'Maak in uw woord mijn gang en treden vast'. Bonhoeffers theologische meditatie over Psalm 119:1-21 uit 1940 als voorbereiding voor zijn Ethik

Samenvatting

Before he started working on his Ethics Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a theological meditation on Psalm 119,1-21. This article argues that this theological meditation on Psalm 119 helped Bonhoeffer to bridge the gap between Discipleship and Ethics in a Biblical way. An examination of the role the Psalms played in Bonhoeffer’s life and theology shows that he ‘discovered’ the Psalms in the context of the liturgy of the Christian community, which in his view combines living with the Word of God and concrete obedience in everyday life. The Sermon on the Mount was crucial for discipleship, but Nachfolge aimed at the concrete sanctification of the Christian community, leaving open the question of the moral responsibility of the Christian in a secular and even anti-Christian society.