Watching TV Religiously: Television and Theology in Dialogue by Kutter Callaway with Dean Batali

Abstract

spirituality. In the final body chapter (6) van den Heuvel focuses on two perennial concerns regarding Bonhoeffer’s ethics, his account of “vicarious representative action” (Stellvertretung) and divine mandates. Responsibility is explored in its multiple dimensions, including human responsibility to one another and for nature, with a promising discussion of its relevance for future generations that merits further development. Subsequently, van den Heuvel situates divine mandates historically as a novel reappropriation of Luther’s doctrine of three St€ ande and notes how they develop across Bonhoeffer’s corpus. The chapter closes with examinations of the abiding relevance of these ethical concepts for issues of ecological responsibility, global applications of the mandates, and the promise of the ecclesial mandate in caring for the earth’s ecology. The conclusion provides a concept-by-concept summary of the book’s argument, highlighting the book’s impressive structure and achievements. Four primary contributions of Bonhoeffer’s theology to issues in environmental ethics are “1) generating motivation for environmental action and engagement, as well as forming a more ecologically sensitive attitude toward nature, 2) formulating an ecologically viable Christian theology of nature, 3) revising Christian theological anthropology in light of the ecological crisis, and 4) reflecting on the relationship between sociality and ecology” (269–70). Van den Heuvel’s monograph is an excellent example of the new era of Bonhoeffer scholarship ushered in by the completion of the German critical edition of Bonhoeffer’s works and the English translations. Today more than ever, scholars can engage all of Bonhoeffer’s extant writings. The extensive bibliography and four indices (names, subjects, Scripture, and Bonhoeffer’s works [DBWE]) facilitate further inquiry along the lines that van den Heuvel suggests and in ways that take the conversation in other directions. In this sense, the study promises to continue to contribute beyond its already considerable achievements in exploring the nexus of Bonhoeffer’s theology and issues of environmental ethics.