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25. Fanø Theses Paper and Address: The Church and the Peoples of the World
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393 304 25. Fanø Theses Paper and Address: The Church and the Peoples of the World DBWE 13:304–310 In the summer of 1934, Bonhoeffer delivered an address at an ecumenical conference on the Danish island of Fanø. A transcription of that talk as well as the theses Bonhoeffer wrote in preparation for it are printed below. He opens the theses by posing to the World Alliance the question that for him was decisive: Is the Alliance an organization or a church? For Bonhoeffer, an organization works to realize defined goals while a church preaches God’s word and obeys God’s commandments. This distinction between a church and a humanitarian organization was central to Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology; it found sociological expression in Sanctorum Communio, informed his evaluation of American churches and theological movements, and guided his reflection on the task of the church in the German Church Struggle. On the issue of war and peace specifically, Bonhoeffer here urges the ecumenical movement to understand itself as church and therefore as occupying a third space beyond nationalist warmongering, on the one hand, and internationalist peace activism, on the other. In this space, the church does not work toward human ends, be they peaceful or hostile, but simply responds to God’s command. Theses Paper Summary 1. The destiny of the Alliance is determined by the following: whether it regards itself as a Church or as a society with a definite purpose. The World Alliance is a Church as long as its fundamental principles lie in obediently listening to and preaching the Word of God. It is a society, if its essential object is to realise aims and conditions of whatever kind they The Bonhoeffer Reader 394 305 306 may be. It is only as a Church that the World Alliance can preach the Word of Christ in full authority to the Churches and nations. As a society it stands without authority with innumerable other societies of the same kind. 2. The work of the World Alliance means work of the Churches for peace amongst the nations. Its aim is the end of war and the victory over war. 3. The enemy of work for peace is war. War must be understood a) as a conscious action of the human will, for which it is fully responsible; b) as the work of the evil powers of this world, enemies of God, similar to diseases, catastrophes, etc; c) as the revelation of a world which has fallen under the law of death. 4. Corresponding to this, the justification of war takes the following three forms: a) War—according to the conscious will of its leaders—works for the maintenance of the State and future peace, this is its moral justification ; b) War is an irresistible event, over which no man has any power (socalled realism or, rather, naturalism); c) War reveals an heroic world of sacrifice. 5. Secular pacifism answers: a) the pacific welfare of humanity will not be brought about by means of war. War cannot be justified morally on that basis; b) a rational organisation must be created which will hold back the powers leading to war; c) war must be suppressed so as to reveal the world as a good world. 6. These two arguments are of equal value and are equally unchristian. They are not Christ-inspired but inspired by a desired or non-desired picture of the world. 7. The Christian Church answers: a) The human will must be confronted with the commandment: Thou shalt not kill. God does not exempt us from obeying His commandments . Man by his transgressions will be guilty before God. The God of the Sermon on the Mount will judge him. To the objection: The State must be maintained: the Church answers: Thou shalt not kill. To the objection: War creates peace: the Church answers: This is not true, war creates destruction. To the objection: The nation must defend itself: the Church answers: Have you dared to entrust God, in full faith, with your protection in obedience to His commandment? To the objection: Love for my neighbour compels me: the Church answers: The one who loves God keeps His commandments. To the question: What shall I do then? the Church answers: Believe in God [34.203.242.200] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:46 GMT) 395 Fanø Theses Paper and Address 307 1. [“Gen. 3:1; cf. also the interpretation in Creation and Fall, DBWE 3:103–110 (Reader 243...