Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rediscovered
by Rebecca Bynum (April 2010)
The exemplary life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been brought to the attention of the world by Eric Metaxas (author of Amazing Grace: William Wilburforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery). Like his earlier book, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (A Righteous Gentile vs. The Third Reich) is likely to be made into a compelling movie as well as a bestselling book. Bonhoeffer was the son of a prominent German family who was raised in the traditional German aristocratic liberal tradition. He became a pastor and theologian and then a key leader of the Christian resistance to Nazism, working in Germany, London and America. Eventually, his faith led him to join the conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler which culminated in the failed von Stauffenberg plot. Bonhoeffer, in turn, was executed on Hitler’s orders on April 9, 1945 (just three weeks prior to the Fuhrer’s own suicide at the end of the war).
Victoria Barnett, Richard Weikart and Jason B. Hood make this accusation, citing the failure of Metaxas to include material in which Bonhoeffer questions the virgin birth and the corporeal reality of the resurrection as examples of his liberal theology. These quotes are cited as proof that Bonhoeffer was no conservative, despite his views on abortion and other modern conservative matters. They also contend Metaxas’ portrayal of Bonhoeffer’s fight with fellow Christians over the Nazification of the Church (and creation of the Reich Church which actually attempted the re-writing of the Sermon on the Mount), in which the actions of those Christians who capitulated to the Nazi government is portrayed as less than principled, is incomplete. The overall criticism seems to be that Metaxas portrays Bonhoeffer too simply and that Bonhoeffer was in fact a liberal.
Norman Berdichevsky’s forthcoming book, The Left is Seldom Right explains in great detail how the terms “liberal” and “conservative” are actually quite fluid and that attempts to apply those terms in their current usage to the past (even the recent past) can be very misleading. In this instance, both sides accuse the other of selective quoting. In an interview with Christianity Today, Metaxas states:
The evidence that he took the call of God seriously and counted the cost in advance is all through his life and work. His death, of course, is the final testament. There is simply no other way to explain the fact of his return to Nazi Germany when he could have remained safely in America, other than that he was following the call of God.
His obedience was not a formulaic adherence to doctrine, but the response of his soul to the gentle guidance of the divine. The theme of self-forgetfulness and self-effacement is woven throughout. For Bonhoeffer, the call of God was immediate and an all or nothing proposition.
He [Bonhoeffer] had hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened and two evil-looking men in civilian clothes came in and said,
It is not an idle question, the question of standing fast to the end, giving all one has and all one is for a higher and greater reality. Jesus admonished his followers to count the cost before they begin.
And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a faithful disciple who met his death nobly. The precious salt of his life is still serving as an inspiration and example. It does not do to put such people in ideological boxes and thus diminish their influence. Dietrich Bonhoeffer does not belong to the left or the right. He belongs to a higher realm.
[1] Metaxas, Eric Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN.) 2010, pg. 446
[2] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich The Cost of Discipleship (Touchstone a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster, New York) 1995 originally published in 1959, pg. 64
[3] Ibid. pg. 89
[4] Ibid. pg. 190
[5] Metaxas, Eric Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN.) 2010 pg. 517
[6] Ibid. pg. 528
[7] Ibid. pg. 532
[8] The Bible, Luke 14: 25-35 (King James version)
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