Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a Theology of the Exception (T&T Clark New Studies in Bonhoeffer’s Theology and Ethics)

Engaging with the many debates about the meaning and character of Bonhoeffer’s late resistance theology and action, particularly as it relates to his participation in the attempted coup d'état against Hitler, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a Theology of the Exception attends to Bonhoeffer’s understanding of the exception. Resisting the common reduction of the exception to a political or ethical concept, O'Farrell argues that the exception for Bonhoeffer is an extraordinary moment in history that disarms persons, impinging on one’s understanding of politics and ethics. Through a wide engagement with the Bonhoeffer corpus, this book claims that this leads to distinctive narrations of key concepts in Bonhoeffer’s corpus: responsibility, the free venture, simple obedience, and action beyond the law. It also offers a different portrait of Bonhoeffer to contemporary narrations. The Bonhoeffer that emerges is neither a Niebuhrian realist, a pacifist, or a religious fanatic, but one who is impelled to act apart from the law without this action becoming arbitrary. This Bonhoeffer provides a hopeful political witness that seeks a world beyond the conflicts and divisions of this age. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction The Exception in Moral and Political Theology Is It Appropriate to Speak of the Exception in Bonhoeffer? History and the Exception Outline of the Book Chapter 1: Bonhoeffer and the Exception in Contemporary Theology Reading Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought for Today Tyrannicide and the Question of Continuity Lutheran and Anabaptist Readings of Bonhoeffer’s Resistance Thought The Free Venture of a Responsible Individual or a Fanatic Conclusion Chapter 2: Reading Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought: Hermeneutical Questions Reading Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought The Fragmentariness of Bonhoeffer’s Life The Fragmentariness of Bonhoeffer’s Thought A Hermeneutic for Reading the Exception in Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought Chapter 3: Bonhoeffer on History and the Moment Bonhoeffer’s Early Account of History and the Moment The Undoing of History and Ethics in Revelation Divine Voluntarism and Creation in the Exception The Moment of Temptation Coda: The Relation of History to Political Orders in Bonhoeffer Chapter 4: Reading the Exception in “History and Good [2]” Responsible Action in the Exception The Logic and Tension of Necessitá Distancing from Necessitá Emphasizing History in “History and Good [2]” Narrating the Exception in “History and Good [2]” Conclusion Chapter 5: The Politics of Extraordinary Freedom The Annihilation of Freedom in Totalitarianism Adventitious Liberation and Undetermined Political Freedom Undetermined Freedom Is Not Arbitrary The Conspiracy as Repentance Chapter 6: The Dismantling, Reconciliation, and Future of the Law The Beginning, the Law, and the Moment of Exception Reconciliation in the Borderline Case Imagining Politics after the Exception Conclusion Responding to Hermeneutic Questions in the Discourse on the Exception Can One Speak of the Exception in Bonhoeffer? Bibliography INDEX