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Bonhoeffer's Eighth Day: The Orders of Preservation and a Theology of Natural Ability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2014

Lisa Nichols Hickman
Lisa Nichols Hickman*
Affiliation:
Duquesne University
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Abstract

The award-winning Belgian film Le huitième jour, about a young man with Down syndrome, begins with static on a television screen. This reflects the current state of disability study: much has been accomplished through the work of Nancy Eiesland, Amos Yong, and John Swinton, but there still is static in the conversation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer rejected the theological discourse of his day regarding the orders of creation and argued instead for the orders of preservation. This turn, in the area of theology and disability, means a move away from questions about God's creating (or not) of disability, and instead moves toward the preservation of life in Christ. In so doing, Bonhoeffer takes a surprising stance as a Protestant by drawing on natural law theology and points to our high calling in life on “the eighth day.”

Keywords

Dietrich Bonhoefferdisabilityorders of creationorders of preservationNancy Eiesland
Type
Articles
Information
Horizons , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , December 2014 , pp. 230 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © College Theology Society 2014 

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References

1 I am grateful to Bernd Wannenwetsch for first introducing Bonhoeffer's work into the study of disability and theology. See Wannenwetsch, Bernd “‘My Strength Is Made Perfect in Weakness’: Bonhoeffer and the War over Disabled Life,” in Disability in the Christian Tradition: A Reader, ed. Brock, Brian and Swinton, John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012), 353–69.Google Scholar

2 Le huitième jour, written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael, 1996. These are the opening words of the film; they scroll across the bottom of the screen as static buzzes on a television screen.

3 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Ethics, trans. Smith, Neville Horton (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 143.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., 104–5.

5 Ibid., 108.

6 Ibid., 118.

7 Ibid., 111.

8 Chopp, Rebecca, foreword to The Disabled God, by Eiesland, Nancy (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 12.Google Scholar

9 Eiesland, The Disabled God, 70.

10 Ibid., 74.

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12 Ibid., 121.

13 Ibid., 143.

14 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Creation and Fall: A Theological Exposition of Genesis 1–3, trans. Bax, Douglas Stephen, ed. de Gruchy, John W. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997), 140.Google Scholar

15 Wannenwetsch, “My Strength Is Made Perfect in Weakness,” 355. Here, Wannenwetsch describes the reaction Bonhoeffer had to the community at Bethel, where the “disabled” were provided care. Here, Bonhoeffer realized it was not the disabled who were “insane” but rather those who thought they could pass judgment.

16 Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall, 1.

17 Ibid., 3.

18 Letter from Finkenwalde, January 27, 1936, in Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Theological Education at Finkenwalde: 1935–1937 Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 14, trans. Douglas W. Stott (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2013), 113.Google Scholar

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