Review by Matthew Miller, 2008
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Sanctorum Communio. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 1. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. 306 pages.
From time to time, it is the privilege of theologians and philosophers to encounter a work so penetrating and revealing one trembles at even taking a breath, lest the clarity and beauty of the exposition be overlooked and its illuminating insights missed. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Sanctorum Communio is a work of this caliber.
Sanctorum Communio examines the social experience of the individual within the community of the church. Governing the study of this dynamic is Bonhoeffer’s fundamental belief about all sociality, namely, that all social experiences are, ‘religious’ in so far as the ‘I’-‘You” sociality of humanity is analogous to the ‘I’ –God relationship.
Bonhoeffer defines his study as a study of “social-philosophy” that is an inquiry into the “ontic-philosophical nature of sociality per se” (16). He is not interested in Sociology as an empirical discipline but of the primordial structure of human social experience between persons and God as it is conveyed in the Bible. Here, the study becomes a theological study of social nature as a fundamental aspect of human being. Bonhoeffer believes that the community humans share with God in Eden establishes human sociality. Yet, the study must go beyond Genesis as Bonhoeffer notes; the sociality of Genesis although expressed clearly is done so “only indirectly” (38).
Bonhoeffer quickly leaves behind Genesis as significant only “in parallel to the eschatological hope we have for it in the church” (38). Bonhoeffer does not consider the primordial sociality as part of social history, believing history only begins in the Fall as a “rupture” of all social relations (38). Thus, he moves to explore the dialectic of the ‘I’-‘You’ primordial relationship arguing that the fundamental characteristics of the individual only arise from life in the community. Thus, the true individual self arises only in community.
In chapter four, Bonhoeffer explores the effect of sin on the ontology of sociality. Love, Bonhoeffer argues, was the basis of primordial ontic-sociality. Sin by shattering this structure removes love and gives way to overt narcissistic self-conciousness. Consequently, after the Fall Adam’s is defined by shame and elusiveness rather than community and openness. Narcissistic self-conciousness leads to the break down of all human relations, anthropological and divine. God’s remedy to this shattering of sociality, Bonhoeffer believes, is the institution of the church.
Bonhoeffer believes that this remedy must be provided as a part of history as “Gods will is always directed to the concrete historical human being” (87). God’s purpose in the church is the restoration of openness and community through direct contact with his people in Christ. As the body of Christ, each individual finds identity only as it is derived from its communal basis in open relation to others. The community establishes the place of the individual.
Although Bonhoeffer is quite thorough, some exploratory questions remain. Bonhoeffer argues that self-conciousness only arises out of community (43). That is, one becomes self-aware only in relation to another. Yet, primordially, Adam and Eve became self-conscious only in social alienation from, rather than in relation to, one another. Moreover, self-conciousness does not seem to create sociality out of love, but rather dramatic isolation over and against another. Second, Bonhoeffer asserts that human will, like sociality, arises only in social interaction. The fascinating implications for the concept of free-will are myriad. While beyond the scope of Bonhoeffer’s remarkable work, this is an area worth exploring in light of his work.
Bonhoeffer’s work in Sanctorum Communio is as original as it is poignant. It is a reflection of Bonhoeffer’s meticulous scholarship, intellectual ability and clear sightedness into issues of profound import. It is a worthy investment of one’s intellectual and spiritual energy.