The Form of Ethical Life

This chapter identifies, examines, and elucidates a number of key themes and insights in Bonhoeffer’s multivalent approach to ethics. In particular, it explores Bonhoeffer’s rich conceptions of reality, formation, and conformation to Christ. It then goes on to reflect upon some of the distinctive and concrete ways in which Bonhoeffer further develops his account of the manner in which God conforms human beings to Christ, giving close scrutiny to the central ethical concepts of ‘responsibility’, ‘the mandates’, ‘natural life’, etc. Throughout, this chapter gives close attention and offers specific comment upon the ways in which the many original and distinctive features of Bonhoeffer’s decisively theological approach to ethics stand in distinction—and sometimes notable tension—in relation to other more familiar approaches to ethical thinking in his time and our own.