Koert Verhagen not only provides the first in-depth treatment of how the doctrine of justification crucially frames Bonhoeffer’s approach to questions surrounding human being and action, he also addresses the ethical implications of retrieving this perspective for the Church today.Drawing on his early academic theology and his later ethics of discipleship, Verhagen argues that Bonhoeffer’s emphasis on the social implications of justification leads to an understanding of human existence that is fundamentally relational. Along the way, he draws Bonhoeffer’s thinking on this front into conversation with Luther, German idealism, the Nazi Weltanschauung, and contemporary Pauline scholarship. With an eye to the contemporary, practical value of Bonhoeffer’s theology, Verhagen concludes by making the case that the retrieval of justification’s social implications provides a critical corrective to ecclesial responses to white supremacy.
Koert Verhagen is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Taylor University, USA
Chapter 1Backgrounding Bonhoeffer: Martin Luther on Justification’s Import for AnthropologyChapter 2Justified in Christ and Church: The Shape of Bonhoeffer’s Early AnthropologyChapter 3Justification Against Weltanschauung: Bonhoeffer’s Evaluation of Competing AnthropologiesChapter 4 From Anthropology to Ethics: A Pauline Case for Continuity in BonhoefferChapter 5Justification and Witness-Bearing: Discipleship as Embodied Participation in ChristChapter 6 Reconciling Church and World: Justification’s Coordination of the Ultimate and PenultimateChapter 7Justification Against White Supremacy: Retrieval as Critical CorrectiveBibliographyIndex
Verhagen’s clearly structured, well-written and intelligently argued monograph, the first to tackle the central evangelical doctrine of justification in Bonhoeffer’s thought, is an excellent addition to T&T Clark’s steadily expanding New Studies in Bonhoeffer’s Theology and Ethics series.
Matthias Grebe, Nadine Hamilton, Christian Schlenker, Revd Dr Matthias Grebe, Germany) Hamilton, Nadine (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany) Schlenker, Christian (University of Tubingen, Jennifer McBride