| One essential element for Christianity to have better development in Chinese context is to provide an adequate and viable Christian ethics for Christians in this context. This thesis investigates the suitability of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's ethics as an adequate and viable Christian ethics in Chinese context.; Chinese culture is laden with ethical import which has great assimilating power, so to be an adequate and viable Christian ethics, it should maintain its "Christian" feature. This feature helps those Christians who practise this ethics establish their "Christian identity" in Chinese context. The first part of this thesis is to elucidate the dominant "Christ-ness" of Bonhoeffer's ethics.; To be an adequate and viable ethics in Chinese context today, the problem of "postmodernity" cannot be bypassed. The postmodernity discussed here points to the mistrust of "system" which enforces uniformity, and to the respect of plurality and others. A positive postmodern ethics can avoid ethical nihilism after giving up ethical systems. The second part of this thesis is to elucidate the positive "postmodernity" of Bonhoeffer's ethics.; The ethical thinking in Chinese culture is basically Confucian. It emphasizes the unity or continuity of heaven and humanity, which treasures the value of this-worldliness. This is the "Chinese-ness" of this way of thinking. To be a sustainable ethics in Chinese culture, it is quite unavoidable to be in harmony with this way of Chinese thinking. An ethics emphasizing this-worldly value enhances its viability in Chinese context. The third part of this thesis is to elucidate the dominant this-worldliness, the "Chinese-ness", of Bonhoeffer's ethics.; Bonhoeffer's ethics appreciates this-worldly value but does not go anthropocentric; it stresses the transcendence of God but does not go to other-worldliness. It makes Bonhoeffer's ethics different from that of liberal theology and Barth. It also makes Bonhoeffer's ethics adaptable to Chinese way of thinking but yet critical to Confucian ethics. Bonhoeffer's ethics is an ethical application of Chalcedonian christology which simultaneously affirms divinity and humanity, or in other words, the transcendence of God and the value of this-worldliness.; The "Christ-ness", "postmodernity" and "Chinese-ness" of Bonhoeffer's ethics make it an adequate and viable ethical model for Christians in Chinese context. The resource of thoughts or ideas provided by this ethical model for the ethical construction in Chinese context may be regarded as a special contribution of Christianity to Chinese culture. |
