aw than state law. One not only has a patriotic duty to do so but also a moral and ethical duty. Even so, Bonhoeffer goes into a discussion of the complexity of the use of evil and violence even for good. He questions if oneÆs acting in such a manner only undermines oneÆs own character, since one must act in a deceptive and often brutal manner to resist a despotic state. Still Bonhoeffer contends that our first duty and first obedience must be to GodÆs commandments. Such obedience is made more complex because it is exhibited and played out through various social institutions, from family and government to culture and economics. OneÆs obedience to God is demonstrated by how one reconciles GodÆs law through all these spheres:
If one is to say how a thing really is, i.e., if one is to speak truthfully, oneÆs gaze and oneÆs thought must be directed towards the way in which the real exists in God and through God and for God (Bonhoeffer, 1955, p. 360).
Bonhoeffer is willing to accept his own death in order to try to counteract the abnormal actions of the corrupt Nazi state, which he believes cannot be sustained.
Like Socrates would rather have drank poison than escape prison in order to help restore the values he believed critical to a ôgoodö state, Bonhoeffer was willing to die in order to protest a state seriously out of order and not in accordance with GodÆs commands. In a section entitled The Idolization of Death, Bonhoeffer (1955) maintains that GodÆs love and obeying GodÆs law has given life to death, ôGodÆs love has become the death of death and the life of manö (p. 80). Bonhoeffer does not for a moment consider an easy task the making of such choices with moral clarity. Such decisions often present a twofold risk. On the one hand, individuals often keep on blindly obeying their duty. On the other hand, the individual can tend to exhibit moral heroics that are uncalled for by a particular situatio...