Being and Action Coram Deo: Bonhoeffer and the Retrieval of Justification’s Social Import

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.