[Dialogue] Fw: [Oe List ...] Bonhoeffer quote (small correction)

Fri Dec 10 12:17:49 CST 2010

Oops. The title of the last paragraph is as follows: (# 16) Are we still of any 
use?

This is no doubt what we are trying to figure out with our notes on "Our 
Legacy."

Doris Hahn

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Charles or Doris Hahn <cdhahn at flash.net>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Fri, December 10, 2010 12:49:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Bonhoeffer quote

The quote Terry mentions is one of many remarkable things that Bonhoeffer wrote 
in "After Ten Years - A Reckoning made at New Year 1943 (in a section called 'Of 

success')." According to the Notes following "After Ten Years...." "It is part 
of some writing he gave to Hans von Dohnanyi, Hans Oster and Eberhard Bethge at 
Christmas, 1942 One copy was kept under the roof-beams of Bonhoeffer's parents' 
house in Charlottenburg, Marienburger Allee 43." 

"After Ten Years" is often the opening section of LETTERS AND PAPERS FROM 
PRISON. Likely, most of us have read it all, but just to remind us, the 
categories he uses after an introductory paragraph are the following: 1. No 
ground under our feet; 2. Who stands fast?; 3. Civil courage?; 4. Of success; 5. 

Of folly; 6. Contempt for humanity; 7. Immanent righteousness; 8. A few articles 

of faith on the sovereignty of God in history; 9. Confidence; 10.The sense of 
quality; 11. Sympathy; 12. Of suffering; 13. Present and future; 14. Optimism; 
15. Insecurity and death; 16. Are still of any use? 

In some versions, there is a 17th paragraph titled The view from below. The 
notes following say, "This final paragraph was probably written at the end of 
1942 (or in autumn 1943?), and is unfinished...."

Doris Hahn

----- Original Message ----
From: Terry Bergdall <bergdall2 at gmail.com>
To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Cc: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Fri, December 10, 2010 10:04:26 AM
Subject: [Oe List ...] Bonhoeffer quote

The correct version (except for the outdated exclusive language) is better than 
my memory:

"The ultimate question for a responsible man to ask, is not how to extricate 
himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation is to live."

A Google search revealed this to have been quoted in M. Bosanquet, The Life and 
Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (New York: Harper, 1962), p. 221.

On 10 Dec 2010, at 08:41, Terry Bergdall wrote:

> On 10 Dec 2010, at 07:34, James Wiegel wrote:
>> I like George's quote, isn't there a similar one by Bonhoeffer?  something 
>>about the challenge is not how to survive, but how the future generations will 

>>live . . .
> 
> I am not sure about its source nor its exact phrasing (though I think this is 
>close), but here is something I recall:
> 
> "The question the man of responsibility asks is not 'how can we extricate 
>ourselves from the current situation' but rather 'how is the coming generation 
>to live?'"
> 
> Since I've remembered it for over 40 years, it obviously made a big impression 

>on me.
> 
> Terry

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