{"id":65022,"date":"2023-02-10T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=65022"},"modified":"2023-02-10T08:30:25","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T13:30:25","slug":"vocation-vs-idolatry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/02\/vocation-vs-idolatry\/","title":{"rendered":"Vocation vs. Idolatry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jordan Ballor, a scholar whom I respect, has an article in World Magazine<\/em> entitled Bonhoeffer\u2019s courage, 90 years later<\/a>, with the deck \u201cThe young Lutheran\u2019s stand against Nazi idolatry and an oncoming catastrophe.\u201d\u00a0 It resonates with a book I am reviewing on the German resistance to Hitler.<\/p>\n

Ballor tells of a radio address Bonhoeffer delivered on February 1, 1933, just two days after Hitler was made chancellor.\u00a0 The broadcast was cut short by technical difficulties, probably due to the radio station\u2019s fear of the new government, but Bonhoeffer gave his remarks later as a lecture.\u00a0 He is warning his audience about the dangers of confusing their leaders with God.\u00a0 He does so by applying the doctrine of vocation.<\/p>\n

\n

Here is Ballor\u2019s summary of what Bonhoeffer said:<\/p>\n

Leadership and authority, argued Bonhoeffer, are important and legitimate callings. Far from being an idealistic pacifist or fanatic anarchist, Bonhoeffer\u2019s Lutheranism formed his understanding of the legitimate role of political authority. And in extreme cases, such as that faced by Germany in 1933, it is understandable how a powerful personality might exercise influence over a nation\u2019s citizens. But, warned Bonhoeffer, \u201cthe leader must radically reject the temptation to become an idol, that is, the ultimate authority of the led.\u201d This was, in fact, the critical feature of Hitler\u2019s leadership: his personality shaped politics, and his will became the law.<\/p>\n

The consequences of such an inversion of the office of leadership were catastrophic. Individual people, created in the image of God, must stand before God in their callings. They could not place anyone else in the ultimate seat of judgment and authority. \u201cOnly before God,\u201d said Bonhoeffer with characteristic Lutheran emphasis, \u201cdoes the human being become what he is, an individual, free, and at the same time bound in responsibility.\u201d To allow anyone else to come between the individual and God was to commit idolatry. To do this was essentially to replace God with another creaturely authority. . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cLeader and office that turn themselves into gods mock God and the solitary individual before him who is becoming the individual, and must collapse,\u201d concluded Bonhoeffer. \u201cOnly the leader who is in the service of the penultimate and ultimate authority merits loyalty.\u201d Without naming Hitler directly, Bonhoeffer challenged the pledge of ultimate and personal allegiance that the Nazi leader demanded. And he rightly predicted the disaster that awaited, albeit only after much suffering and loss.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What he says about vocation of the leader, the leader\u2019s temptation to become \u201cthe ultimate authority of the led\u201d\u2013that is, an idol\u2013and the temptation of the led to treat the leader in this way has applications beyond political rulers.\u00a0 It can apply to leaders in the church, in the family, and in the workplace.<\/p>\n

This echoes what Jesus Himself says, how leadership should not be about \u201clording it over\u201d the led, but, as with other vocations, loving and serving them.\u00a0 Which is how Christ Himself, the ultimate leader, carries out His authority:<\/p>\n

And Jesus called them to him and said to them,\u00a0\u201cYou know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles\u00a0lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.<\/span><\/span> But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>and whoever would be first among you must be slave\u00a0of all.<\/span><\/span> \u00a0<\/sup>For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.\u201d\u00a0 Mark 10:42-45<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What Bonhoeffer said 90 years ago also applies to another of our concerns today:\u00a0 identity.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOnly before God does the human being become what he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Wissen911 \u2013 Bettina Rott: Wilhelm Rott, 1908\u20131967: Lebenszeugnis, Pro Business Verlag, 2008, CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=52692413<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Bonhoeffer says about vocation of the leader, the leader’s temptation to become “the ultimate authority of the led”–that is, an idol–and the temptation of the led to treat the leader in this way has applications beyond political rulers.\u00a0 It can apply to leaders in the church, in the family, and in the workplace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":65061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,19,36,47,48],"tags":[241,669,2947,12984,12987,12981],"class_list":["post-65022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christ","category-government","category-politics","category-theology","category-vocation","tag-authority","tag-dietrich-bonhoeffer","tag-idolatry","tag-resistance-to-hitler","tag-vocation-and-idolatry","tag-vocation-of-leader"],"yoast_head":"\nVocation vs. Idolatry<\/title>\n<meta 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