"Being for One Another”: Friendship and Political Responsibility in Bonhoeffer

Friendship is a constitutive part of social life: with friends we talk about work, family and hobbies and we share our deep convictions and motives. Friends can differ significantly from each other, yet they can sharpen and enrich each other, often significantly.

Friendship is an important human and cultural phenomenon. Friendship is often seen as something that takes place in the private sphere. But that is misleading – friendship also has a strong political dimension: it influences the choices people make in their social and civic life as well as in their personal life.

Dr. Guido de Graaff will focus on this political dimension of friendship by zooming in on the unique friendship between Anglican bishop George Bell and German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Their friendship became political as World War 2 broke out, and they found themselves outwardly on opposite sides, yet inwardly focused on the same goal: a peaceful solution to this crisis, and a better world after the downfall of National Socialism. Based on this particular example, Dr. De Graaff will assert the importance of the political dimension of friendship, something he claims the Christian tradition can contribute to in a unique way.

Dr. Guido de Graaff is Tutor for Christian Doctrine and Ethics, and Director of Studies, at the Southeast Institute for Theological Education (SEITE), London. He is Secretary of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics (UK).

Replies by:
Dr. Steven van den Heuvel, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Leadership and Social Ethics, ETF Leuven
Prof. Dr. Yves de Maeseneer, Anthropos Research Group, Research Unit Theological and Comparative Ethics, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven

This public lecture is a joint initiative by ETF Leuven, and the Anthropos Research Group of KU Leuven.

Location: Maria-Theresiacollege , Sint-Michielsstraat 6, 3000 Leuven, lokaal: MTC 00.03