Subject: Bonhoeffer's dialectic (fwd)

From: [email-masked] (arichar0)
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 21:25:53 -0400 (EDT)

Dear Dr. Meyer,

	I was intrigued by the post below.  I am just beginning to study 
German primarily because of my love of Bonhoeffer's work and my 
fascination with Nietzsche from a time prior to my conversion.  As a 
woman of Faith I found your use of the 
story of Jacob to be especially intriguing. I am interested to know more 
about your opinion of Bonhoeffer, in intellectual terms, philosophical if 
you like, and in terms of your personal Faith, if applicable and if you 
are comfortable with such revelation.

	My boyfriend is called a classicist due to his work on Plato.  
Yet, he too appreciates Neitzsche and is fluent in German.  He, although 
not a Christian, has read and translated many of Bonhoeffer's sermons for 
me.  My boyfriend later recommended that I read Kierkegaard.  I must say 
that I am personally delighted and refreshed in regards to my Faith to 
read this man's words.

	I have been hoping to dialogue about some of my thoughts about 
the aforementioned men and their work but most of all BOnhoeffer.  I do 
not like to post to listserves, perhaps due to my youth.
	
	Respond at leisure, but please respond.

			Warmly in Christ,
					April Christensen Richard

>      I agree with you about the importance of remembering that
> Bonhoeffer's Ethik is in fact a work compiled from his notes,
> and that he would surely have made many changes if he had lived.
>   
>      I  suspect that the intellectual (and esthetic) effect of
> the logical discordances, the dogmatism and the scepticism
> that wrestle with each other in Bonhoeffer's Ethik, like Jacob
> wrestling with the angel: "I will not let thee go, except thou
> bless me";  must depend somewhat on the outlook of the reader.
> A young person looking for answers will be more troubled by the
> paradoxes of Bonhoeffer' thought than someone like myself,
> who looks back on a life of contradiction and confusion,
> who finds that the incongruities of thought are more lifelike
> than the contrived consistency which one finds in philosophical
> "systems". Unless my memory tricks me, it was Nietzsche who said
> something like: "Der Wille zum System ist der Wille zur Luege."
> 
>      Over the years, I have formed the habit of reading the essays
> of authors like Bonhoeffer, or, for that matter Nietzsche or
> Kierkegaard, much as I read plays of Shakespeare, whose majesty
> derives in part from the polyphony of disparate voices, sometimes
> supporting, but just as often cancelling one another.
> 
>       Your thesis is on a topic of great interest to me, and I should
> be grateful to you for sending me, when and if it is convenient,
> some of the pertinent references to the texts of both Bonhoeffer
> and Barth, as well as any outlines or drafts of your work that might
> give me some insight into your plans. You might indicate to what
> extent, if any, you are interested in comments, and you might also
> let me know how fluently you read German, since I find it easier
> to express myself in that language.
> 
>                                     Ernst Meyer
> 
> -- 
> 
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> 
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-- 
april 
[email-masked]

"O Vitae Philosophia Dux!  O Virtutum indagatrix, expultrixque vitiorum!  
Unus dies bene, & ex preceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est 
anteponendus."
		-Cicero