Dietrich Bonhoeffer is, in many ways, a mysterious figure. Because he died so young at the hands of Hitler’s Nazis during World War 2; he didn’t have an opportunity to develop his academic career. Much of what we have today is the product of letters, small essays, sermons, etc. In fact, what might be considered his magnum opus, Ethics, was largely assembled and edited after his death by his very good friend, Eberhard Bethge.

Because of this mystery, it is difficult to peg Bonhoeffer theologically. Theologians of many different stripes have claimed Bonhoeffer as one of their own (or raised him up as an enemy of orthodoxy – depending on their position). He studied under von Harnack (the famous German liberal) at the University of Berlin and spent some time at Union Seminary in the States (also theologically liberal). And yet, he seems to have resisted the pull of liberal theology and, instead, came to identify himself most with the neo-orthodox (read anti-liberal) theologian Karl Barth.

For Bonhoeffer, Christ was the center-point of theology (also Barthian), and he couldn’t bring himself to think about Christ the way the liberals had.

Metaxas paints Bonhoeffer as more conservative than liberal. Of course the question is if this is just another example of a historian filling in the gaps as he sees fit. There have been several negative reviews of this book in which this is asserted. I don’t know enough about Bonhoeffer to really say one way or another; but one thing is sure: Metaxas paints Bonhoeffer in a favorable light, theologically. Whether this is warranted is a question for someone smarter than I.

I really enjoyed this book because it wasn’t about theology, but the life of a man who wrestled with what part the Church should play in a corrupt and evil regime. Bonhoeffer’s story cannot be separated from the cultural context of post-Versailles Europe in the late 30s and early 40s. Bonhoeffer wrestled with the question of when should the Church stand up and stand against a government that was on the verge of evil. He wrestled with the question of when he should become personally involved in the plots to rid the earth of the man who became, in his mind, the very embodiment of evil.

This is a very good book; full of Bonhoeffer’s writings as he wrestles with these issues, and taking us all the way to his death in Flossenburg concentration camp some three weeks before the end of Hitler at the age of 39.

If you don’t know anything about Bonhoeffer, you can start with the Wikipedia entry.

Share

facebook   twitter   email   linkedin   digg   delicious