Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 2: Act and Being: Transcendental Philosophy and Ontology in Systematic Theology

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 1996

Overview

Act and Being, written in 1929–1930 as Bonhoeffer’s second dissertation, deals with the questions of consciousness and conscience in theology from the perspective of the Reformation insight about the origin of human sinfulness in the “heart turned in upon itself and thus open neither to the revelation of God nor to the encounter with the neighbor.” Here, therefore, we find Bonhoeffer’s thoughts about power, revelation, otherness, theological method, and theological anthropology.

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Key Features

• Provides fresh insight and translation of Bonhoeffer’s work
• Contains the foundation of Bonhoeffer’s most influential writing
• Addresses questions of consciousness and conscience with a reformation perspective

Contents

• The Problem of Act and Being, Portrayed in a Preparatory Manner as the Epistemological Problem of an Autonomous Understanding of Dasein in Philosophy
  • The Transcendental Attempt
  • The Ontological Attempt
• The Problem of Act and Being in the Interpretation of Revelation and the Church as the Solution to the Problem
  • The Interpretation of Revelation in Terms of the Concept of Act
  • The Interpretation of Revelation in Terms of Being
  • The Church as the Unity of Act and Being
• The Problem of Act and Being in the Concrete Teaching Concerning Human Beings “in Adam” and “in Christ”
  • Being in Adam
  • Being in Christ

Praise for the Print Edition

Act and Being . . . takes a Lutheran perspective on the philosophical claims of consciousness from Jant to Heidegger, vindicating the claims for God’s self-disclosure in revelation against various forms of transcendental philosophy. It is in Act and Being that the scholarly tools of this new edition are clearly most useful. . . . essential to understanding what Bonhoeffer was saying and whom he was refuting.

—Robin Lovin, Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics, Southern Methodist University

‘I don’t like this product anymore,’ said Bonhoeffer only two years after he wrote Act and Being. Maybe he felt that it was too academic. Yet Bonhoeffer’s postdoctoral dissertation is necessary for understanding his early theology, especially Sanctorum Communio, and for appreciating the ongoing value of the church for all his thinking.

—Christiane Tietz, professor of systematic theology and social ethics, University of Mainz

Product Details

• Title: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 2: Act and Being: Transcendental Philosophy and Ontology in Systematic Theology
• Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Translator: H. Martin Rumscheidt
• Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 256

About Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) a German theologian, pastor, and ecumenist, was a professor in Berlin, an uncompromising teacher in the Confessing Church, and a consistent opponent of National Socialism. Executed by Hitler at the end of World War II, his influence continues today as one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century.

Contents

Top Highlights

“This entire study is an attempt to unify the concern of true transcendentalism and the concern of true ontology in an ‘ecclesiological form of thinking’.” (Page 32)

“Act should be thought of as pure intentionality, alien to being.” (Page 28)

“But it should already be apparent that all of theology, in its teaching concerning knowledge of God, of human beings, and of sin and grace, crucially depends on whether it begins with the concept of act or of being.” (Pages 29–30)

“Bonhoeffer wished to analyze consciousness, that is to say, as itself inherently moral. Epistemology was to be understood in terms of the dynamics of power—humanity’s desire to have the power to make itself over in its own image, rather than God’s, and humanity’s concomitant resistance to any encounter with genuine Otherness that threatens the central, sovereign position of the human subject, the ‘I.” (Pages 7–8)

“Second, according to Bonhoeffer, idealism’s premises exhibit the sinfulness of the human being after the fall, as understood by Protestant theology. Fallen humanity ‘refers everything to itself, puts itself in the center of the world, does violence to reality, makes itself God, and God and the other person its creatures.’” (Page 16)

Product Details

• Title: Act and Being: Transcendental Philosophy and Ontology in Systematic Theology
• Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Series: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works
• Volume: 2
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Print Publication Date: 1996
• Logos Release Date: 2012
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Dialectical theology; Act (Philosophy)
• ISBNs: 9780800683054, 0800683056
• Resource ID: LLS:DBW02
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T23:12:36Z

About Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), a German theologian, pastor, and ecumenist, was a professor in Berlin, an uncompromising teacher in the Confessing Church, and a consistent opponent of National Socialism. Executed by Hitler at the end of World War II, his influence continues today as one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century. Bonhoeffer penned countless letters, portions of fiction, and several works on theology and ethics that have shaped modern religious thought. Life Together and The Cost of Discipleship are two examples of this modern martyr’s enduring legacy.