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Responsibility as Response: Biblical-Theological Remarks on the Concept of Responsibility

Protestant University (Kirchliche Hochschule) Wuppertal/Bethel Missionsstraße 9, 42285 Wuppertal, Germany, vonluepke{at}thzw.de

The term of responsibility is ambiguous. In a general sense it means nothing more than answering questions about human behaviour (in Greek: logon didonai; in Latin: rationem reddere). In order to get a more precise sense of responsibility this article discusses concepts of responsibility, worked out by Albert Schweitzer, Hans Jonas, Richard Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The discussion is concentrated on two problems: (1) extensification of responsibility in accordance with the expansion of technological power; (2) limitation and intensification of responsibility in accordance with human capability and readiness. The central question is that of the subject of responsibility: How becomes man, who abdicates responsibility, ‘the responsible self’ (Niebuhr)? Referring to this question the biblical language is of great importance as the word, which re-establishes communication between God and man. Responsibility in the biblical sense means the response to this word of God. Therein lies not only a radicalising and intensifying of responsibility, but also its enabling and limiting.

Key Words: biblical anthropology • creation • ethics of responsibility • language • reason • reverence for life • secularization • Word of God

Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol. 22, No. 4, 461-471 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0953946809340950


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