankheit. 16Lukács, The Destruction of Reason. 17Adorno, 'Kierkegaard noch einmal'. 18Hirsch, 'Sören Kierkegaard', 120. 19Ibid., 16. 20Thieme, 'Durch Sören Kierkegaard zu Karl Marx'. 21Thieme, 'Sören Kierkegaard und die katholische Wahrheit', 33. 22Adorno, 'Kierkegaard noch einmal', 563. 23That it is a mistake to read Kierkegaard as a forerunner of fascism is evident from Kierkegaard's distaste for the nationalist feelings that seized Denmark in 1848 (JP, 5:6125; Pap. IX B 64, 377–8) and his rejection of the Christian nationalism advanced by Grundtvig (JP, 4:4121; 4171; 5044). See Kierkegaard, Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers, and Søren Kierkegaards Papier. For Kierkegaard, Christianity rules out any glorification of the idea of the nation. He states that, 'It is obvious that one of the factors in Christ's death was that he repudiated nationalism, wanted to have nothing to do with it', and points out that the collapse of God's chosen people 'became an everlasting memento that Christianity is not related to nationality' (JP, 4:4171). Further evidence for the non-fascist character of Kierkegaard's thought is also provided by the surprise of contemporary reviewers at Hirsch's reading of Kierkegaard as a supporter of National Socialism. See Greve, 'Kierkegaard im Dritten Reich', 35. 24Kuhns, In Pursuit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 125. 25Ibid. 26Bonhoeffer, Ethics. 27Ibid., 98. 28Ibid., 99. 29Ibid., 100. 30Ibid. 31Ibid., 100–1. 32Ibid., 101. 33Ibid. 34Ibid., 102. 35Ibid. 36Ibid., 103. 37Ibid. 38See Kierkegaard, The Moment and Late Writings. 39Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 104. 40Ibid. 41Ibid., 104–5. Kierkegaard's attack on the Church in the name of New Testament Christianity would seem to fall under Bonhoeffer's condemnation of the radical solution. From the Bonhoefferian perspective Kierkegaard's critique could be read as a failure to appreciate the reality of the incarnation. 42Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 105. 43Ibid. 44Ibid. 45Ibid. 46Ibid., 106. 47Ibid. 48Ibid. 52Ibid. 49Ibid. 50Ibid., 108. 51Ibid. 53Ibid., 110. 54Ibid. 55Ibid., 102. 60Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 120. 56Ibid., 120. 57Ibid., 121. 58Ibid., 120. 59Kierkegaard, The Moment, 245–8, 250–2. 61Ibid., 120–1. 62Ibid., 122. 63Ibid., 114. 64Ibid., 126–7. 65For a discussion of Kierkegaard's attack on the Church, see my 'Kierkegaard's Anti-Ecclesiology'; also 'The Contested Notion of "Christianity" in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Denmark: Mynster, Martensen, and Kierkegaard's Antiecclesiastical "Christian" Invective in The Moment and Late Writings'. 66Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 179, cf. 254. 67Ibid., 179, 295. Bonhoeffer also holds that culture can be considered as a mandate (ibid., 255). 68Hirsch, Das kirchliche Wollen der deutschen Christen, 17. 69Bonhoeffer, Christology, 43–65, 110. 70Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 138–9. 71Ibid., 140. 72Bonhoeffer, Christology, 54, 57, 59.
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