LATEST LECTURE

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Truth, Trust, and Institutions: Thinking with and beyond Bonhoeffer. A lecture by Rachel Muers

by TBC Staff
Rachel Muers (University of Leeds) recently gave a keynote lecture at the University of Aberdeen for a postgraduate conference titled "Bonhoeffer's Contemporary Voice." The conference considered how Bonhoeffer’s theology can inform contemporary issues in dogmatics and ethics. Dr. Muers’ lecture, titled “Truth, Trust, and Institutions: Thinking with and beyond Bonhoeffer,” explored Bonhoeffer’s essay fragment “What Does It Mean to Tell the Truth?” In the lecture, Dr. Muers draws upon Emilie Townes’ concept of the ‘true true’ to interrogate contemporary systems and institutions, asking how they… Full Article

A brilliant theologian, Bonhoeffer was a prolific writer on matters of faith. But the depth of his humanity is most truly displayed in his sermons. These newly translated historical documents reveal a man who, in the midst of turbulent times, grew in his own sense of vocation and purpose as he preached to students, parishioners and allies in the Confessing Church.

Bonhoeffer strongly believed that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was a central text in Christian faith, one that outlined simply what Christians are called to do. When confronted with Nazi evils and betrayal within his own church, Bonhoeffer struggled to understand the will of God.

As part of a Centennial Celebration of the Birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer at Washington National Cathedral, Dr. Victoria Barnett, a respected scholar in Holocaust studies, explored the timeless questions of faith that Bonhoeffer’s sermons disclose, speaking of the fears that haunted him and the faith that nourished him, and of how we can learn how to remain true to your faith in circumstances that require persistence, strength and creativity.

WATCH THIS LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C., 2006