The journey inward: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s opposition to anti-semitism

By Dr. John Campbell

Anyone who gave their life in opposition to the regime of Adolf Hitler attracts my attention. Theologian, pastor, Christian activist Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of these people.

Bonhoeffer scholar Mark Thiesen Nation suggests the narrative that most people are familiar with is the one highlighted by bestselling author Eric Metaxas in his book about Bonhoeffer: “As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer-a pastor and author known as much for his spiritual classics ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ and ‘Life Together’ as for his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler.”

That is the popular narrative. Less known is his opposition to the brutal treatment of Jews in Germany and how that contributed to Bonhoeffer’s death.

By way of review, Hitler’s rise to power took place in the backdrop of German deterioration after the First World War. Germany had been defeated. Afterwards, the Versailles Treaty had strapped the German economy and the German people resented the reparations imposed on them.

On Jan. 30, 1933, Hitler was legally appointed as Reich chancellor by the aging President Hindenburg. Hitler addressed the nation instilling hope where none had existed before. In his address to the nation Hitler declared: “The national government sees as its first and foremost task the restoration of the unity of spirit and will of our people. It will preserve and protect the fundamentals on which the strength of our nation rests. It will preserve and protect Christianity, which is the basis of our system of morality, and the family, which is the germination cell of the body of the people and the state.”

He concluded: “We are determined, as leaders of the nation, to fulfill as a national government the task which has been given to us, swearing fidelity only to God, our conscience, and our people.”

Understandably, this young, energetic leader, who came from the working class and was a veteran of World War One, could rouse Germans from their despair. Little did they know that his tyrannical grip on Germany would lead to destruction once again.

According to Nation in his book, “Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis,” after the burning of the Reichstag, Hitler issued the “Protection of People and the State” which in essence became the fundamental law during his regime. There was restriction of the press, the right to assemble, voter suppression and provisions for property search and seizure.

For all intents and purposes Hitler was freed from any obligation to uphold parliamentary and constitutional regulations. In essence, the chancellor claimed unlimited power. Germany was no longer a democracy.

By April of 1933 there was a state sponsored boycott of Jewish shops throughout the country. Hitler wanted to revive the glory of the Aryan race.

Seeing Hitler’s militaristic style and blatant antisemitism, Bonhoeffer did not want to be part of a military build-up. He believed that war was immoral and he was becoming aware of the repressive tactics of the Hitler regime.

Authorities turned down his offer to become a military chaplain. Since he came from an upper middle-class family with many connections in government, his brother-in-law was able to get him a position in the Reich Ministry of Justice. This afforded him an insider’s view of the working of government.

Not long after Hitler assumed power, Bonhoeffer asked the question in a radio address: “To what extent is leading and being led healthy and genuine, and when does it become pathological and excessive.”

As early as 1933, he felt that the Protestant Church was mistaken when they aligned themselves with Nazi political agenda. He eventually took part in a dissenting church and even prepared seminarians for pastorates in the Confessing Church, so called.

Bonhoeffer had grown up among ethnically Jewish children. His sister Sabine had married a Jew; Dietrich’s brother-in law was warmly accepted in the family circle. Dietrich had a deep-felt empathy for the plight of German Jews.

His early essay on “The Church and the Jewish Question” shows how he was trying to gain some clarity of thought about what response Christians should take regarding their Jewish brothers and sisters. He begins the essay with a typical Martin Luther understanding that the state is independent from the church. When the state forms policies discriminating against Jews, this does not mean individual Christians should remain silent about state immorality.

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Cheap Grace and Fellowship

Koinonia – Is faith a minimum or maximum?

Pastor Mark Maunula

Often in life, we are tempted to ask, “What is the minimum?” “I don’t like housecleaning, and so, what is the minimum amount of work I need to do?” This choice doesn’t seem to involve a lot of consequences.

But, with the ice fishing season approaching, people can try to discover what the minimum amount of ice is needed to walk out or drive on the lake. There the outcomes are more serious.

Considering faith, what’s the minimum there? What do I need to know and believe? What is the minimum amount of work I should do? Whenever we seek to measure things in the Bible, we are delving into the area of God’s law. Yet, his law is quite strict and certain.

Once a rich young ruler asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was trying to find the minimum to reassure himself. Jesus pointed to the ten commandments as a summary of God’s Law. But the man thought he had done it all. Then, Jesus showed him the cost of salvation saying, “‘Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.”

The point is that there is no minimum. There is always one thing more in life that we need to do to save ourselves according to the Law. Thus, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The demands of the Law are certainly well beyond our capabilities. And thus, according to the Law we deserve only judgment.

Yet, some would turn the gospel into a new law by making it the new minimum. They say, “All you have to do is believe.” But this makes the gospel into “cheap grace.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined this term about 85 years ago. He wrote, “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. … Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

The gospel is not a new law giving us a new minimum. Rather, the gospel is about the costly grace given to us in Jesus who fulfilled the Law perfectly.

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Not Gathering with the Church Hurts You Spiritually

Dietrich Bonhoeffer would have reacted in similar fashion. “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer” (Life Together)

By Jonathan Leeman (9Marks)

03.05.2021

Some will think this is insensitive, some will think it’s overdue, but I want to make sure it’s said: not physically gathering with the church hurts you spiritually. So, pandemic-weary Christian, work to gather again with your church, even if your church continues to offer a virtual option. Likewise, pandemic-weary pastor, gently encourage your pandemic-weary congregation to gather as soon as they can.

A WORD FOR MEMBERS

To Christians, let me admit, I don’t know your situation. I don’t know the laws you’re under or what health risks remain for you personally. Therefore, with a general-audience article like this one, I want to leave space for differing circumstances and consciences. Providential hindrances are real. If the flu keeps you home from work, you stay home and shouldn’t feel guilty. At the same time, you know that staying home from work, over time, hurts your job. So you get back to work as soon as you can.

Likewise, as you think through your own church-attendance situation, hopefully in conversation with your pastors, maybe you remain providentially hindered from attending. The Lord shows mercy and grace. He makes provision for the stranded, the soldier, the shut-in, and the high-risk senior saint.

But as you weigh out all the variables, I want to leave a pebble in your shoe. If you can’t attend, I want you to be a little frustrated that you can’t attend, lest you get comfortable. If you’re not frustrated, something’s wrong. The Lord has commanded us not to forsake the assembly (Heb. 10:25). And absence from the gathering does affect our spiritual state, even if we have a legitimate reason for not attending, like being sick or quarantined. Jesus designed Christianity and the progress of our discipleship to center around gatherings. The math is therefore simple: Gathering with the church is spiritually good for you. Not physically gathering with the church spiritually hurts you.

A WORD FOR PASTORS

To pastors, let me say, I’m raising the topic now—in the winter of 2021—because I’m hearing from some of you that a few of your members have grown complacent. You’re telling me that members aren’t attending when they probably could. They’re a little too comfortable with the virtual option.

Indeed, this is why some churches never offered the live-stream service in the first place. They didn’t want to risk encouraging an appetite for a much-less-healthy substitute.

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From Sin to Saint: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Episode 2

From Sin to Saint

This is From Sin to Saint, a podcast from Patheos. In each season, we will look at the true stories of redemption of saintly figures from all faiths. Our goal is to to understand the passions that drove them and the challenges they overcame on the journey.

Watch it on YouTube

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Life Within the Womb

We can learn from Bonhoeffer on abortion

By Justin Bower, May 09, 2022

On the first Monday of May, the ever-popular Met Gala was eclipsed by some of the most shocking and relevant news: the Supreme Court is in talks to overturn Roe v. Wade.

In the short time since then, pastors, doctors, politicians, activists, and practically everyone else has thrown their opinion on the matter into the whirlpool of chaos that is social media. If the nation has not been polarized enough, a monumental decision like overturning an almost 50-year-old decision legalizing abortion will cause more strain. Amidst the drama and information, the words of past generations prove helpful and sobering, a present help in remembering the foundations of the pro-life movement.

One of the most confounding theologians of recent history is the German pastor-spy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His faith confronting the rise of Adolf Hitler is spectacular, especially given that he was previously a devout pacifist. In his short, 39 year life, he accomplished many admirable things for the Kingdom of God. He was the first person to give the rest of the world information on the eventual rise of Hitler in Germany, though for other political reasons, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt would not assist Germany against this power. In addition to these heroic deeds, he wrote many essays and two powerful theological books: The Cost of Discipleship (1937) and Life Together (1939). He also wrote Ethics, which would go unfinished due to his martyrdom but be edited and published later.

Amidst the overwhelming, overstimulating amount of debate, points, and counterpoints of the now-revived pro-life/pro-choice discussion, a simple truth from Bonhoeffer’s unfinished Ethics is vital to remember:

“Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And this is nothing but murder.

A great many different motives may lead to an action of this kind; indeed in cases where it is an act of despair, performed in circumstances of extreme human or economic destitution and misery, the guilt may often lie rather with the community than with the individual. Precisely in this connection money may conceal many a wanton deed, while the poor man’s more reluctant lapse may far more easily be disclosed. All these considerations must no doubt have a quite decisive influence on our personal and pastoral attitude towards the person concerned, but they cannot in any way alter the fact of murder.”

Bonhoeffer’s words do not encompass the nuance of abortion, but his key points remain foundational and fundamental: the embryo is life inside the womb, and therefore abortion at early stages and thereafter is murder of human life.

Even highly respectable scientists and medical professionals agree that life begins at fertilization with the embryo’s conception.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the Church

“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others . . . not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”

Do We Long to be With Other Christians?

“The believer feels no shame, as though he were still living too much in the flesh, when he yearns fro the physical presence of other Christians.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 19.

The Opening Words of “Life Together”

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps. 133.1). In the following we shall consider a number of directions and precepts that the Scriptures provide for our life together under the Word (17).

During this era of COVID, we need to read or reread this classic work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Life Together

Christ came to make us truly human: Social ethics and the image of Christ

DAVID GUSHEE, SENIOR COLUMNIST  |  DECEMBER 17, 2021iDirect capture

This is the last in a three-part Advent series.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer always brings me up short when he emphasizes the indicative rather than imperative voice in Paul’s thought and in Christian ethics more broadly. For example, in terms of Bonhoeffer’s work on image Christology, he emphasizes that the work of Christ in restoring the image of God in humanity is an accomplished fact, a reality that has its effect whether particular people respond or do not.

We are to understand that the human condition has been remade due to the saving work of Christ. This remaking of humanity does not depend on human response. Thus, how we view any particular person must not depend on whether this person has believed in or made progress in appropriating what God has done in Christ. It is not as if some human beings are now elevated in status over others because they believe in Christ while others do not:

In Christ’s incarnation all of humanity regains the dignity of bearing the image of God. Whoever from now on attacks the least of the people attacks Christ, who took on human form and who in himself has restored the image of God for all who bear a human countenance.

This approach to Christ’s restoration of the image of God in humanity does important theological and ethical work. It shifts the foundation for claims about the worth or dignity of humanity from what might be a shaky, damaged imago dei to a sturdier, restored imago Christi. Human life is dignified not just because of what it once was, or was long ago intended to be, but because of what God has done in Christ to reclaim it.

The church or Christians are not different in moral status before God, as if only those who are in the church or are actually making moral progress in conforming to the image of Christ are viewed as worthy human beings. The church is instead that community that goes ahead of the rest of humanity in seeing realities that others do not yet see and behaving accordingly.

“The church must be determined to treat all human beings with a dignity proper to what God has done on humanity’s behalf in Jesus Christ.”

One of these realities is that human dignity and worth have been restored in the saving work of Christ. So the church must be determined to treat all human beings with a dignity proper to what God has done on humanity’s behalf in Jesus Christ.

Again, we listen to Bonhoeffer:

Inasmuch as we participate in Christ, the incarnate one, we also have a part in all of humanity, which is borne by him. … Our new humanity now also consists in bearing the troubles and the sins of all others. The incarnate one transforms his disciples into brothers and sisters of all human beings. The “philanthropy” (Titus 3:4) of God that became evident in the incarnation of Christ is the reason for Christians to love every human being on earth as a brother or sister.

It is on this basis, for Bonhoeffer, that followers of Christ seek to extend love and protection to the lives of other human beings, who are our “brothers and sisters” whether “in the church-community or beyond.”

Bonhoeffer did not prefer the language of a general “reverence for life,” indeed, he explicitly rejected it. Motivation for viewing all people with dignity or sacredness and acting for the preservation, protection and flourishing of their lives for him was grounded in specific biblical and theological claims about the sovereignty of God over all of life, the commands of Christ to his disciples related to violence, and the status of all human beings as our brothers and sisters — this latter claim gaining strength through the image Christology we have been discussing.

“We should respond with awesome wonder and treat everyone with tender dignity.”

This had concrete implications in Bonhoeffer’s own moral practice — he spoke up for (non-Christian) Jews in Nazi Germany at a time when very few church leaders extended their moral concern beyond the boundaries of the church’s own (baptized) Jews.

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The Road to Coping and Recovery

Bryan Galloway

The Road to Coping and Recovery