"What is God's Will?"

If Dietrich Bonhoeffer has become one of the best known twentieth-century theologians, that celebrity is certainly based as much on what he did as on what he wrote. As a pastor influenced by pacifism, he eventually became the moral backbone of a conspiracy to overthrow the Nazi regime in Germany and assassinate Adolf Hitler. In doing so he went against the grain of Lutheran ethical teachings and practices that had been dominant for hundreds of years, but did he also violate some of his most dearly held Christian principles? How does one make (or refuse to make) this kind of choice as a Christian? How do we locate our ethical responsibilities when all the choices seem to be wrong? Can honoring an abstract moral principle sometimes lead to a concrete moral failure? Is it possible that sometimes "sinning boldly" is preferable to doing nothing at all?

Suggested Readings
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters & Papers from Prison
“After Ten Years: A Reckoning made at New Year 1943” (3-17)
Letter to Eberhard Bethge, 21 July, 1944 (369-370)
Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations
96. Witness (p.401-406)