Bonhoeffer's Philosophy Of Lif

Understanding life,treating life and developing life are always the fundamental mission and cultural consciousness of philosophy.Dietrich Bonhoeffer,a famous philosopher in the 20th century,provided a brand new perspective for the controversy of bioethics since the 20th century.He also revitalized an important line of thought with his creative theory;He lived out his philosophy of life and gave his life to save many lives.Bonhoeffer’s philosophy not only always focused on life under real circumstances,but also provided important resources for the criticism and survival of Christianity,and also provided a way for the moral reconstruction of the whole Western world after World War Ⅱ.The academic research on Bonhoeffer in the past mainly focused on his "non-religious Christian" view,and his philosophy of life was often overlooked.However,as for the issue of life,Bonhoeffer provided a systematic discussion from the perspective of ethics and Christian thought,and made a specific and profound discussion on several major ethical dilemmas that appeared at that time.Despite some limitations,Bonhoeffer’s philosophy of life deserves to be critically understood.This will enrich the research on life issues and contribute to the understanding of many ethical dilemmas today.In this paper,the birth,vein and application of Bonhoeffer’s thinking on life issues will be presented step by step from multiple levels.As far as life is concerned,the relevant views of Bonhoeffer are scattered in his work Ethics.Taking Ethics as the main research text,this paper collects other treatises of Bonhoeffer on life,attempts to sort out the relevant views of Bonhoeffer into a systematic philosophy of life.Nazism is a key word that cannot be ignored when we talk about the life experience and the background of The Times behind Bonhoeffer’s philosophy of life.As atrocities tear daily life apart,the contradictions between popular views and the ideas behind them become increasingly apparent.Seeing innocent lives die one after another and experiencing being swept away by social trends,Bonhoeffer had a strong awareness of problems.Starting from his concern for life,he tried to understand and improve the situation of life,which became the source of motivation for all his philosophy.At the same time,as a forerunner,Nietzsche’s judgment on the crisis of nihilism in Europe and Barthes’ call for Christianity to return to its roots also influenced Bonhoeffer’s thinking.Ultimately,Bonhoeffer believes that taking an active part in the fight against sin is the way to be truly "responsible’ with life.His philosophy of life will give a systematic explanation of this view.To enter into Bonhoeffer’s philosophy of life,we must first face his analysis and judgment of the predicament of life.Bonhoeffer believed that the Nazi atrocities were related to the problems of Christianity itself at the time,which were essentially the separation of man from ultimate reality.Under separation,one’s understanding of life goes astray.And in Bonhoeffer’s view,re-understanding life also requires a rectifying of Christianity,which requires going back to the source of the idea.He regards"separation","turning" to "reconciliation" as a "trilogy" of life course.He presents this process from the three dimensions of Christology,historical view and ethics respectively,which is called "trio" in this paper.In Bonhoeffer’s narration,the three dimensions are not a simple juxtaposition,but an echo and interaction relationship formed around the core views,which together constitute the basic theoretical structure of Bonhoeffer’s philosophy of life.From the perspective of Christology,he tried to rebuild the understanding of life in his criticism,and linked the "separation","turning" and "reconciliation" of life course with the "descent","suffering" and"resurrection" of Christology.From the perspective of history,by clarifying the relationship between the ultimate thing and this ultimate thing,Bonhoeffer shows that life should not be reduced to a complete means,nor should this life itself become an absolute end.From the perspective of ethics,Bonhoeffer thinks that ethics should start from asking "What is good?To the question "What is good to the living?”In his opinion,the "good" and the true unfolding of life are two sides of the same.After re-establishing the understanding of life,the way to treat life and the right to life can also be re-examined.According to Bonhoeffer,the view of nature is the theoretical premise of the view of the right to life,but there are many fallacies in the existing view of nature.Nature is not a specific reference,but a kind of existence towards the ultimate thing,so it can also be called "natural".Life as "natural" means that it will be shaped by ultimate reality.Thus,the shaped life,as an end in itself,has rights.At the same time,life is given an obligation as a means to an end.By tracing the view of nature,the foundation of the philosophy of life,the discussion returns to Christology,the center of the theory.After demonstrating why life has rights,this chapter turns to the discussion on the concrete way of existence of life--the body.Bonhoeffer believes that the concept of "body" is different from the concept of "body",pointing to the overall existence of human.As the body of life,for its own purpose,the body’s self-preservation is the primary right of life;Life as a body,with its own end,can demand pure pleasure without any other end.Bonhoeffer’s emphasis on the body and his affirmation of the joy of diet and sexual satisfaction have their own characteristics both inside and outside of Christian thought.After discussing the right to life,Bonhoeffer expressed his views on the controversy related to bioethics.He focuses on four separate controversies:war,euthanasia,suicide and abortion.According to Bonhoeffer,whether people deliberately kill innocent lives in war is the difference between indiscriminate killing and self-preservation,and also the standard of whether people are guilty.Euthanasia,in his opinion,is also guilty,which is the unreasonable judgment of the value of others’ lives and the denial of the ultimate reality.But what he meant by "euthanasia"was primarily the painless elimination of so-called "useless" life by the Nazi party.On the question of suicide,Bonhoeffer first distinguishes between suicide and sacrifice,pointing out the freedom given to human beings embodied in it.He believed that people should not abuse their freedom by committing suicide and try to justify themselves in the wrong way.In his opinion,only in love can people heal their broken lives and get out of the predicament of suicide.On the issue of abortion,Bonhoeffer first made an ethical carding of sex and reproduction.On this basis,he defended life in the making and opposed the Nazi Party’s forced "eugenics program" for specific races.Among Bonhoeffer’s views on specific ethical disputes is his judgment on the way out of life:Man should act in the transcendent perspective of the law and wait for his reconciliation in the ethic of practical responsibility.So far,the ideological vein of Bonhoeffer’s philosophy of life is basically clear:from the theoretical clarification of life to the theory of the right of life,and then to the consideration of the specific dilemma of life,he has moved from theoretical speculation to the discussion of the specific dilemma of life,and also from the analysis of the separation of existence to the advocacy of reconciliation.Although Bonhoeffer’s emphasis on reconciliation has always carried out his thought,the hope and limitation of this way still need to be examined theoretically.From the perspective of Marxism,Bonhoeffer’s judgment on the dilemma of life lacks thinking from the social and economic dimensions,and the path he gives also lacks the community dimension and public rational test,which ultimately places the liberation of life on the private belief practice of individuals,and ultimately cannot realistically and reliably realize the liberation and redemption of life.However,the concern for life,the responsibility ethics of action and the strong criticism of religious alienation in Bonhoeffer’s philosophy of life are still worthy of attention.