Bonhoeffer's Aporia
.PP
I was surprised, and a bit chagrined, not to find the
term "aporia" listed in the smaller of my dictionaries.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines aporia with a quotation
from a treatise on rhetoric, published in 1673,
"Aporia is a figure whereby the Speaker sheweth that he doubteth
either where to begin for the multitude of matters
or what to do or say in some strange or ambiguous thing."
It is a term which has sometimes been used to relate the style
of Aristotle's exposition to the complexity of his meaning,
and which I consider uniquely appropriate applied
to Bonhoeffer's writing.
.PP
On the  face of it, the opposite would seem to be the case.
Bonhoeffer's writing appears on the contrary to be apodictic
and definite, the early work, such as Sanctorum communio, from
the self-assurance and vigor of youth; the mature ones from a
pervasive faith and from an unshakable determination to obey
its dictates. 
.PP
Yet it is not to disparage Bonhoeffer to observe that he was not
in the posession of Truth. None of us is, however diligently
he or she may have searched.
Yet Bonhoeffer would have been the first to deny that he was
in possession of truth,
Yet Bonhoeffer would have been the first to admit, if not
indeed to claim to be in possession of truth.
He would have been
the first to deny that his work was revelation, apocalyptic in the
sense of revealing the mysteries of God, or even the mysteries of  
humanness. And so we do him, - and ourselves -, an injustice when
we comb his works for dicta that define his position  on matters
of interest to us, or to be embarrasssed when we stumble upon
mutually inconsistent statement. For they are the mark of truth
and reality.
.PP
Neither the writings of Bonhoeffer, nor of any other serious
author should be interpreted as such, is to miscontrue  language
and thought as being sufficient to exhaust reality, a presumption
which, held up to the light, seems to imply that we speakers
and thinkers were capable of reproducing, if only
in miniature the creation.
.PP
Applied as a hermeneutic principle .....
.PP
The charge of equivocation ...