Scott Donaho’s Review of “Bonhoeffer Speaks Today: Following Jesus at all Costs”

Book Review – Bonhoeffer Speaks Today

Scott Donaho has written a helpful review of Mark DeVine’s book: Bonhoeffer Speaks Today: Following Jesus at all Costs.

Bonhoeffer Speaks Today: Following Jesus at all Costs is a concise theological biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer written by one of my favorite professors from seminary, Dr. Mark DeVine. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was hung by the Third Reich for his part in a plot to assassinate Hitler. DeVine blogs at Theologyprof.com, which contains a page on the Bonhoeffer book with a couple links to some other things he has written on the subject.

The book is divided into four relatively lengthy chapters that detail the prominent areas of Bonhoeffer’s theology and include along the way an argument and exhortation for why and how Bonhoeffer can benefit the church today, including (and maybe especially) non-Lutheran evangelicals. The subjects covered are: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, The Community of Believers, Witness, and Suffering.

An interesting discovery I made as I read is that this book is actually a round-a-bout way of unpacking much of Luther’s thought, as Bonhoeffer was influenced by Luther’s thought and theology at just about every turn.

I should re-emphasize at this point what I mean by calling this book a theological biography. I mean that this book is not merely a biography of Bonhoeffer, this book is a helpful work in the field of historical theology. DeVine does not simply give a tour of Bonhoeffer’s life and thought, although we do find that here, what DeVine is really doing is unpacking and explaining and clarifying, through Bonhoeffer’s eyes, several immensely important theological themes, namely: community, obedience, witness, and suffering. Regardless of what one knows or cares about Bonhoeffer, DeVine offers much helpful thinking on these ever-important themes.

Knowing and Doing the Will of God. This is a topic for which DeVine has been most helpful to me. What Bonhoeffer did in this regard was actually quite revolutionary within his own context of “heavy-headed German Lutheranism”, he shunned “any identification of his own intuition or interpretation of his experience with the will of God” (p.39). Instead, he returned to the Bible alone for seeking the revelation of the will of God.

“He believed that, following rigorous study, the minister of the Word should adopt a prayerful, trusting posture before the text, opening himself to the Spirit and the Word. By contrast the higher critic stands above the Bible, passing judgment upon its contents. The disciple stands under the Bible and finds himself addressed by God in Christ through it” (p.43).

As Bonoeffer grew in his love and dependence upon the Scriptures alone for the revelation of the will of God, he lost patience for those who claim to have some kind of special connection to God by which they discover with certainty his will for particular situations. DeVine writes, “There was a freedom before God to do one’s best, in humility, without making extraordinary claims of certainty or special knowledge” (p.51). It was out of this ethic that Bonhoeffer played his part in an assassination plot without wounding his Christian conscience. Things were moving much too fast for timely reflection, the opportunity to take out Hitler was upon them, and so they took it – and Bonhoeffer simply entrusted his soul to God to be the judge of whether he was really right or wrong in doing so. He only knew that his intentions were to serve the church and the advancement of the gospel, and he would certainly have rejoiced had the assassination been carried out by another.

The Scripture verse which Bonhoeffer quoted in this regard perhaps more than any other was 2 Chronicles 20:12, which says, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Much much more can be said of Bonhoeffer’s conception of the will of God, and DeVine does an excellent job of explaining it and making it useful for the reader. Perhaps just one more quote from DeVine before I move on. Here DeVine is arguing that Bonhoeffer’s view of obedience without complete certainty of what is really right is the only way to truly lean upon the providence of God.

“The doctrine of providence gathers up and celebrates the rich biblical insistence that things are not now and never have been spinning out of control. He’s got the whole world in his hands, and he wants us to know this. He also wants us to know that the guarantee that his good purposes will be fulfilled is his own sovereign, powerful, unchanging will to see it done, not our ability to somehow read his cards and play the right hand” (61).

The Community of Believers. “Where individual autonomy and self-fulfillment dominate the Christian self-consciousness and aspiration, access to God is short-circuited. Every believer is set within the body of Christ, the church. No path to Christ exists apart from these actual interdependent relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ within which we now find ourselves set” (p.74).

That quote is one of my favorite in the book for a couple reasons. First, DeVine manages to squeeze three hyphenated word-combos into one sentence and the editors let is pass. Second, this truth has come into play in my own life in recent years more than ever before. I am realizing that other believers are not merely pretty little additions to my Christian life. They are, by the Holy Spirit, means to my being strengthened in godliness. As DeVine puts it later in the chapter, “There can be no knowing of Christ in the fullest sense apart from this fellowship” (p.83).

Bonhoeffer has some very practical desires for Christians in community that I found helpful. He always required those under his tutelage to spend time in daily reflection upon the same passage of Scripture. He promoted a “community under the Word of God.” He also promoted mutual confession of sin, and he constantly reminded others that Christian community is:

Not an ideal reality, but a divine reality. Not a human reality, but a spiritual reality.

This is to say simply that we have not invented the church, but God did. And we will have trouble living in community together, therefore we need the Holy Spirit’s help.

Witness and Relevance. I will speed up my review at this point. A helpful quote, “Christ is the Lord of this world whether the world acknowledges this lordship or not. The believer, however, does recognize this lordship and so may and must plunge into the center of the world, taking upon himself the struggles and sufferings of the world in the name of Jesus Christ rather than accepting the world’s ignoring of God or relegation of Christ to the margins of life” (p.117).

Bonhoeffer promoted a theology that resulted in the ordinary Christian’s ever-increasing desire to “plunge”, as DeVine said, into the center of real life, and to engage with unbelievers in the midst of their own difficulty and need for the purpose of offering tangible help and giving bold witness to the truth of the gospel. The gospel is relevant in and of itself. Our task is help others and proclaim the message in a clear and understandable way.

Freedom, Suffering, and Hope. Bonhoeffer was no stranger to prison. Being considered a traitor, he was kept in solitary confinement where even the guards were forbidden to interact with him. This nearly drove him into depression, but he maintained hope, even writing letters and little treatises that have continued to be useful to the church today. He was hung on April 9, 1945, just 2 weeks before American forces arrived and liberated the prison in which he was being held.

As for the question, was Bonhoeffer a martyr? DeVine gives his perspective,

“Bonhoeffer preached boldly to others of the self denial Jesus called for. And when the moment came for decision, Bonhoeffer walked the walk. The authenticity of the man’s early convictions is proved in later decisions. He deserves the status of martyr because he knowingly risked his life for the sake of obedience to his Lord, and that obedience stands as witness to the lordship and glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (p.147).

The reader should be ready for DeVine’s apt usage of adjectives, adverbs, apposition, subordinate clauses, and other descriptive modifiers. The book is not conceptually difficult, but it probably uses a few adverbs you’ve never heard before. For me this is refreshing and a bit nostalgic since I myself am a self-proclaimed (emphasis on self-proclaimed) student of linguistics and since the descriptiveness of DeVine’s writing reminds me of his famed classroom verbosity which I looked forward to every day in his Theology and Christology classes. I enjoy Sam Storms for the same reason, although I never sat under his teaching.

Reading the book has certainly re-ignited my desire to read some Bonhoeffer, which is part of DeVine’s goal in writing. DeVine has also stimulated my interest in contemplating obedience and community and witness amidst opposition, which I’m sure is also part of DeVine’s goal. I give it a whole-hearted recommendation and welcome discussion and thoughts from anyone else who wants to tackle it.

Bonhoeffer Speaks Today: Following Jesus at All Costs
by Mark Devine