Tiffany Huet Class of 2008 Justifying Violence: A ... - Stetson University

enowned instances of religious resistance in history. Larry Rasmussen focuses on this question
in his analysis of Bonhoeffer’s theology, ethics, and resistance: “If Christology is indeed at the
center of Bonhoeffer’s thinking, where is the key here to his move from passive to active
resistance?” 3
Dietrich Bonhoeffer began as a pacifist, arguing that Christ was at the center of all reality
and was “the man for others.” 4 His lectures on Christology in 1933 examine the meaning of faith
and relationship with God in light of this understanding of Christ. He claims that faith is the
human participation in Christ’s “being for others.” 5 What he meant by this was that Christ’s
existence could only be seen in relationship with another person. Bonhoeffer says Christ “is his
being pro me.” 6 In other words, Christ’s life on earth was intentional; his purpose was not, in any
sense, selfish, given that others might find freedom and salvation. Christologically, since
Bonhoeffer understood that Jesus was God emptied into a man, infinity emptied into a finite
human being, everything—“[humanity], nature, and history” revolves around Christ. 7 He is the
center for all reality, for Bonhoeffer. Moral action, judged from Bonhoeffer’s perspective, is in
accordance with reality (Christ), and immoral action “deviates from Christ’s form in the world.” 8
Christ’s being was oriented outwards, toward others and not toward himself. As Rasmussen
concludes, “Bonhoeffer is declaring that because Christ is in, with, and under human sociality, a
[human] only finds self-fulfillment, indeed self-formation, in being with and for others; and
being with and for others is the way in which a [human] is formed in Christ.” 9 The “centrality of
3 Rasmussen, 36.
4 Rasmussen, 18.
5 Rasmussen, 21.
6 Rasmussen, 18.
7 Rasmussen, 15-16.
8 Rasmussen, 23.
9 Rasmussen, 20, italics mine.
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