Bonhoeffer on heresy

 Bonhoeffer thought we ought to bring back heresy: "If critical Christology is concerned with the fixing of limits, that means it is concerned with the concept of heresy. The concept of heresy is lost today because there is no longer a teaching authority. This is a terrible decline. The present day ecumenical councils are everything but Councils, because the word ‘heresy’ is struck out from their vocabulary. There can be no creedal confession without the saying, ‘In the light of Christ, that is true and this is false!’ The concept of heresy belongs necessarily and irrevocably with the concept of a creedal confession. The teaching of a Confession Church must stand in opposition to a false teaching. The Augsburg Confession says quite clearly, “The Church condemns”. It must be here noted that the concept of heresy emerges from the fellowship of the Church and not from an absence of love. Only when man does not withhold the truth from his brother, does he deal with him in a brotherly way. If I do not tell him the truth, I treat him like a heathen. When I speak the truth to one who is of a different opinion from mine, then I offer him the love I owe him." (Christ the Center (1978 edition), pp. 75-76.]