Abstract
Etty Hillesum and Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in what Hannah Arendt called “Dark Times.” Their lives and work show us that in the worst places and situations light is possible and hope can be maintained. Besides emphasizing how they practised an ethics of care, this paper gives a particular importance to their concept of God – a powerless God who needs man's help.
Keywords: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Dark Times”, ethics of care, powerless God, helping of God, Church and State, beauty, Hannah Arendt
Living in “Dark Times”
[…] even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination may come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given them on earth.
−Hannah ArendtThere is a deep contrast between our times and those when Etty Hillesum and Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived. We cannot classify our epoch as peaceful, yet the Western world is not directly engaged in the terrible events that can occur on our planet – most of them right now coming to us only via TV news or in newspapers. Hillesum and Bonhoeffer directly suffered the consequences of what Hannah Arendt called “Dark Times” – a painful period when the majority of the values conquered after centuries were neglected and contradicted and where people were not able to plan for the future. But Etty Hillesum and Dietrich Bonhoeffer succeeded in surpassing their destiny, showing us that in the bleakest places and situations, light was possible and hope could be maintained.
Both were victims of Nazism but the testimonies of their lives in dark times are quite different. Etty Hillesum's diaries and letters were not intended to be published. Their register was informal, revealing someone who was compelled to share her feelings and experiences with no presumption of making history or writing literature, philosophy, or theology. She died at the age of twenty-nine.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a renowned German theologian who resisted the Nazi dictatorship and became a founding member of the Confessing Church.