Dietrich Bonhoeffer Refuting Carl Schmitt's Dezision

A Comparative Study on "Decisions"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Refuting Carl Schmitt's Dezision cover

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Refuting Carl Schmitt's Dezision

A Comparative Study on "Decisions"

Description

Radler examines Bonhoeffer's and Schmitt's intellectual paradigms of thought of theology and jurisprudence. Whilst both thinkers encounter constitutional institutional models, they arrive at opposing conclusions and actions. This book tackles how they approach the indicators for a decision of choices between alternatives, the urgency of resolving the problems at hand, the intended goal, and the following active manifestation in Christ.

Radler reveals how Schmitt's form of Dezision, resting on a linear model of history, abstracts metaphysical content from objective normative evaluation and, in support of a human personality representing the idea of Christ, elevates the significance of the self over content and subject in structural analogy to theological dogma. On the other hand, Bonhoeffer's theology repudiates Schmitt's political-jurisprudential position, contesting that history ultimately focuses on leading to human wholeness through reconciliation.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: The Scope of the Question of “Decision”

Chapter 1
The “Weimar” Context: Between Ideology and Confession

Chapter 2
The Krisis: A Conceptual Problem for Decision

Chapter 3
The Decision: The Ent-Scheidung's Structural Notions

Decision as Forced Unity or Reconciled Wholeness?

Afterword: “Who are you?”

Bibliography
Person Index
Subject Index

Product details

Published 26 Jun 2025
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 224
ISBN 9780567714602
Imprint T&T Clark
Series T&T Clark New Studies in Bonhoeffer’s Theology and Ethics
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Karola Radler

Karola Radler is Research Fellow and Research Asso…

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