Sleep Science and the Limits of Creaturely Life: On Bonhoeffer and a Theology of Bodily Responsibility

Abstract

Reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theological anthropology in conjunction with Matthew Walker's monograph on the current state of sleep science (Why We Sleep, 2017), the article explores how theological attention to sleep illuminates our relationships and responsibilities to God, world, self, and others. Sleep confronts us with our creaturely limits, and with the consequences of attempting to transcend them. These limits set us squarely within the world, situating us along a continuum with all animal life and reiterating the embodied nature of the human being. Sleep thus reminds us that the self is never separable from the body and its contexts, prompting questions about creaturely responsibility for the body/self in relation to God, as well as in relation to other human beings in whom we encounter our limits. Bonhoeffer's concept of creaturely limits is thus deployed and developed through attention to sleep, helping us name the interconnectedness of these relationships and responsibilities.