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Author | Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
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Original title | Ethik |
Language | German |
Subjects | Christlikeness Ethics Patriotism |
Published | 1949 |
Publication place | Germany |
Ethics (German: Ethik) is an unfinished book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that was edited and published after his death by Eberhard Bethge in 1949. [1] Bonhoeffer worked on the book in the early 1940s [2] and intended it to be his magnum opus . [3] At the time of writing, he was a double agent; he was working for Abwehr , Nazi Germany's military intelligence organization but was simultaneously involved in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. [4] The central theme of Ethics is Christlikeness. [5] The arguments in the book are informed by Lutheran Christology [6] and are influenced by Bonhoeffer's participation in the German resistance to Nazism. [7] Ethics is commonly compared to Bonhoeffer's earlier book The Cost of Discipleship , with scholars debating the extent to which Bonhoeffer's views on Christian ethics changed between his writing of the two books. [8] In The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John W. de Gruchy argues that Ethics evinces more nuance than Bonhoeffer's earlier writings. [9] In 2012, David P. Gushee, director of Mercer University's Center for Theology and Public Life, named Ethics one of the five best books about patriotism. [10]