Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations Chapter 1: Simplicity and Wisdom Chapter 2: The Simplicity of Discipleship Chapter 3: Interpreting the Simplicity of Discipleship Chapter 4: Simplicity and the Transcendental Attempt Chapter 5: The Actus Reflectus as Wisdom: Reconciling the Unreflective and Reflective in Act and Being Chapter 6: Towards Practical Discernment as Wisdom: Unreflective and Reflective Agency in Ethics Chapter 7: The ‘Transcendental Unity of Apperception’ and the ‘Categorical Imperative’ in the ‘Flow of Life’ Chapter 8: Articulating the ‘Original Togetherness’ of Life: Wilhelm Dilthey in Relation to Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chapter 9: The Unreflective ‘I’ and Reflective Self-Understanding in Dilthey Chapter 10: Unreflective and Reflective Agency in Dilthey Chapter 11: Gestalt: Aesthetics and Agency in Wilhelm Dilthey Chapter 12: Integrating Simplicity and Wisdom Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

A critical study of a neglected aspect of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology: his writing on human subjectivity, self-reflection, and individual identity ‘in Christ’.

About the Author

Jacob Phillips is Director of the Institute of Theology at St Mary's University, UK.

Reviews

[What] Phillips has ultimately achieved is something of a tour de force through Bonhoeffer’s thought ... [He] more than fulfils his overall aim, to show how self-reflective wisdom can foster integral aspects of simplicity and how simplicity can foster wisdom.
*Theology*

Phillips has written a highly perceptive book, arguing for a new key to Bonhoeffer’s corpus, simplicity and wisdom. Drawing on Dilthey to show how Bonhoeffer harmonises and integrates the unreflective and reflective dimensions of our human subjectivity in Christ, Phillips challenges us to appropriate boldly Bonhoeffer’s vision of discipleship in wise and simple obedience to Christ.
*Christopher R.J. Holmes, Head of the Theology Programme, University of Otago, New Zealand*

This rich and careful study provides a sustained engagement with a central tension in Bonhoeffer’s theology: an emphasis upon simplicity or unreflective obedience (especially as found in Discipleship) and a recognition elsewhere of the role of wisdom, discernment and responsibility (especially in Ethics). Displaying a detailed grasp of Bonhoeffer’s corpus and philosophical influences, Phillips’s book makes an important contribution to ongoing scholarship and debates.
*Michael Mawson, Senior Lecturer in Theology, Charles Sturt University, Australia*

Jacob Phillips’ text takes up an important project in Bonhoeffer scholarship, addressing contradictions between Discipleship and Ethics vis-à-vis unreflective and reflective obedience to God. Pairing close readings of Bonhoeffer’s work with hermeneutical insight from Immanuel Kant and Wilhelm Dilthey, Phillips arrives at a constructive integration of those contradictions. Moreover, he places his work in conversation with the varied scholarly reception of Discipleship and Bonhoeffer’s own cautionary words about the ‘dangers’ of his earlier work. I highly recommend this book for serious students of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and legacy.
*Lori Brandt Hale, Professor of Religion, Augsburg University, USA*