CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 1

BONHOEFFER

CH302 REFORMATION AND MODERN HISTORY

DR. SAM HAMSTRA
MARCH 18, 2011
CHAD SMITH
CH302 Church History Paper 2

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a twin, born ten minutes before his sister. He was the sixth of

eight children, all born in Breslau, Germany, present-day Wroclaw, Poland. The Bonhoeffers

were an aristocratic family, with roles of influence and rank dating back centuries. Dietrich was

born in 1906. His trajectory was to be a lecturer and professor of theology. He was ordained in

the Lutheran church at age twenty-nine. Bonhoeffer would live simply as a pastor. He died at the

age of thirty-nine in a Nazi concentration camp. He died a martyr. Less than three weeks later

Hitler committed suicide and a week later Germany would surrender the war. He was not a

martyr for being an opposition leader or pastor in the Lutheran church. He was martyred for

being a Christian and a witness of the Christian faith.

Bonhoeffer’s grandfather on his mother’s side was chaplain to the Emperor. He was

imprisoned when he fell out of favor with the Emperor because of differing political views. His

great-grandfather, Carl von Hase, was the most distinguished Church historian of Germany in the

1800’s. He also was imprisoned for subversive political views. On his father’s side his lineage

dates back to the 15th century living in the southwest area of present-day Germany. It was said

“that Bonhoeffer’s life could be understood in terms of the Bonhoeffer family. The traits of his

character, his decision to take up the study of theology, even his martyrdom--all had their sources

in the family, in some cases as far back as four generations.”1 An uncle interested in the family

genealogy claimed the Bonhoeffers were distant (very remote) descendants of Martin Luther.

This would not have interested the Bonhoeffer a great deal, because they were not a churchgoing

family. Dietrich’s oldest brother, Karl, was a biochemist. He studied with Max Planck, regarded

as the founder of quantum theory, and was on speaking terms with Einstein. The second eldest,

Walter, died in France during WWI.

1 Ven Mehta, The New Theologian, (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 146.
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 3

Bonhoeffer is a fascinating figure. He lived during a fascinating point in history. It is hard

to separate a man from the times in which he lived. The first half of the twentieth century was

arguably a decisive epoch in human history. Bonhoeffer being active in one of the focal points of

the epoch, the German Third Reich, makes his life and death particularly interesting. There are

many people from whom we can glean personal, social, and religious insights. It is more rare to

receive enduring lessons regarding each of those from one life. I believe Bonhoeffer’s life has

much to teach concerning following Christ. As well, he has much to teach regarding being a

citizen in a particular country and generally in the world. Finally, he has something to teach

about being a Christian in the world and the witness of those that follow Christ. I would submit

Bonhoeffer’s legacy can be viewed through three lenses: relationship, representation, and

responsibility. Bonhoeffer recognized the importance of relationship, to God first and to his

fellow Christians, but also to the world. He realized he was a representative in roles as minister

and martyr. Bonhoeffer was aware of his responsibility for people and place.

To understand the milieu of Bonhoeffer’s life, imagine for a moment a futuristic scenario.

It is May 2019. The President of the United States and all members of Congress are jailed and

awaiting trial for international war crimes. United States federal sovereignty is dissolved and

each state is now a stand-alone entity, providing local governance, judicial oversight, and police

protection. Each state is now accountable to the United Nations. A deep economic depression

blankets every state. A quarter of the working population in the U.S. is unemployed. Those that

do have work, see their purchasing power dwindle with each new paycheck, because of

hyperinflation and the chaos ensuing from the establishment of each state’s currency. Times are

bad. They will get worse. People would probably give up all hope if they knew that in ten years,
CH302 Church History Paper 4

the year 2029, a deeper recession will sweep the world and last another ten years, and people not

truly regain their equilibrium until the middle of the century

It is difficult to understand how the present circumstances were triggered five years

previously by the assassination of the Mexican president by Argentine drug lords. The

assassination spun Mexico into anarchy and precipitated an American invasion of Mexico, July

28, 2014. Following the assassination, violence flooded across the US/Mexico border. The US

sought to annex the northern half of Mexico to create a buffer that would protect the southwest

states from the violence. That seemed to unravel stability throughout the world. Asian powers

condemned the American action. Middle Eastern countries had finally reached their limit of

perceived American imperialism. The European nations attempted to remain outside the conflict

until they were forced to engage. Every major power in the world was at war, until there were

winners and losers. By way of a perfect storm of several instances of espionage, double agents,

technology failures, and termination of borrowing power to finance military operations, America

lost. No one may have ever thought it was possible, but the United States of America is no more.

It is difficult to explain how such a shift in the balance of world powers could occur in a

relatively short period of time. The best account the politicians, commentators, and journalists

can provide is simply that one thing led to another. An assassination led to unrest, which led to a

military strike, which led to a reaction, which led to a counter-reaction, which led to the whole

world at war. A lot of damage can be done in four years when the whole world is fighting. In that

short period of time the locus of political, economic, and military strength shifted from the

western hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere.

I have taken the space to write this futuristic scenario to create a frame of reference.

Imagining events happening like this really stretches the imagination. To think that America as
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 5

we know it could cease to be by the end of this decade enters the realm of the absurd. It is hard to

conceive of a world war arising within the next three years. An economic depression on the heels

of that world war, in 2019, is hard to imagine. Another economic depression occurring ten year

later, in 2029, would be unthinkable. Another world war materializing before the midpoint of the

century would be beyond belief.

The frame of reference I am trying to set up is the world at the turn of the last century. As

hard as it would be for Americans to imagine such a reversal of stature and stability in the world,

it would have been just as difficult for the German people to imagine the change of events that

were to come upon them in the first half of the twentieth century. Living in the year 2011, we do

not know what will transpire in 2014, or 2018, or 2029. Neither did the people living in 1911

have any idea what would transpire in 1914, 1919, 1929, or 1939--all significant years in

German and world history. The unthinkable and unimaginable did occur during that time. The

locus of economic, political, and military strength did shift hemispheres. Not just one, but two

world wars took place. Understanding the enormous, violent upheaval and changes that took

place, provides a modicum of explanation as to why a majority of the population in Germany

during this time could deviate from a Lutheran heritage to acquiescing to the leadership of the

Third Reich.

As mentioned, it is hard to separate a man from the times in which he lived. Bonhoeffer’s

thoughts and actions are inseparable from circumstances of the country of his birth. The trail

leads back to WWI when looking at the path that resulted in Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom. The world

was a fragile place politically at the turn of the century. America experienced the assassination of

its president two years prior to Bonhoeffer’s birth. There were many radical political and

nationalistic currents swirling throughout the world. The times have been described as a
CH302 Church History Paper 6

tinderbox for war. Most historians agree the spark that ignited it was a Serbian nationalist student

on June 28, 1914 assassinating the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. By August of 1914,

Germany and Austria were at war with France, Russia, and Britain. Before the war was over

twenty-seven nations were involved in the First World War that enveloped three continents.

At the end of the war all fingers were pointing at Germany. The Treaty of Versailles

mandated Germany pay the current equivalent of 442 billion dollars in reparations, cap their

army to 100,000 troops, lose territory, including all colonies. The German emperor, Wilhelm II,

was charged with war crimes, but never extradited. President Woodrow Wilson did not want to

press extradition fearing international destabilization. He remained in exile the rest of his life.

In the twenty-seven years between the end of WWI and the end of WWII the world

experienced unprecedented changes and challenges. The trouble and transformation that

transpired in that brief period of time is extraordinary. WWI was to be the war to end all war,

because it was so lamentable. Between 1918 and 1919 the Spanish Flu struck in three waves

killing 300 million people (penicillin was not discovered until 1928). The world economy

collapsed. Warfare evolved from fighting in trenches to dropping atomic bombs. Over sixty

countries transitioned from colonization to a third-world reality. In aggregate, the economic,

social, political, and religious affect these changes imposed upon the generations experiencing

them were unprecedented.

The German economy suffered throughout the 1920s. The Great Depression appeared to

be the death knell for Germany. From 1930 to 1932 unemployment doubled. Such conditions

were the backdrop for Hitler becoming Chancellor in 1933. The following year on August 2,

1934 Hitler seized his opportunity for total control over Germany. That day Paul von

Hindenburg, the head of state died and Hitler’s cabinet issued a proposition vote to be held less
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 7

than three weeks later. The proposition would combine the office of Chancellor and President.

Almost 90% of the vote favored the law, making Hitler the supreme leader of Germany. The

following day the “Law On The Allegiance of Civil Servants and Soldiers of the Armed Forces”

was decreed, which superseded the original oaths. The Wehrmacht Oath stated “I swear by God

this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German empire and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme

commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave

soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath.”

The ability of Hitler to mount the atrocities against the Jews was not sudden. There were

two deliberate acts that were key on the path toward the Holocaust: the Aryan Paragraph (1933)

and the Nuremberg Laws (1935). The first restricted Jews from government service and church

positions. The second essentially took away their citizenship. They were forbidden to marry or

employ Germans. It even went so far as not allowing them to display the country’s flags, colors,

or insignia.

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the German church revealed its weakness by its

reaction to the Aryan Paragraph and Nuremberg Laws. Answer the question as to why more

people didn’t resist, it has been noted, “To reproach in a modern tyranny a people as a whole for

failing to revolt is as if one would reproach a prisoner for failing to escape from a heavily

guarded prison. The majority of the people in all nations alike does not consist of heroes.”2 It was

reasoned that if Hitler was going to restore moral and economic order and keep the Fatherland

safe from the communists, as he had promised, the Paragraph might be a necessary, if

unpleasant, measure. Germans were desperate for economic recovery, social stability, and a sense

of regaining national honor. To have those things, they were willing to set aside the process of

law and let a leader do as he pleased, as was the cast with the Night of the Long Knives. There

2 G. Leibholz, Memoir, published in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: MacMillian, 1963) 33.
CH302 Church History Paper 8

was not a distinction between the whim of the leader and the law. The Wehrmacht Oath stated as

much. The nation owed him their obedience.

It was not a weak church that failed to stand firm and fight in the face of such abuse.

Rather it was a muddled religious institution that fooled itself into thinking it was the church.

This was the result of a close relationship established between church and state going all the way

back to the Reformation and the influence of Martin Luther. In fact, the German church was a

state-church. Since that time there had been engrained in the German psyche a respect for the

“ordained authorities”. Hitler was able to manipulate the relationship between church and state to

consolidate his power.

This relationship was four hundred years in the making. It was the achievement of Martin

Luther to coalesce a German identity, culture, and language via his translation of the Bible. His

translation of the German Bible corralled the disparate dialects of the old Germany. It became the

unifying mechanism, whose melding had been at work the past 400 years, much as television has

created a common vocabulary and accent here in America.

Bonhoeffer realized the separate roles of church and state. The state does not bear the

sword in vain. Its role is to promote civil order, execute justice, and protect people. The church is

to proclaim the gospel and bring the reality of God’s kingdom into the present reality. But

Christianity in Germany had long been merged into one. To be German was to be Christian. The

question What is the Church? compelled Bonhoeffer’s relationship with God and others. As well,

it triggered his decisions regarding how he was to represent the Church as a pastor. Ultimately, it

determined his responsibility he felt to this country and the world.

Allowing the world to endure the events in the 27 years between the two world wars was

a vicious pity by the providential hand of God. The depth of extent of human indecency and
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 9

wickedness could have had the result of humbling humanity. It had the opposite affect of turning

in further upon themselves. Industry and technology boomed, pulling the world up by their

economic bootstraps. Europe socialized, Russia and China brutalized, America secularized, and

the Middle East and other Muslim regions radicalized. One writer, examining this unique time in

history noted: “History bears anthropologies in its train. History is a testing of the hopes and

affirmations about man--and events have much to say about the viability and currency of

anthropologies.”3 This was the time in history that Bonhoeffer lived. The distinctiveness of it

cannot be disregarded when evaluating his life.

Bonhoeffer was very perceptive concerning the direction Hitler and his National Socialist

party was moving Germany. “He was one of the few who quickly understood, even before Hitler

came to power, that National Socialism was a brutal attempt to make history without God and to

found it on the strength of man alone. “In his first address as Youth Secretary of the World

Alliance for Promoting International Friendship Through the Churches, given in 1932, he said

that the gospel and the Law must be applied to the concrete situation, because the church is

Christ present today.”4

Therefore, in 1933, when Hitler came to power, he abandoned his academic career, which

seemed to him to have lost its proper meaning.”5 A few days after Hitler became Chancellor,

Bonhoeffer gave a radio address articulating the German misperception of leadership. It became

clear not only was Hitler duping the German people, but the German church was too. In

September of 1933 the church held a synod. Eighty percent of the delegates wore Nazi uniforms.

In reaction, Bonhoeffer and other pastors formed the Pastors’ Emergency League, to protest the

synod pastors who were collaborating with the Nazis. When it became clear the fidelity of the

3 David H. Hopper, A Dissent on Bonhoeffer, (Philapdelphia: Westminster, 1975), 148.

4 ibid.
5 G. Leibholz, Memoir, published in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: MacMillian, 1963) 14.
CH302 Church History Paper 10

German church was to the Nazis rather than scripture, the Confessing Church was born. May 28-

30 leaders of the Pastors’ Emergency League broke from the state church and outlined the

decisions in the Barmen Declaration. These were orthodox pastors who were committed to

scripture and the historical confessions of the church. They would work to help those who were

victims of the state, especially Jewish Christians. The rejected the basis of the Aryan Paragraph.

At one point it was suggested that Bonhoeffer could have greater influence if he remained in the

German church. He replied, “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor

in the opposite direction.”

Even though the Confessing Church now made a break from the German state church,

not all the pastors had chosen to break from the German government. Hitler was a master

propagandist. Many thought he could be avoided. Most did not want to appear disloyal to their

country. Others were taken in by his messianic rhetoric and pro-Christian propaganda. Still

others feared being labeled as unpatriotic. Bonhoeffer realized more and more people were

becoming victims of the regime. If Christianity meant anything, Bonhoeffer knew it meant

dealing with the defenseless. He was burdened with the concreteness of the gospel. He asked,

“What does it mean to live in the world with Christ?”6 “From the very outset Bonhoeffer had

insisted that the church does not exist in order to proclaim eternal truths or principles, but in

order to tell men what God’s message is here and now in the most concrete way.”7

He said, “Seen in the light of the divine incarnation, Christian life means participating in Christ’s

encounter with the world.”8 His favorite verse was, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken

me.” He was captivated by the defenselessness of the incarnation. He was convinced the mission

6 J. Martin Bailey and Douglas Gilbert, The Steps of Bonhoeffer: A Pictorial Album, (Philadelphia: United
Church Press, 1969), 7.
7 ibid.
8 ibid.
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 11

of the church was to the defenseless and forsaken. At an ecumenical youth conference in

Czechoslovakia in 1932 Bonhoeffer said, “The church is Christ’s presence on earth. That is the

only reason why its word has authority....As the word which springs from Christ present within

it, the word of the church must be a word that is valid and binding here and now.” The

importance of the Confessing Church and its place in the Body of Christ was so crucial in

Bonhoeffer’s mind that he said at one point, “Anyone who deliberately dissociates himself from

the Confessing Church cuts himself off from salvation.”9

Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1935 after spending almost two years in London

pastoring two churches. Driven by a desire to help those called into ministry answer what the

church is and was to be in the world he engaged in a small seminary in northern Germany.

Bonhoeffer wanted to work out with these ordinands what it meant to be a disciple. He

demonstrated servanthood, prayer, Bible study, and confession as essential acts of the Christian

life. It was here that he met Eberhard Bethge. He would become his closest friend through the

remaining ten years of his life. Bonhoeffer mentored his and they became confessors for one

another. It was out of the experiences of the seminary that two of Bonhoeffers most enduring

books were written: The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together.

Parallel to Bonhoeffer’s relationship with the Confessing Church was his relationship

with the universal church. An ecumenicism had been germinating within for several years. He

had a powerful experience when he was eighteen while visiting Rome. He attended a mass at St.

Peter’s Basilica and was marked by that moment worshipping with other Christians from

multiple continents. When he was twenty-four and studying in New York City he became friends

with a fellow student named Frank Fisher. Fisher, an African American from Alabama, had a

9 J. Martin Bailey and Douglas Gilbert, The Steps of Bonhoeffer: A Pictorial Album, (Philadelphia: United
Church Press, 1969), 8.
CH302 Church History Paper 12

work assignment connected to his studies at a black church in Harlem. Bonhoeffer would tag

along and became deeply affected by “negro spirituality” of the congregation of Abyssinian

Baptist Church. Racism in America acutely troubled Bonhoeffer. In a letter to his parents written

December 1, 1930 he wrote, “[W]e don’t really have an analogous situation in Germany, by I’ve

just found it enormously interesting....”10 That would change in a few, short years. The zeal and

fervor he experienced in the African American church community convinced him there was

something real and true beyond the German Lutheran church. These experiences, in Rome and

Harlem, were real epiphanies in the context of the deep nationalistic institution that the German

Lutheran church had become. The circles Bonhoeffer had been trained in were more or less

convinced of a manifest destiny for Germany. “They regarded the ecumenical movement as a

form of decadent liberal internationalism, and as a negation of nationhood (which they

considered as the sole absolute value).”11 Two years after his experiences in America he would

declare at an ecumenical conference that, “the church, as the congregation of the Lord Jesus

Christ, who is Lord of the world, has the task of giving its message to the whole world.”12

The combination of alignment with the Confessing Church and fidelity to the universal

Church made resistance to his own government inevitable. Bonhoeffer saw with crystal clarity

two Germanys. The National Socialists had hijacked Germany. But there was the other Germany

that was the true Germany. “Here there was the ‘other Germany’ of which there was so much talk

in the ‘thirties. These men were in truth the upholders of the European and Western tradition in

Germany, and it was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who more than anybody else realized that nothing less

than a return to the Christian faith could save [the true] Germany.”13 “Of course, everything

10 Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010), 110.
11 ibid.
12 ibid.
13 G. Leibholz, Memoir, published in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: MacMillian, 1963) 27.
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 13

spoke against a Lutheran theologian taking up the struggle against his ‘authorities’ and even

cooperating in a plot to get rid of those ‘authorities’ by force.”14 “In such a situation, in which the

lives of millions of people were threatened, the essential point was not to save the church. It was

to save mankind in distress.”15 “He had always protested against the fact that the church defends

its own existence instead of being prepared to live and die for the world.”16

“This explains why Bonhoeffer did not take the pacifist line, although his aristocratic
noble-mindedness and charming gentleness made him, at the bottom of his heart, a
pacifist. But to refrain from taking any part in the attempt to overcome the National
Socialist regime conflicted too deeply with his view that Christian principles must in
some way be translated into human life and that it is in the sphere of the material, in state
and society, that responsible live has to be manifested.”17

Bonhoeffer had given the illustration of his duty in the situation of a madman driving a car down

the street. He would not be justified to merely stand on the sidewalk and think, “Since I am a

pastor, my duty will commence when funerals will need performed for anyone this madman

kills.” He had a responsibility to save life. In fact, he realized it may be his Christian duty to kill

the madman.

At the start of 1939 the government ordered all men born in 1906 and 1907 to register

with the military. War was eminent. Bonhoeffer’s decision was layered with his responsibility to

the Confessing Church, his role in the ecumenical movement, and opposition to what the

government was doing. The solution seemed to be returning America. There he would be able to

work on behalf of the Church, but avoid being faced with taking up arms for Germany. By the

beginning of June he was in New York. He would spend less than a month there. In a letter to a

former professor in New York he would explain, “I have come to the conclusion that I have made

14 J. Martin Bailey and Douglas Gilbert, The Steps of Bonhoeffer: A Pictorial Album, (Philadelphia: United
Church Press, 1969), 9.
15 ibid.
16 J. Martin Bailey and Douglas Gilbert, The Steps of Bonhoeffer: A Pictorial Album, (Philadelphia: United
Church Press, 1969), 10.
17 G. Leibholz, Memoir, published in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: MacMillian, 1963) 31.
CH302 Church History Paper 14

a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period of our national history

with the Christian people Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of

Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this same time with my

people.” His mind was made up to fully give himself to the Resistance, no matter what that

meant. By the end of July he was back in Berlin. September 1 Germany invaded Poland. There

was no turning back for anyone.

Bonhoeffer had already been in discussions with the Resistance starting in 1938. When in

the summer of 1940 despair had seized most of those who were actively hostile to the Nazi

regime and when the proposal was made that further action should be postponed so as to avoid

giving Hitler the air of a martyr, Bonhoeffer knew the madman must be stopped and won the

argument saying: ‘If we claim to be Christians, there is no room for expediency.” The Resistance

continued their work in the face of what seemed like eminent Nazi victory.

In the fall of 1940 he began his relationship with spy wing of the Nazi government called

the Abwehr, a name meaning defense. Unbeknownst to them he was operating as a double agent

for the Resistance. In May of 1942 Bonhoeffer traveled to Sweden where he rendezvoused with a

British secret agent, George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester. The Resistance hoped the Allies

would understand there was another Germany inside Nazi Germany and could plan for

reconstruction if they made through the war. But somehow Bonhoeffer knew a price was to be

paid for the abominations being perpetrated by Germany. There Bonhoeffer told Bell, “There

must be punishment by God. We do not want to escape repentance....Christians do not want to

escape repentance, or chaos, if it is God’s will to bring it upon us. We must take this judgment as

Christians.”18

18 Bonhoeffer quotes in Ven Mehta, The New Theologian, (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 166.
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 15

Bonhoeffer was arrested on April 5, 1943 as the German police suspected intrigue and

conspiracies at work within the Abwehr. On July 20, 1944 it seemed the hopes of the Resistance

had been realized when an attempt to assassinate Hitler appeared to have succeeded. A bomb was

placed and discharged inside the room where Hitler was meeting with other military advisors.

Hitler was wounded, but survived. A full inquiry was made into the plot, attempting to uncover

the individuals involved. The day after the failed coup d’etat Bonhoeffer wrote to his dear friend

and confessor, Eberhard Bethge:

“During the last year or so I have come to know and understand more and more the
profound this-worldliness of Christianity....I do not mean the shallow and banal this-
worldliness of the enlightened, the busy, the comfortable, or the lascivious, but the
profound this-worldliness characterized by discipline and the constant knowledge of
death and resurrection. I think Luther lived a this-worldly life in this sense.”19

At this point Nazis losses were mounting. Decisions were being made in desperation. Lawfulness

was a mirage. Bonhoeffer’s name was eventually connected to other conspirators. Killing

Bonhoeffer at this point did not make a great deal of sense. Toward the end of the regime there

was not a whole lot that did make sense. From a jurisprudence stand point Bonhoeffer’s

execution was not satisfied.

In a poem titled “Stations on the Road to Freedom” Bonhoeffer wrote concerning death

that it is “the highest of feasts on the way to freedom”. The events leading up to his death were

recorded as happening in this way:

“Bonhoeffer had just led a brief devotional service at the prison in Schonberg when the
Black Guards of the SS led him away to be courtmartialed and hanged. The doctor who
witnessed the execution recorded that Bonhoeffer knelt in his cell, ‘praying fervently,’
before removing his prison garb. There was another short prayer at the foot of the
scaffold. ‘Then,’ Dr. H. Fischer-Hullstrung recalled, Bonhoeffer ‘climbed the steps to the
gallows, brave and composed....In the almost fifty years that I have worked as a doctor, I
have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.’”20

19 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison. ed. Eberhard Bethge (New York: MacMillan
Company, 1953), 201.
CH302 Church History Paper 16

On April 9, 1945 he was hanged. Less than three week later Hitler would take his own life. A

week after Hitler’s suicide Germany would surrender.

What is the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? As I submitted above, I believe the three

lenses that are helpful to view Bonhoeffer’s life and writings through are relationship,

representation, and responsibility. Paul Tillich was quoted as saying, “Everyone is always

quoting ‘Letters and Papers from Prison.’ Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom has given him authority--

martyrdom always gives psychological authority--but in fact he didn’t live long enough for us to

know what he thought.” 21 I think there is validity in that conclusion. Another said, “It is not

surprising that in the hands of this new generation of theologians Bonhoeffer’s theology has

‘moved off’ in so many different directions and yet sustained so few theological results.”22 We

may not have clarity concerning many theological points and fully thought-out opinions, but I

think we know too much about what many theologians think. We need to know more about how

theologians live. Because of Bonhoeffer’s premature death, we do know how he lived. In 1991

Bethge wrote an article for Christian History titled "My Friend Dietrich." Reflecting on his

former companion's work, he admitted that:

"the language, concepts, and thought paradigms of this man are a half century old and
older. … We find in him no answers to many of our most pressing questions. . . Even the
world changed by half a century has not diminished, but rather expanded, the question of
whether and how we are responsible citizens. Are we mature members of our society,
states, corporations, and churches? . . . Unavoidably, we corrupt or renew the Christian
claim and faith. Even in the nuclear, ecological, and feminist age, no one eludes the
demands of citizenship with which Bonhoeffer struggled.”23

Bonhoeffer sought to live in obedient response to God. He understood that it was that posture

that was the starting point. He said, “The call [to follow Christ] goes forth, and is at once
20 J. Martin Bailey and Douglas Gilbert, The Steps of Bonhoeffer: A Pictorial Album, (Philadelphia: United
Church Press, 1969), 15.
21 Paul Tillich quoted in Ven Mehta, The New Theologian, (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 139.
22 David H. Hopper, A Dissent on Bonhoeffer, (Philapdelphia: Westminster, 1975), 149.
23 Eberhard Bethge, “My Friend Dietrich,” Christian History, October 1, 1991,
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1991/issue32/3240.html, assessed 2/28/2011.
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 17

followed by the response of obedience. The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a

confession of faith in Jesus.”24 It was from that posture toward God that a person could them

relate properly to those around him. For Bonhoeffer, discipleship only ran one way through a

person--from God, to others. A person in relationship with God is matured in obedience. That

person is then willing to give themselves to others, in order to nurture and grow them into

maturity. The relationship for Bonhoeffer was akin to the process between parents and children.

It was the combination of authority, sacrifice, and obedience.

Bonhoeffer sought to arrange this understanding of relationship and discipleship into the

church. He understood it meant real relationships in the real world. His role was to represent

Christ by the gifts given him and the witness he was to give. He was to re-present Christ in the

world. He had stated that, “The Church is Christ present today.”25 In his role as a pastor in the

Church he understood that representation meant concrete terms. He wrote:

“There are not two realities but only one reality. This is the reality of God in the reality of
the world, revealed in Christ. Participating in Christ, we stand at one and the same time in
the reality of God and the reality of the world. The reality of Christ includes within itself
the reality of the world....It is a denial of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ to wish to
be ‘Christian’ without seeing and recognizing the world in Christ.”26

Our willingness to re-present Christ in the world in tangible ways and real action folds back into

relationship, because that is its source. We find ourselves as one under authority and from what

we have been given, we then give. This was how everything seemed to interpenetrate in

Bonhoeffer’s mind. This led to the sense of stewardship by which he was bound. The real

relationship Bonhoeffer had with God and in community, meant real action in the real world, and

resulted in real responsibility at the time in history that he was placed. A student of Bonhoeffers

24 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: MacMillian, 1963), 28.
25 J. Martin Bailey and Douglas Gilbert, The Steps of Bonhoeffer: A Pictorial Album, (Philadelphia: United
Church Press, 1969), 10.
26 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics, (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 193.
CH302 Church History Paper 18

remembered him saying at one of his first lectures in Berlin, “Nowadays we often ask ourselves

whether we still need the Church, whether we still need God. But this question is wrong. We are

the ones who are questioned. The Church exists and God exists, and we are asked whether we are

willing to be of service, for God needs us.”27 He proved there was a synthesis between his

thought and action in the way he took responsibility even in the face of danger. He said,

“If we want to be Christians, we must have some share in Christ’s large heartedness by
acting with responsibility and in freedom when the hour of danger comes, and by
showing a real sympathy that springs, not from fear, but from the liberating and
redeeming love of Christ for all who suffer. Mere waiting and looking is not Christian
behaviour. The Christian is called to sympathy and action, not in the first place by his
own sufferings, but by the sufferings of his brethren, for whose sake Christ suffered.”28

Bonhoeffer’s life causes self-examination regarding where our allegiance is placed. Is it in our

particular doctrinal or denominational tribe? Bonhoeffer’s view of the Church broke out of the

strong cultural bonds that would have continued to restrain lesser men. Is our allegiance limited

by race and “our people”? Again, Bonhoeffer took up the cause of the “other”, not allowing

nationality to set the perimeter of what constituted his duty to his fellow man. He understood in

particular that it was the defenseless that Jesus most closely identified with, and thus, whom he

should feel a sense of responsibility. In an interview many years after Bonhoeffer’s death, his

close friend Eberhard Bethge recalled: “For Dietrich, the main thing about Christ was that He

was defenseless,” Pastor Bethge said, “Dietrich’s favorite quotation from the Bible was ‘My

God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ On the Cross, Christ did not have even the protection

of God. This was the ultimate defenselessness.”29

27 As quoted in, Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
2010), 125.
28 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison. ed. Eberhard Bethge (New York: MacMillan
Company, 1953), 14.
29 Ven Mehta, The New Theologian, (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 198.
CH302 Chad Smith Bonhoeffer 19

The sacrifices Bonhoeffer made, the safety and privilege he forsook, can only be

attributed to a radical relationship, representation, and responsibility. The opening passage of

Letters and Papers from Prison is entitled “After Ten Years”. In it there is a section where he

says:

“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his
conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is
called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God--the
responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of
God. Where are these responsible people?”30

Bonhoeffer believed the words of Romans 8:17 where it says in suffering with Christ, we will be

glorified with Christ. 2 Timothy 2:11 says, “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with

him, we will also live with him.” Bonhoeffer lived in Christ, suffered in Christ, died in Christ,

and is glorified in Christ. Less than a year before his death he wrote in a letter the simple sum of

his confidence: “Everything depends on the word in Christ.”31

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bailey, J. Martin and Douglas Gilbert, The Steps of Bonhoeffer: A Pictorial Album. Philadelphia:

United Church Press, 1969.

30 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics, (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 28

31 J. Martin Bailey and Douglas Gilbert, The Steps of Bonhoeffer: A Pictorial Album, (Philadelphia: United
Church Press, 1969), 10.
CH302 Church History Paper 20

Bethge, Eberhard, “My Friend Dietrich,” Christian History, October 1, 1991.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Letters and Papers from Prison. ed. Eberhard Bethge. New York:

MacMillan Company, 1953.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: MacMillian, 1963.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Ethics. New York: Touchstone, 1995.

Hopper, David H., A Dissent on Bonhoeffer, Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975.

Leibholz G., Memoir, published in The Cost of Discipleship. New York: MacMillian, 1963.

Mehta, Ven, The New Theologian. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.

Metaxas, Eric, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010.