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Bonhoeffer and Bethge on the Theology and Practice of Friendship

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Bonhoeffer and Bethge on the Theology and Practice of Friendship A Friendship for Others: Bonhoeffer and Bethge on the Theology and Practice of Friendship Preston Parsons Pembroke College, Cambridge This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, June 2017. ABSTRACT A Friendship for Others: Bonhoeffer and Bethge on the Theology and Practice of Friendship Preston Parsons This study considers the theology and practice of friendship in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s academic writing, his pastoral work and thought, his involvement in the Abwehr plot, and his prison letters, taking special interest in the influence of Eberhard Bethge on Bonhoeffer and the influence of Bonhoeffer on Bethge. Friendship, as a locus of interpretation, also provides a fresh perspective on other aspects of Bonhoeffer’s thought, including ecclesiology, divine and human agency, eschatology, vicarious representation, concrete ethics and the divine command, politics, freedom, and obedience. Part I of the dissertation investigates Bonhoeffer’s theology before Bethge. In Sanctorum Communio, Bonhoeffer’s doctoral dissertation and first book, friendship is described as a community that is oriented to God’s creation and eschatological future, and the friend can participate in Christ’s redeeming work through ecclesial practices of Stellvertretung. Bonhoeffer’s failed friendship with Helmut Rößler, and his remarks about friendship within the context of his ministry in London and about the relation between ethics and the concrete command, offer insight into his theology of friendship as a political and ecclesiastical phenomenon in the context of the Third Reich. Part II of the dissertation looks at the theological influence Bonhoeffer and Bethge had on one another. At Finkenwalde, we begin to see this mutual influence begin to take shape, where freedom and obedience become part of the foundation of Bonhoeffer’s later concept of the Spielraum, and where we begin to see Stellvertretung, as a practice, take place between them. In the prison correspondence and through the influence of Bethge, Bonhoeffer develops the idea of the “realm of freedom” (der Spielraum der Freiheit), an expansion of Bonhoeffer’s theology of the mandates, where freedom and friendship become part of his understanding of social and political life. Integrating these theological and biographical resources, the study makes the constructive argument that a friend can be a theological Stellvertreter, taking into special account the particularity of the friend and mutuality that is characteristic of friendship. Through this participation in Christ’s redeeming work, its ecclesial location, and its political significance, a friendship can be for others. ii This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I confirm the length of the dissertation to be less than 80 000 words. This figure, which includes footnotes but excludes bibliography, is in accordance with the regulations of the Degree Committee for the Faculty of Divinity. iii For Asher godson by intention iv CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements viii Translations and Abbreviations ix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Trends in Bonhoeffer Interpretation: Constructive and Historical 2 Impulses 1.1.1 Historical Readings of Bonhoeffer 4 1.1.2 Historical-Constructive readings of Bonhoeffer 5 1.1.3 Constructive uses of Bonhoeffer 6 1.2 The ‘Unthought-Of’ and the Relation between Theology and Practice 9 1.3 Topics in Friendship Literature 13 1.3.1 Particularity and Partiality 14 1.3.2 Mutuality and Reciprocity 16 1.3.3 Friendship and Politics 17 1.3.4 Friendship as a Way of Knowing 20 1.4 Conclusion 21 Part I: Bonhoeffer on Friendship, 1927-1935 24 2 Friendship in Sanctorum Communio 25 2.1 Friendship as Gemeinschaft 29 2.2 Friendship and the Eschaton 34 2.3 Friendship in the Empirical Church 39 2.4 Friendship, Stellvertretung, and Acts of Love and Repentance 42 2.5 Friendship for Others 49 2.6 Conclusion 51 3 The Rößler Correspondence 56 3.1 The Shape of the Friendship 60 3.2 The Concrete Commandment and Friendship in the Barcelona Lecture 63 v 3.3 Eschatology, Concrete Commandments, and a Friendship under Strain 68 3.4 German Pastors Abroad and the End of a Friendship 78 3.5 Gandhi, Inter-faith Friendship, and Rößler’s Last Word 82 3.6 Conclusion 88 Part II: Bonhoeffer and Bethge on Friendship, 1935-1973 93 4 Orders, Mandates, Freedom, and Friendship 94 4.1 Wholeness and Reparation in Bonhoeffer’s Orders of Preservation 97 4.2 Freedom and Obedience 107 4.2.1 Hegel 108 4.2.2 Freedom and Commitment in Bonhoeffer’s Pre-Finkenwalde Thought 110 4.2.3 Freedom and Obedience at Finkenwalde 112 4.3 Reparation and Wholeness in Bonhoeffer’s Mandates 120 4.3.1 Reparation in the Ethics 120 4.3.2 Unity and Wholeness in the Ethics 123 4.3.3 The Spielraum and the Unity of the Mandates 127 4.4 Conclusion 131 5 Interpreting the Bonhoeffer-Bethge Friendship 134 5.1 Stellvertretung, Mediation, and Friendship in Discipleship and Life Together 135 5.2 Friendship and Stellvertretung in the Bonhoeffer-Bethge Correspondence 142 5.2.1 Stellvertretung in the Ettal/Gossner Correspondence 144 5.2.2 Stellvertretung in the Prison Letters Part I: Repentance, Intercession, and Forgiveness 148 5.2.3 Stellvertretung in the Prison Letters Part II: Self-Offering 153 5.3 Bonhoeffer and Bethge’s Friendship as Dialogical 158 5.4 Bethge after Bonhoeffer 164 5.5 Conclusion 167 vi 6 Conclusion 171 Appendix: Why Rößler? 175 Bibliography 180 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Parts of this work were presented at the London Bonhoeffer Colloquium; the Society for the Study of Theology Annual Conference; the annual meeting of the Canadian Theological Society; the Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Unit at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; the theology group of St. Margaret’s Anglican Church, Winnipeg; St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Glenwood Maryland; the Noesis seminar at the University of Cambridge; the David Ford Home Seminar; the Senior Seminar at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge; and the International Bonhoeffer Congress. The conversations and questions that arose during and after these presentations helped shape the direction and content of my work. Pembroke College offered both financial and practical support; Pat Aske, Pembroke’s librarian, was especially helpful, as was Prof. Loraine Gelthsorpe. Additional financial support was provided by Linda and Eric Parsons; St. Margaret’s, Winnipeg; the Faculty of Divinity; the Snowdon Trust; and the Anglican Foundation. Special thanks goes to Westminster College, who provided an office, coffee, lunch, and one of the most pleasant working environments I have experienced. The kind and encouraging words offered to me, from both staff and students alike, were especially valuable during the long and sometimes discouraging process of writing up. Especially appropriate to a dissertation on friendship, there are also many friends to thank. Conversations with Dina Van Klaveren, Brett Gray, Giles Waller, Isidore Katsos, Christina Chandler Andrews, Jon Mackenzie, Simon Ravenscroft, Julie Gittoes, and John Bradbury helped shape this work. Julian Cooling, Michael Gilmour, and John Badertscher offered editorial advice. Stephen Plant provided crucial advice at critical junctures. Barbara Bennett helped with final submission details; Ruth Jackson and Mark Knight checked references in libraries to which I had no access from overseas. Jake Andrews, above all friends mentioned here, faithfully provided essential theological conversations and editorial suggestions. Without Karen Sunabacka, spouse and partner, I never would have finished. She believed in my work when I did not. And finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to both Dr. Gregory Seach and Prof. David Ford, whose supervision and guidance allowed this dissertation to grow from a few scattered thoughts to what is contained herein. All errors and omissions are my own. viii TRANSLATIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS I have used the critical English editions of Bonhoeffer throughout. There are, however, occasions when it was appropriate to include the German, and I have done so by italicising the German and placing it in square brackets. My interpolations should not be confused with the critical edition’s German interpolations, which are also in square brackets, but not italicised. The German and English critical editions of Bonhoeffer’s work share a system of referencing that divides the Bonhoeffer material into volumes, numbered sections, and numbered subsections. This dissertation refers to the section and subsections of the critical editions in the following form: DBW/E Volume:Section/Subsection, Page(s) in German Edition/Page(s) in English Edition. For example, DBW/E 10:1/40, 90-91/127 refers the reader to volume 10 of both the DBW German edition and the DBWE English edition, and to Section 1, subsection 40, of that same volume in both the German and English editions. Because the German and English critical editions do not share page numbers, and readers may want to check the English alongside the German, the page numbers of both the German and English critical editions are included. In this example, 90-91 refers to the page numbers in the German DBW, and 127 to the English DBWE. If there are no sections or subsections, the reference takes the following form: DBW/E Volume, Page(s) in German Edition/Page(s) in English Edition.
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