Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31167, 17 September 1966, Page 4

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

(Reviewed bv TP C i Chrlstology: By Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Collins. 126 pp. j "We have lost the concept of heresy today because there is no longer a teaching authority. This is a tremendous catastrophe." This is not a comment from some conservative Vatican canonist but a I reflection from the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the distinguished lecturer and writer who was imprisonby the Hitler regime and ultimately hanged at Flossenburg in 1943. ; The introduction to this posthumous publication of lectures stresses his funda- . mental orthodoxy which has I suffered somewhat from the over-exposure of some radical phrases from other volumes i.e. “religionless Christianity" and “worldly holiness.” These 'selections established very I surely his conviction about the i identity of Christ. Indeed, his analyses of erring conceptions of Christ—Docetism. Ebionitism, Monophysitism, Nestorianism—are quite brilliant, As he declares, “critical Chrlstology” guards against a false Christ by “rejecting false theological content and inappropriate thought forms.” For this very reason, for the sake of the general reader his section on the Historical Christ could well have preceded the Present Christ.

Bonhoeffer insists that true Christological inquiry is initiated by the question “Who?” not “How?” (“that is a godless question, the serpent’s question). Prayer and accompanying faith helps the inquirer discover who Christ

[is by examining Jesus's testimony of himself. This recognition is the backbone of Christology.

Consequently, he outlines a three-fold presence of Christ. First as the Word addressing the community, the Person of Christ speaks to the believer; hence, “preaching is the riches and the poverty of the Church.” Second. Christ is present as Sacrament, the form whereby the Word reaches man in his nature. (His insistence, however, that Christ’s presence as Word and Sacrament is identically the same would scarcely satisfy Luther, much less St. Thomas Aquinas.) Third. Christ is present in and as the believing community.

For a short volume, this is demanding reading, condensed, incisive. frequently original, always lucid. Some passages are almost. Augustinian in the richness and clarity of their contrasts. “Faith acknowledges that the One who Is tempted, is the victor, the One who struggles is the Perfect One, the Unrighteous One is the Righteous One, the Rejected, the Holy One. Even the sinlessness of Jesus is incognito ‘Blessed is he who is not offended in me (Matt. 11. 6)’.” His references to the historicity of the Virgin birth and the significance of miracles in the life of Christ would hardly be acceptable to all denominations, nor would they assure him the mantle of orthodoxy in the Patristic sense. Nonetheless the total impact of his “confession" is too profound and sincere to be given anything less than grateful arid serious consideration.

Norman Buettel's story of treasure hunting FIFTEEN NORTH OF HOOK (Angus and Robertson, 151 pp.) has more thrills than almost any other three adventure stories put together. Although (he action is convincing, the characters are not, but in the breathless excitement this will hardly be noticed.