THE ETHICS OF DIETRICH BONHOEFFER AND THE CRISIS OF NUCLEAR POWER JVhflt would Dielrich Bo11 hoe.f/er hm'e lo Jay today relative lo !he ethicfll iJJ11eJ of a 1111cle<tr <1ge? ls it /JoJJible lo obey the co11mzc111dme11/J of God in <111 1111mnbig11011s wfly? / I/t hough there is 110 .rim/il e (!!ISWer, rele11m1t guidelin es <1re <11)(!ilr1ble.
HuGH A. KooPs Di etri ch Bonhoeffer was executed on April 9, 1945, shortly before the end of the second World War. Less than half a year after his death, on August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It is, therefore, too much to expect of Bonhoeffer familiarity with the problems of nuclear warfare. Only a few of the nuclear scientists of his day were able to comprehend , and even then in but small measure, what devastating power men had now unleashed. Of the power of atoms Bonhoeffer knew little if anything, and he did not anticipate the qualitative difference in war which nuclear weapons would effect. Bonhoeffer himself was opposed to the war, and worked much to postpone, and later, to end it. He was inclined by nature toward .pacifism, and in 1934 had made plans to travel to India and study Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence method of resistance. Yet he was too familiar with the harsh realities of life to accept absolute pacifism as his own position. When asked what he would do if war came, he replied, "I shall pray to Christ to give me the power not to take up arms." But when the war drew near, he insisted on returning to Germany, though he was in America at the time, and arrangements were being made for him to stay here. Upon his return to Germany, certain friends there pulled the necessary strings in his behalf so that he would not have to serve in the army. He was appointed a civilian employee of the Military Intelligence Service. With his brother-in-law he became personally involved in the resistance movement in Germany, personally risked his life in a journey to Sweden with information for British intelligence about the resistance movement within Germany, and later was indirectly related to the attempt on Hitler's life in July of 1944. Violence was now being placed in the service of the will of God. His pacifism became his sacrifice on the altar of obedience. Bonhoeffer considered his entire experience as directed toward his treatment of ethics, and hoped to make of this treatment his greatest work. But the book which was .finally published under this name is at best a 25