Abstract

Many scholars hold the concept of responsibility as an entry point into the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Yet these same scholars often differ in their understandings of responsibility, which leads to lack of consensus, diffuse popularity, and confounding conclusions regarding Bonhoeffer's ethics. Bonhoeffer contributes to this confusion with his varying references to responsibility in The Cost of Discipleship and in Ethics. While in each text responsibility is linked with the concept of vocation, references to the two concepts differ. Broadly speaking, in The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer employs "call" and "response" to emphasize dialogical relationship between the responsive human being and the dynamic divine. The responsible act is carried out by an obedient disciple who is called by Christ to act as a sign directed toward eternal salvation. In Ethics, references to "calling," "mandates," and "responsibility" emphasize the importance of the penultimate consequences of human actions and of broad divine communication to God's creatures. The responsible act is executed by a faithful person fulfilling responsibilities within Christ-mandated callings and aiming at consequential temporal well-being of others. Jesus Christ is the revelational site in both texts. However, while in The Cost of Discipleship, the church is the single locus of Christ, in Ethics, mandates of family, job, government, culture as well as church are created by Christ and manifest God's will. This dissertation then advances several claims. First, only a close study of responsibility provides adequate access to Bonhoeffer's ethics. Second, a better understanding of his use of responsibility and his ethics is gained through a study of the variety of linkages and connotations of the concepts of responsibility and vocation as found in The Cost of Discipleship and Ethics. Third, both concepts prove to be foundational to contemporary Christian ethics. Together, these complementary concepts offer balance and insight with regard to theological issues including law and gospel, stasis and change, and structure and freedom