Today I ran across a blog-post by Scot McKnight that briefly discusses Bonhoeffer’s essay on truth-telling. This essay was found in the earlier mass-market version of Bonhoeffer’s Ethics (where I remember originally reading it many years ago now), but in the critical editions of Bonhoeffer’s works was included in Volume 16 – Conspiracy and Imprisonment: 1940-1945
. At any rate, I would be interested in thoughts on the nature of truth-telling and lying when it is a relational issue and not simply treated as a principle. Is it telling the “truth” to hold to a principle or honor relationships? Or, in other words, is it ever acceptable to lie in regard to principles, but be “truthful” in regard to relationships?
True Lies According to Bonhoeffer
May 12, 2012 by Rick Wadholm Jr.
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I would like to read the article as it is something I want to give more thought to.
At this point I do think Bonhoeffer is right in saying (according to one blog) “[Telling the truth] is also a matter of correct appreciation of real situations and of serious reflection upon them”. The blogger comments: “[For] Bonhoeffer, and for the Scriptures, truth is more nuanced than asking a simple question like, ‘Did I tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth’? It is about asking questions like,
Should it be said?
Should it be said in this situation?
Should it be said to this person?
Should it be said at this time?” (http://thebattlebooks.com/2011/10/10/what-does-it-mean-to-tell-the-truth-ethics-part-ii-section-v/)
The argument Diana, a commentator on the link you gave, made from the Church Fathers was also interesting… that one needs to not be proud and be willing to sacrifice their sense of virtue.
I’d like to read what Bonhoeffer says about it because the articles made me think of the “relational yes” which is typical of the people of the Pacific; yet, in reading the comments on the link you posted, it sounded like a different sort of “telling the truth”.
To me the “truth” is a matter of wisdom and not simply supposed “bare facts”. Wisdom is always exercised with context in mind and an attentiveness to God’s work and leading. At least that is my take. Great comments by the way. Thanks for the link.