Bonhoeffer and Lessons for Today

By Dr. Samuel J. Mikolaski Monday, January 31, 2011 - CanadaFreePress

Why the silence from icons of the religious and political left? Eric Metaxas gives us nearly 600 pages (Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy) that debunk liberal myths since World War II that Bonhoeffer was one of them, demonstrated by his much misquoted statement, in a letter from prison in 1944, that “religionless Christianity” is the hall-mark of true Christian faith.

I well remember heated debate: Liberals hailed the comment as advocacy of post-dogma religion; some evangelicals thought it registered departure from the Christian heritage. In fact, Bonhoeffer was bemoaning the purely cultural religion that had failed Europe in contrast to deep personal faith in Christ and commitment to him.

This theme was pervasive in his preaching, teaching, and conversations with his family, colleagues, church leaders, and politicians. Early in his career as a 22-year old theologian he had declared that he could live without Jesus as a religious genius or ethicist, or without Plato and Kant; however if, in fact, God has spoken in Christ and became present in Christ, then Christ has not only relative but absolute, urgent significance for me (83). This Christo-centricity paralleled that of the Neo-orthodox theologian Karl Barth whom Bonhoffer regarded as his dearest theological mentor.

Bonhoeffer practiced daily devotions and was more biblically minded than the liberal theologians who claimed him as their own, and more biblically minded than many evangelicals today. His last book The Prayerbook of the Bible (1940) was a dramatic theological and political declaration. He rejected as theologically inadequate liberal dismissal of the Old Testament as tribal myths and Nazi rejection of the Old Testament because of its Jewish provenance. The Psalter teaches us to pray God’s prayers not our own, he said. The Book of the Psalms was the worship manual of early Christianity. One may note that before modern hymnody they were for many Christians their manual of worship, such as the Scottish Presbyterian metrical versions of the Psalms, some of which appear in Christian hymnaries to this day.

The Moravian Losungen, scripture Watchwords for the Day, were his devotional manual. These, with a published circulation of over 1,000,000 copies annually in our own time, were first assembled under Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf on his estates at the Herrnhut retreat center in Saxony and are still prepared there. They represent the pre-Reformation influence of John Hus in Bohemia which extended also to England through Wycliffe. These are solidly part of the pre- and post-Reformation pietist tradition, which today is mostly part of evangelical Christianity.

As a student in Adolf von Harnack’s seminars, Bonhoeffer had politely but insistently argued with him, the greatest literary critic of the times. For Bonhoeffer, the faith of the church embraced the Scriptures as a sacred canon, not merely as historical sources. They were the vehicle through which God speaks to us.

He was uncomfortable as a graduate student at Union Seminary (1930-31) and could not bear the liberal sermons of Harry Emerson Fosdick at the nearlyRiverside Church. Both institutions were then, and continue to be, bastions of Liberal theology and churchmanship. Instead of attending Riverside, Bonhoeffer sought out the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and was overwhelmed by the positive emphasis on the Gospel, worship and the spirituals. He took back recordings of “Negro Spirituals” to play often for his students in Germany.

Conservatives have welcomed this book but American liberals have been strangely silent on the core biblical-faith elements, the anti-secularist, the anti-humanist, the anti-Liberalism aspects of Bonhoeffer’s life. In his review of the book in the Christian Century (October 5, 2010) Clifford Green accuses Metaxas of making polarization his central motif—Bonhoeffer against the liberals. But Bonhoeffer’s ardent espousal of public, costly discipleship puts him in the ring with Barth on the centrality of the Gospel against liberal theology and ethics.

Why are America’s leftist elites so quiet about this separation of the real man from liberal myths about him? It should be borne in mind that during the 1930s not a few in Europe, England, and America admired the rise of Hitler and his and Mussolini’s early Fascism—President Roosevelt had to recall Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., America’s Ambassador to Britain, because of Kennedy’s comments favoring Fascism.

There are significant lessons to be learned from Bonhoeffer’s intellectual formation and his confrontation with Hitler’s despotism. Lessons, that is, especially for the educated classes in Canada and America.

First, Bonhoeffer came from an upper-crust German intellectual and professional family. His father was Germany’s most prominent psychiatrist at that time, was culturally high-German but was not a Christian believer. Bonhoeffer’s ancestors were from the proud, well-educated German families of Prussian Germany (now part of Poland). He was raised in Berlin where his father worked, and was educated in the best schools.

Germany’s upper classes and the Lutheran and Catholic churches were unwilling at the time to note the warning signs as to who and what Hitler really was. Only after Hitler started attacking and killing Jews, and harassing and arresting his opponents, did some of them wake up. Even then some of them thought that this was the price that had to be paid for Germany to recover its former prime position in Europe and the world after Germany’s defeat in World War I.

Why did that happen? Secular intellectuals find it almost impossible to face up to the reality of, and potential for, evil in their own hearts regarding matters of personal behavior and of public policy as well as in the hearts of others.

Today, how can a physician kill live-aborted babies by severing their spinal columns with a pair of scissors? Consider carefully some of the statements in the past and at present of czars with whom President Obama surrounded himself.

Second, assumptions about the stability of a heritage and deep-seated loyalties to that heritage inhibit understanding that a heritage of freedom can quickly be subverted, and that one’s criticisms of subversion can quickly be criminalized.

The upper military class and the upper middle and professional classes of Germany were hesitant to oppose Hitler because of their deep-seated loyalties to German culture and nationhood, and what it meant to be a true German. Their uncertainty on what to do, their hesitance, their bumbling, were fatal to any attempt to bring down Hitler. In the end it cost most of them their lives as the tyrant reacted mercilessly. Hitler survived until his own suicide in his bunker as the Allies surrounded Berlin.

Freedom in an educated society can be sabotaged when a heritage of fundamental values, natural law and a constitution are dismissed by a new elite accompanied by the blandishment that “change” is needed, and how persistent and decisive opposition to tyranny must be to conserve hard-won liberties.

Comment by George Graham on January 31, 2011 at 5:04pm: Years ago when I was in seminary, I started reading Bonhoeffer -- I mean, REALLY reading -- for the first time. I was never able to square what my profs said and what was plainly on the page, so like a good Lutheran I went by what was on the page as opposed to some obscure interpretation of it.

There are many words I could use to describe Bonhoeffer. 'Liberal' is certainly not one of them.

Comment by James Robertson on February 4, 2011 at 5:45am: American Minute for February 4th:

Jimmy Carter, in his book Sources of Strength, 1997, wrote: "Rev. Niebuhr urged Dietrich Bonhoeffer to remain in America for his own safety. Bonhoeffer refused. He felt he had to be among the other Christians persecuted in Germany. So he returned home, and...in resistance to Hitler...preached publicly against Nazism, racism, and anti-Semitism...Bonhoeffer was finally arrested and imprisoned. Born FEBRUARY 4, 1906, he died April 9, 1945, just a few days before the allied armies liberated Germany. He was executed on orders of Heinrich Himmler. He died a disciple and a martyr." Jimmy Carter concluded: "The same Holy Spirit...that gave Bonhoeffer the strength to stand up against Nazi tyranny is available to us today." On February 16, 2002, Dr. James Dobson told the National Religious Broadcasters: "Those of you who feel that the church has no responsibility in the cultural area...What if it were 1943 and you were in Nazi Germany and you knew what Hitler was doing to the Jews...Would you say, 'We're not political-that's somebody else's problem'?" Dobson concluded: "I thank God Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not give that answer, and he was arrested by the Nazis and hanged in 1945, naked and alone because he said, 'This is not right.'"

Comment by James Robertson on February 8, 2011 at 8:17am: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/februaryweb-only/redeeming...

Comment by James Robertson on March 1, 2011 at 12:52pm: http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/breakpoint-columns/entry... Lessons from Bonhoeffer Part1

Comment by James Robertson on March 1, 2011 at 12:53pm: http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/breakpoint-columns/entry... Lessons from Bonhoeffer Part2

Comment by James Robertson on March 12, 2011 at 11:40am: http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/breakpoint-columns/entry... Lessons from Bonhoeffer Part3

Comment by James Robertson on May 6, 2011 at 7:06am: One's task is not to turn the world upside down, but to do what is necessary at the given place and with a due consideration of reality. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Comment by James Robertson on May 9, 2011 at 6:43am: “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 of 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 its life. And that is nothing but murder.” – Dietrich Bonheoffer.

Over the course of the last two weeks I have had conversations with two men who claim to be conservative but who also steadfastly defend a woman’s right to choose abortion. In both cases, the self-proclaimed conservative asserted that the government has no right to tell a woman what to do with “her” body. One went so far as to say that a government that could outlaw abortion could also re-institute slavery.

Support for a so-called constitutional right to abortion is completely at odds with conservatism. In fact, when you hear a “conservative” claiming to support abortion rights you can be certain that the individual simply does not understand basic conservative principles. In all likelihood the pro-abortion-choice “conservative” adopts the label because of self-interest. Perhaps he makes good money and does not want to pay high taxes. What makes a person human does not necessarily make him conservative.

When you suspect you are talking to a pseudo-conservative there are usually two questions you can ask that will either confirm or disconfirm your suspicions immediately.

First and foremost, it is important to ask the self-proclaimed conservative the following: “Do you believe in the inherent ‘goodness’ or ‘perfectibility’ of mankind.” If you hear a “yes” you are talking to a liberal. If you hear “Did you mean to say ‘person-kind’?” you are talking to a feminist. (So end the conversation as quickly as possible!).

If you hear the right answer to question one, you can move on to question two: “Does man get his rights from other men?” If you hear a “yes” you are talking to a liberal. If you hear “Did you mean to say ‘persons’” you are still talking to a feminist. (I thought I told you to end the conversation as quickly as possible!).

Roe v. Wade was (and is) a deeply flawed ruling because it is predicated upon the notion that man can grant rights to man not granted to him by God. The distinction between the first, second, and third trimesters was not based upon any long-standing legal doctrine. Nor was it based upon solid and reliable medical evidence. It was simply based upon identity politics.

Harry Blackmun, author of the majority opinion in Roe, once said “I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” That was from his opinion in a death penalty case. But Blackmun also said that our “Constitution compels abortion on demand.” That basic human rights should be assigned in such an arbitrary manner does lend credence to Blackmun’s characterizations – made in a different context - of the Justices as “eccentrics” and “prima donnas.”

The authors of our Declaration of Independence - as well as the Framers of our Constitution – had a very different view of the origin and assignment of basic human rights. Lest we forget: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights - that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness - To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …”

Medical technology has come a long way since 1973. It has told us what we knew in our hearts all along; namely, that abortion, regardless of the trimester in which it is performed, constitutes a deprivation of life initiated by our Creator.

Ultrasound technology allows us a better view of the target of the procedure known as abortion. It takes little intelligence to understand that something that is moving (and growing) is indeed alive. Technology also shows us that a new heart is beating within a month of conception. Surgical abortions are not even performed until 6 to 7 weeks into the pregnancy.

This issue is important as the conservative movement seeks in future elections to make inroads among blacks, Hispanics, and younger voters. It is important because all three of these groups have something in common: They are clearly pro-life on the issue of abortion.

Younger voters are moving in the direction of life simply because they are the first generation to grow up with basic access to and familiarity with ultrasound technology. With the help of this younger generation, which now responds to opinion polls, the country passed the 50% mark in opposition to abortion just two years ago.

So it would be politically disastrous for the conservative movement to compromise on abortion. We are in the enviable position of being out in front on an issue that is consistent with both our political goals and our deeply held principles. Leave it to the opposition to argue that men have endowed us with an unalienable right to stop a beating heart.

Mike Adams - 9 May 11 - Townhall

Comment by James Robertson on May 15, 2011 at 2:58pm: Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer and Living Like a True Christian
By Lillian Kwon | Christian Post Reporter

WASHINGTON – Eric Metaxas has had a year now to grasp the success and incredible impact that his biography, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, has had on millions.

But even after a year, the bestselling author is still finding it hard to soak it all in. One thing he's clear minded about, however, is that the acclaims have little to do with him and everything to do with God and the man who lived what he believed.

"Bonhoeffer was an utterly brilliant theologian but he believed in the God about whom he was talking and he believed it because he lived it. And he was forced to live it because he was living at a time when it was harder for somebody as brilliant and as intellectually honest as Bonhoeffer ... to avoid the big questions," Metaxas said Thursday.

Metaxas was in Washington, D.C., to receive the Canterbury Medal, the Becket Fund's highest honor in recognition of courage in defense of religious liberty.

Previous recipients included Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, and Princeton professor Robert P. George.

Humbled by the ... award ..., Metaxas responded, "There is no way for me to adequately respond to the encomia with which i have been so recently lauded. This is all too much, so if I seem unequal to it, that's because I'm unequal to it."

Of course, the award likely had to do with the 20th century German martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom he based his biography on, the author acknowledged.

He joked, "[One] way that I can deal with this is by knowing that if I had written a biography of Charlie Sheen you wouldn't have picked me."

But joking aside, he said, "If you write a halfway decent [book] about a really really great human being, that kind of changes the equation. Without any question, I stand up here able to take this in because I know I'm really accepting this award ... for Dietrich Bonhoeffer."

Coming out of his first successful biography, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, Metaxas hadn't planned on writing another biography. But he knew he would write about Bonhoeffer – whom he heard first heard about from his Episcopalian friend in 1988 – if he did decide to pursue it. And he did.

"It was extremely difficult to write and I can say bluntly that I've never prayed harder in my life. I was crying out to the living God, asking Him to help me and to guide me because I knew that I was not equal to this if He was not helping me," the Yale graduate admitted.

The 1988 conversion

Metaxas was raised in the Greek Orthodox Church.

"But then I went to Yale," he said, describing the Ivy League university as "an aggressively secular environment."

After entering the university with a very open mind, he left the campus as someone who didn't believe in something as "parochial or corny" as the idea of truth.

"I was sure that to be sophisticated and wise meant that the idea that there could be a God who loved us, that the Bible is the Word of God ... simply couldn't be true."

While pursuing his writing career, he realized he couldn't ignore the hard questions. That is when he met an Episcopalian – "who turned out actually to be a serious Christian," he said to laughter.

After several months, in the summer of 1988, Metaxas summed up his conversion this way: "I went to sleep sure that you couldn't know and I woke up sure that I knew that Jesus is Lord and the Bible is true and all of these things that I hoped might conceivably be true were actually true."

He became convinced that "there is a God who created the universe, who loves every single one of us with an infinite love that would crush us if we could take it all in."

That was when he was introduced to Bonhoeffer – when his Episcopalian friend handed him a copy of Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship.

Bonhoeffer – the real deal

At a time when he was looking for authenticity – and not the phony religious life that many people lived – Metaxas was taken aback by this German theologian who stood up for the Jews in Europe and against Hitler during World War II all because of his faith in Jesus Christ.

"To think that there was a man who stood up, who spoke out against what was happening because of his faith in Jesus Christ, this was a revelation to me," Metaxas recalled. "It was sort of the first really positive thing that I heard about Christianity probably in 10 years."

Essentially, this was a man who lived what he preached and what he believed. And in so doing, he was sent to a concentration camp and then executed (by hanging) in 1945 for his involvement in plans to assassinate Hitler.

"When real evil raises its head, a life lived in obedience to the God of the Bible is the only answer. That's what it is to be the church," Metaxas said.

Honoring Bonhoeffer, the author highlighted, "This is a man for whom there is no daylight between what he says he believes and his life. That's the point. It's not about what you say and what you believe. The question is do you really believe it? Are you living it? You can't fool God with good theology."

Bonhoeffer was the real deal, he added. "Let's be honest. That's harder to find than we'd like to admit."

"That's what religious freedom is all about. It's not just about we get to worship the way we want. But what it really means is that I am free to die, I am free to live for others, I am free to give my life away. That's the freedom that God gives us. God gave us His life so that we could do that for others."

"God gives us everything and so He expects us to live differently," he stressed.

As a recipient of a high honor, Metaxas used the opportunity to challenge fellow Christians.

"Are you living what you say you believe?" he posed.

"Bonhoeffer, when he went to the gallows, he wasn't wringing his hands thinking 'darn, if only I would've done this, if only I would've done that.' Bonhoeffer went to the gallows with the peace of God because he knew that he obeyed God."

"God desires that each of us live that kind of life," he said. "That would change the world. Let me recommend that to you."

Comment by James Robertson on August 26, 2011 at 7:22am: Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing....
Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian 'conception' of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins.... In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. 'All for sin could not atone.' Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin....

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.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man’ will gladly go and self all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. It comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer~