Who Prays the Psalms? Bonhoeffer’s Christological Concentration

Abstract

For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the voice of the Psalms is theologically identical to the voice of Christ. Bonhoeffer’s primary warrant for this conviction came from the New Testament’s pattern of discourse. Yet, as Rein Bos has demonstrated, the New Testament employs Old Testament texts in at least four senses: a christological sense, an Israel-oriented sense, an ecclesial sense, and an eschatological sense. Bonhoeffer’s interpretive practice did in fact explore these additional senses of the Psalms, but his hermeneutical theory remained too narrow to do them adequate justice. Bonhoeffer’s example demonstrates how christological interpretation of the Psalms is necessary for Christian theology and praxis but not sufficient.