Winter 2014/Pasadena
ET525
Stassen
ET525: ETHICS OF BONHOEFFER. Glen H. Stassen.
DESCRIPTION: Our aim is to understand key motifs of Bonhoeffer’s theology and ethics and be able to explain and evaluate them. We will seek to understand how Bonhoeffer’s ethics and his theology are Christ-centered and mutually interwoven, and how they relate to the struggle of the church with cultural accommodation in his time and our time. We will also seek to appreciate Bonhoeffer’s spirituality in pursuit of deepening our own spirituality and identity as Christians.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: Many are finding Bonhoeffer deeply helpful for developing their identity in a time of scattered and fragmented identity. They believe that by letting Christ be the center, we find key dimensions of the clarification of church identity and personal identity sought by Christians in our time.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: I hope you will deepen the theological grounding for your own ethics, be able to teach articulately how to practice discipleship in the Christ-following tradition that proves itself by its fruits rather than being confused by the ideological winds that swirl around us in this post-modern time, and grow in faithful discipleship as Dietrich Bonhoeffer did.
COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet twice weekly for two-hour sessions. Lecture and dialogue will be combined with some small-group discussion.
REQUIRED READING:
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Discipleship. Fortress, 2001. ISBN: 978-0800683245, Pub. Price $21.00 [384 pp.].
________. Ethics. Simon Schuster Touchstone Book, 1995. ISBN: 978- 0684815015, Pub. Price $16.00 [384 pp.].
________. Letters and Papers from Prison. Macmillan, 1972. ISBN: 978-0684838274, Pub. Price $16.99 [448 pp.].
________. Life Together. HarperSanFrancisco, 1954, 1993. ISBN: 978-0060608521, Pub. Price $13.99 [128 pp.].
Stassen, Glen Harold. A Thicker Jesus: Incarnational Discipleship in a Secular Age. Westminster John Knox, 2012. ISBN: 978-0664238179, Pub. Price $25.00 [280 pp.].
RECOMMENDED READING:
De Gruchy, John, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN: 978-0521587815, Pub. Price $35.99.
Kelly, Geffrey, and Burton Nelson. The Cost of Moral Leadership: The Spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Eerdmans, 2002. ISBN: 978-0802805119, Pub. Price $26.00.
Schliesser, Christine. Everyone Who Acts Responsibly Becomes Guilty. Westminster John Knox, 2007. ISBN: 978-0664232160, Pub. Price $35.00.
Tödt, Heinz Eduard. Authentic Faith: Bonhoeffer’s Theological Ethics in Context. Eerdmans, 2007. ISBN 978-0802803825. Pub. Price. $24.00.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
Students may choose to write a journal in dialogue with reading, or to write a paper in dialogue with Bonhoeffer, in either case not longer than twenty pages in length. 25% of grade.
There will be an in-class open-book essay on each Bonhoeffer book that we read (with Life Together and Ethics combined as one in-class reflection), since Life Together is very short), including the portion of A Thicker Jesus connected with it. Each essay counts 25% of the grade.
PREREQUISITES: None.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Elective that counts toward emphasis in Christian ethics.
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.