"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Growing up Lutheran, I knew Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor who courageously conspired against Hitler and was eventually executed by the Nazis as a result. And I had also read his famous book "The Cost of Discipleship".
But I didn't know much else about him. The biography by Eric Metaxas is a lengthy but fascinating book about Bonhoeffer's life, and a brief history about the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. It held my interest right to the end.
A Christian Pastor Joins an Assassination Plot against Hitler
How could a committed follower of Jesus Christ like Bonhoeffer justify engaging in deception and plotting to assassinate a national leader? The answer is complicated but it illustrates the Christian faith is much deeper than many think. God and His Truth are more than the simple religious legalism of "never telling a lie". Jesus constantly confronted the religious legalists of his day about following the "letter of the Law" but failing to follow a deeper "Spirit of the Law" behind the Scriptures. (1)
Bonhoeffer was brilliant and had a respect for "the truth that was so deep"; he did not have a cavalier attitude towards the truth. He was aware of the danger of a belief that "how one tells the truth depends on circumstances", but legalistic religion was being shown to be utterly inadequate against the Nazis and the atrocities they were unleashing against the Jews
and others. He believed that to be true to God in the deepest way meant that one's actions could not be separated from a relationship with Jesus Christ; guidance and discernment of one's actions had to come from God. (2)
Religionless Christianity
Apparently some in the modern-day "God is dead" movement have regarded Bonhoeffer as a kind of prophet, given Bonhoeffer's views about religion. However, Metaxas eloquently illustrates that Bonhoeffer was greatly misunderstood in this respect. As a Christian myself, Bonhoeffer teachings on this topic seem completely compatible with Christianity.
For example, given the bleak situation of his time, Bonhoeffer wondered if modern man had moved beyond religion. What Bonhoeffer meant by "religion" was not true Christianity, but rather the "religious" Christianity that had failed Germany and the West during the Nazi crisis. Bonhoeffer preached that Christianity was not about religion at all, but about the person of Christ. Religion is a dead, man-made thing, and at the heart of Christianity is something else entirely - God himself, alive.
In fact, Bonhoeffer taught that "religion" is opposed to Christianity and to Christ because it presents the false idea that somehow we can reach God through our moral efforts. He differentiated between Christianity as a religion like all the others and following Christ, who demands everything, including our very lives. He wondered if it wasn't finally time for the lordship of Jesus Christ to move past the "religious" corners of Sunday mornings and churches and into all aspects of our lives...into the whole world; God is bigger than most have imagined. (3)
A Good Read
There is much more interesting in Metaxas' book. For example:
Churchill was unwilling to cooperate with a Resistance movement inside Germany (of which Bonhoeffer was a part) that was plotting against Hitler and the Nazis.
After the war, many in England were surprised that there were actually "good" Germans in Germany who had paid with their lives for conspiring against Hitler.
In 1930-31, Bonhoeffer spent a year at Union Theological Seminary in New York but was disappointed by their liberal theology. He finally heard the Gospel preached and its power manifested at Abyssinian Baptist, an African American church in Harlem. He noted the only real piety and power he witnessed were in churches where there were a present reality and past history of suffering; he had traveled in the southern U.S. and was shocked at the racism he witnessed there. The powerful preaching of the Gospel at Abyssinian Baptist was life changing for Bonhoeffer.
Bonhoeffer was engaged to be married but was imprisoned and executed before his marriage.
Facing the End
In the end, Bonhoeffer faced death with courage. Years later the doctor of the concentration camp who had witnessed his execution wrote:
I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, [Bonhoeffer again] said a short prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed...In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.
A fitting tribute to this man of God.
Footnotes:
(1) For example, see Jesus' sermon on the mount in Matthew chapters 5 to 7; see also chapter 23.
(2) A great discussion of this in on pp. 365-367 in the hardback version of Metaxas' book "What is Truth"?
(3) Excerpts from pp. 82-85 and 465-468 (ibid).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
But I didn't know much else about him. The biography by Eric Metaxas is a lengthy but fascinating book about Bonhoeffer's life, and a brief history about the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. It held my interest right to the end.
A Christian Pastor Joins an Assassination Plot against Hitler
How could a committed follower of Jesus Christ like Bonhoeffer justify engaging in deception and plotting to assassinate a national leader? The answer is complicated but it illustrates the Christian faith is much deeper than many think. God and His Truth are more than the simple religious legalism of "never telling a lie". Jesus constantly confronted the religious legalists of his day about following the "letter of the Law" but failing to follow a deeper "Spirit of the Law" behind the Scriptures. (1)
 |
| Bonhoeffer was an active participant in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler in the Valkyrie
plot, portrayed in this 2008 movie.
|
Religionless Christianity
Apparently some in the modern-day "God is dead" movement have regarded Bonhoeffer as a kind of prophet, given Bonhoeffer's views about religion. However, Metaxas eloquently illustrates that Bonhoeffer was greatly misunderstood in this respect. As a Christian myself, Bonhoeffer teachings on this topic seem completely compatible with Christianity.
For example, given the bleak situation of his time, Bonhoeffer wondered if modern man had moved beyond religion. What Bonhoeffer meant by "religion" was not true Christianity, but rather the "religious" Christianity that had failed Germany and the West during the Nazi crisis. Bonhoeffer preached that Christianity was not about religion at all, but about the person of Christ. Religion is a dead, man-made thing, and at the heart of Christianity is something else entirely - God himself, alive.
In fact, Bonhoeffer taught that "religion" is opposed to Christianity and to Christ because it presents the false idea that somehow we can reach God through our moral efforts. He differentiated between Christianity as a religion like all the others and following Christ, who demands everything, including our very lives. He wondered if it wasn't finally time for the lordship of Jesus Christ to move past the "religious" corners of Sunday mornings and churches and into all aspects of our lives...into the whole world; God is bigger than most have imagined. (3)
A Good Read
There is much more interesting in Metaxas' book. For example:
Churchill was unwilling to cooperate with a Resistance movement inside Germany (of which Bonhoeffer was a part) that was plotting against Hitler and the Nazis.
 |
| Site at Flossenburg Concentration Camp where Bonhoeffer and others were executed at dawn on April 9, 1945, only days before the camp was liberated by Allied Forces. It reads: "In resistance against dictatorship and terror, they gave their lives for freedom, justice, and humanity. |
In 1930-31, Bonhoeffer spent a year at Union Theological Seminary in New York but was disappointed by their liberal theology. He finally heard the Gospel preached and its power manifested at Abyssinian Baptist, an African American church in Harlem. He noted the only real piety and power he witnessed were in churches where there were a present reality and past history of suffering; he had traveled in the southern U.S. and was shocked at the racism he witnessed there. The powerful preaching of the Gospel at Abyssinian Baptist was life changing for Bonhoeffer.
Bonhoeffer was engaged to be married but was imprisoned and executed before his marriage.
Facing the End
In the end, Bonhoeffer faced death with courage. Years later the doctor of the concentration camp who had witnessed his execution wrote:
I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, [Bonhoeffer again] said a short prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed...In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.
A fitting tribute to this man of God.
Footnotes:
(1) For example, see Jesus' sermon on the mount in Matthew chapters 5 to 7; see also chapter 23.
(2) A great discussion of this in on pp. 365-367 in the hardback version of Metaxas' book "What is Truth"?
(3) Excerpts from pp. 82-85 and 465-468 (ibid).
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