Breaking Man: A Word from Bonheoffer

I was reading Dietrich Bonheoffer’s Ethics and I found his summation of the fall in Gen. 3 particularly interesting.  He breaks down the inherent relationship that was to exist between Creator and human-creation which was and is so central to our identity and self understanding, or lack thereof.  Now I know you were probably just about to rush out to pick up your own copy of Ethics, but I wanted summarize his thoughts for reflection anyway:

Bonhoeffer, focusing on what he believes “the knowledge of good and evil” means, says that prior to the Fall, man did not know himself as a creature apart from God, or outside of God, but the fall itself brought that disconnect and set man against God.   The knowledge of “good and evil” is therefore human separation from God.  This is because mankind cannot rid himself of his origin so now instead of knowing himself in the origin of God he must know himself as his own origin and thus interpret himself according to his possibilities of being good and evil.  As man used his likeness in God to steal God’s likeness, man no longer drew his life entirely from his origin in God because he has forgotten how he was at his origin and became his own creator and judge. 

Therefore, if man knows good and evil it does not mean he has acquired new knowledge, but rather, that knowing of good and evil signifies a complete reversal of man’s knowledge.  Herein lies the deceit of the serpent who promised they would become like God if they knew good and evil. Because man himself is not the origin he can only acquire this knowledge at the cost of separation from his origin which means that man knows, not the good and evil of God, but the good and evil against God.  This expression has torn man from his life-source and unifying reconciling life in God.   Now mankind can only understand himself according to his own contrary possibilities thus living a life of disunity with God, men, things and even himself (p.22-24). 

            It is interesting how we have the power to bring disorder, but lack the capacity to reorder. We need something more sufficient than ourselves for that. Definitely, something to contemplate as we approach the significance of the Advent season... especially contrasted with holiday madness.