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October 26, 2006

Interest in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, like C.S. Lewis, has surged during the past few years. His Ethics, written between 1940 and 1943, are considered by many to be the Martyr's most perspicacious work, and it continues to demand attention. In a discussion of Nazi Germany's Lebensunwertes Leben movement and the family, Bonhoeffer had this to say:

Marriage involves acknowledgment of the right of life that is to come into being, a right which is not subject to the disposal of the married couple. Unless this right is acknowledged as a matter of principle, marriage ceases to be marriage and becomes a mere liaison. Acknowledgment of this right means making way for the free creative power of God which can cause new life to proceed from this marriage according to His will. Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is mere to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent hum being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.

For a number of reasons, I think that Bonhoeffer's assessment establishes a foundation upon which Christians, both evangelical and Catholic, can frame their discussion of abortion and contraception. Like C.S. Lewis' Anglicanism, Bonhoeffer's Lutheranism affords an ecclesiology and presbyterate similar enough to that of Catholicism to clear the inevitable initial hurdle of "us vs. them." Oldline Protestants might be tempted to join the discussion, at least as Bonhoeffer's conception of social justice is broad enough to flirt with a Rauschenbuschonian social gospel.

Further than establishing a via media among often-times disquieted moral theologies, Bonhoeffer here hints at two other gems, if only in passing: (1) Discussion on contraception within Christianity is not on temporary loan from the Vatican Museum, and (2) the contraceptive mentality is not a boogeyman conjured by Paul VI and John Paul, but is profoundly imbedded in the current discussion on abortion and must be acknowledged. (For Justice O'Connor's concurrence to this view, see Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 856-57 (1992).

Posted by Seth Zirkle at October 26, 2006 08:54 AM

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