ABSTRACT
Recently, the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum has made a fresh proposal for a positive perception of patriotism as being a necessary emotional attachment to a specific, concrete embodiment of universal values. This chapter offers a theological appropriation of her proposal, drawing specifically on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, arguing that he contributes in two ways to such an appropriation. First, his life is a vivid illustration of Nussbaum’s plea for a value-driven patriotism. Second, Bonhoeffer’s distinction between the ‘ultimate’ and ‘penultimate’ provides a theological framework in which ‘love for country’ receives a proper place, never becoming a substitute for, or getting onto an equal footing with, ‘love for God’.
