Abstract

Concern is raised about discernment in Christian ethics because of the variance of individual interpretations. Given the individual nature of discernment, this concern is addressed by establishing that discernment is rational, when rationality is understood as the endeavor to articulate decisions and judgments for the purpose of giving good reasons for those decisions and subsequent actions. The significance of both the community and the individual is maintained without subordinating one to the other. ;Creativity, testing the spirits, the nurture of apperception, shared loyalty to Christ, intelligibility, and objective verification in action are asserted to be characteristics key to understanding the nature of discernment. These characteristics are shown to be amenable to the definition of rationality by illuminating both the process of giving good reasons for decisions and the dynamic of the individual-community-dialectic. ;Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theological ethic reveals the interrelatedness of these characteristics. Bonhoeffer consistently emphasizes the individual as communal in nature, thereby avoiding the problems of subordinating the individual to the community and vice versa. By making clear the connection between freedom, responsibility, relationship, and limits, Bonhoeffer provides an accessible understanding of discernment as a concrete process. Thus, discernment is located in praxis and is amenable to rationality. ;Current studies of rationality outline the rationality of discernment which reveals similarity to discernment in Christian ethics. These studies in rationality maintain the individual-community dialectic while focusing on the individual as the rational agent. ;These ideas are brought together by examining the way in which sacrifice, reconceived as generosity, underlines the individual's participation in the individual-community dynamic by describing a particular instance of the rationality of discernment in responsibility to God, ourselves, and others