Only later did I learn that Bonhoeffer was a founding member of the Confessing Church in Germany - a group that split from the Lutheran church, taking a clear stance against Hitler's policies of anti-semitism and calling for the church to resist Nazi policies. In fact, I learned in the film "Bonhoeffer" that he went frightningly far along that path, to the point of becoming involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler - which failed. He was discovered, arrested and imprisoned, and finally hanged on April 9, 1945. The Wikipedia entry here is a good place to get an overview of Bonhoeffer's life, work, and influence.
If you have ever considered what it must have been like in that time - or going farther, to imagine being a German citizen, or a member of the German Church ...well, I have not known what to think about it. What could anyone do? I recently watched the movie Divided We Fall ( "In Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, a childless couple agree to hide a Jewish friend at great personal risk of discovery and execution.") These stories always challenge us, I think, to admit how difficult it is to make a significant sacrifice for others, and at the same time, to acknowledge that such sacrifice is the essence of our humanity.
A great quote from the Bonhoeffer movie home page makes the connection for me, at least:
"We have been the silent witnesses of evil deeds...Will our inward power of resistance be enough for us to find our way back?"
Finally - a shortcut (as I am on break, but still at work!) - the entry for "The Cost of Discipleship" from the Wikipedia article that I am leaning so heavily on here:
Bonhoeffer's most widely read book begins, "Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace." That was a sharp warning to his own church, which was engaged in bitter conflict with the official nazified state church, The book was first published in 1937 as Nachfolge (Discipleship). It soon became a classic exposition of what it means to follow Christ in a modern world beset by a dangerous and criminal government. At its center stands an interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount: what Jesus demanded of his followers—and how the life of discipleship is to be continued in all ages of the post- resurrection church.
All I can say is, wow-he really lived his faith. And we are called to do the same...each in the way that we are called. Clearly, there is much need for discernment, but I am challenged by this anniversary of Bonhoeffer's death, coming as it does in the Christian Holy Week, to consider what its message is for my life.
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1 comment:
Dietriech Boenhoeffer was the teologian I always admired. It was very long time ago when I read his books (still have one translated to Polish). But do not remember its title.
He was very well known in Poland, was one of these persons who were regarded as German heroes when Polish Christians stretched their hand to Germans in famous gesture called: "We forgive and beg forgiveness" in 1964.
Even though I'm today far from Christianity - I admire such people like Dietrich Boenhoeffer, Edith Stein and many other brave Germans, for whom the war was, in a moral sense, even a bigger tragedy than for us...
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