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High Spirits
Rebirth in Harlem
Sixty-five years ago today, a remarkable memorial service was held in one of London's great churches in honor of a then obscure German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Sixty-five years ago this summer, on July 27, 1945, a remarkable memorial service was held in one of London's great churches, Holy Trinity Brompton. It was in honor of a then obscure German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His life's story, as outlined by Bishop Bell of Chichester in the sermon, was the absolute antithesis of the populist slogan that had been on many British lips during the war that had ended just a few weeks earlier: "The only good German is a dead German." For Bonhoeffer was not just a good man. He was one of the moral and spiritual giants of the 20th century.
Bonhoeffer's historical reputation has been rising steadily. It will be further enhanced by an excellent new biography (the first in 40 years), Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy -- A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich. The author is Eric Metaxas, and the publisher Thomas Nelson.
This is a fast-paced portrait of a life lived courageously as well as theologically. Although Bonhoeffer's spiritual classics such as The Cost of Discipleship, Life Together, and Letters and Papers from Prison are given ample attention, it is the power of the narrative material so well researched and presented by Metaxas that makes this book a page turner for the general reader as well as an essential resource for scholars.
Certain as Bonhoeffer was of his theology, he was sometimes
confused about his own identity. This complexity is movingly
captured in his poem "Who Am I?" written in his prison cell shortly
before his execution for his involvement in an unsuccessful plot
against Hitler. The last lines reflect both the
ambivalence and the authenticity of his journey:
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
Bonhoeffer was never a "woebegone weakling." Whenever he came to a high hurdle he jumped it fearlessly. The outstanding example of his moral courage came in 1933 when as a rising 27-year-old scholar he published an essay, "The Church and the Jewish Question," which challenged the German religious establishment's acquiescence in Hitler's persecution of the Jews.
At a time when most Catholic and Protestant churches were dismissing their pastors and employees of Jewish blood, Bonhoeffer not only denounced them for their cowardice, but also called for outright opposition to a regime that was breaking the commandments of Christianity. He argued that the churches of Germany must support Hitler's victims "even if they do not belong to the Christian community." For good measure he added that Christians might be called upon not only "to bandage the victims under the wheel" of oppression but "to put a spoke into the wheel itself."
Such opposition to the evil philosophy of Nazism set Bonhoeffer on the path that would lead him to the gallows. But his audacity preceded Hitler's rise to the Reich chancellorship. A year before the notorious "Aryan Paragraph" (the law banning anyone of Jewish decent from state-funded employment) was enacted, Bonhoeffer was a revolutionary young voice crying out in the wilderness of the German church. When he preached to Berlin's most important and influential Protestant congregation on Reformation Sunday in 1932, he told the congregants that they were a disgrace to the memory of their church's founder, Martin Luther.
When and where did this fire start in the precocious Pastor Bonhoeffer? He came from a privileged background, and there were few clues in his early years of traditional theological training at Tubingen that he would become a challenger of the established church's stultifying hierarchy. This is where Metaxas's biography breaks new ground.
In a fascinating chapter, "Bonhoeffer in America," Metaxas tracks his subject's journey through New York's Union Theological Seminary and various liberal churches such as Riverside and Park Avenue Baptist. "There is no theology here" was the conclusion of the 24-year-old German observer, as he wrote home complaining of never having heard the gospel of Jesus preached in fashionable Manhattan.
But then Bonhoeffer went to the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, whose 14,000-strong congregation made it the largest Protestant church in the United States of the 1930s. He was inspired by the preaching of Dr. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. and by the friendships he formed with his African American contemporaries in the church. Of these the most important was a fellow Union student, Frank Fisher, who traveled to Washington, D.C., and other cities with Bonhoeffer, introducing his German friend to "Negro spirituals" and "Negro literature."
There is little doubt that Bonhoeffer's American experiences, especially the appalling racial prejudice he encountered, laid the foundation for what Metaxas calls "The Great Change" in his subject's character. The aloof, patrician intellectual who had arrived in New York departed a committed churchgoing Christian on fire with the gospel and despising what he called the "religionless Christianity" of the German church. Metaxas speculates that Bonhoeffer was "born again" in his Harlem period. The book's new material suggests that a major personal and spiritual transformation took place as a result of his attendance at the Abyssinian church. Without that transformation it is unlikely that Bonhoeffer's most influential theological ideas on "cheap grace" would have been formed.
One of the most poignant sentences ever written by Bonhoeffer was "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." For him this was no abstract theological metaphor. It summed up the outcome of the sacrificial action Bonhoeffer took to join a group of conspirators, led by Admiral Canaris, who began plotting to kill Hitler in 1942.
Metaxas provides a fascinating description of the mounting pressures on Bonhoeffer and his deepening Christ-centered commitment during the last three years of his life. Ambivalence and deception were needed for a pastor of the Confessing Church who was covertly supporting the assassination of the head of state. But Bonhoeffer was too fearless to cover his tracks. So eventually he was arrested and after a painful prison journey (which produced some of his finest writing), he was executed at Flossenburg concentration camp in April 1945, just one month before the war ended.
Metaxas concludes his powerful account of this martyrdom with the words of the camp doctor who was moved by the spiritual courage of the unidentified figure he watched going to the scaffold: "At the place of execution he [Bonhoeffer] again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost 50 years that I worked as a doctor I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."
About the Author
Jonathan Aitken, The American Spectator's High Spirits columnist, is most recently author of John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Crossway Books). His biographies include Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed (Doubleday) and Nixon: A Life, now available in a new paperback edition (Regnery).
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Purple Lips| 7.27.10 @ 7:41AM
"At a time when most Catholic and Protestant churches were dismissing their pastors and employees of Jewish blood,.."
I never heard of any German Catholic priest, brother, or sister being dismissed or liacized becoause they had Jewish blood. In those days, there were few Catholic lay employees; so, I'm not sure where the author got this idea. A Bishop cannot defrock a cleric without due cause, and this laiciziation must go through Rome.
"One of the most poignant sentences ever written by Bonhoeffer was "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." For him this was no abstract theological metaphor."
And niether has it been for any Catholic. Every Catholic child used to be taught this in CCD. I cannot vouch for any Catholic educated after 1970, but death was always part of a Catholic's education. Heck, the cruxifix is a daily if not an hourly reminder of that fact. As one priest said many years ago, "Christ hanging on the Cross is what we must associate with. Yes, Christ defeated Death. But we must all first die before we can join the Ressurected Christ. God did not spare His Son. And niether will he spare us."
"There is no theology here" was the conclusion of the 24-year-old German observer, as he wrote home complaining of never having heard the gospel of Jesus preached in fashionable Manhattan."
Perhaps Boenhoffer should have spent less time in fashionable Manhatten and Riverside. He could have visited Hell's Kitchen and the Lower Eastside. There, he would have seen impoverished Irish and Italien Catholics quietly taking up the crosses on a daily basis. I'm not certain what Bonhoeffer was expecting when he visited the US. But racial animosity was nothing new. He could have witnessed the same if he just remained in Berlin and visited the notorious Wedding District; or failing that, he could have visited cities such as Breslau, Danzig, or Vienna where ethnic strife was always just below the surface. But for a young foreigner to lay judgement on a city with nothing more than his crushed expectations is a bit much.
There is no denying that the martyr Bonhoeffer was courageous. There is no denying his committment to Christ. But I cannot find anything new in his religious writings. There were plenty of religious martyrs who died during World War II. Most died in obscurity.
oldpapajoe| 7.27.10 @ 9:14AM
I can tell by your comments that you have not read Bonhoeffer's works--few people have, especially Catholics. While what he says may not be new (all we can hope is to better understand what Christ has said and done, no one can add a letter to that), it was written while suffering. He gave up safety of exile to return to Germany and a certain fate of imprisonment for he believed that to wait out the war and then return would have been useless. True many religious died, mostly Catholic priests, a fact not often mentioned, but Bonhoeffer's case is documented and worth reading.
Purple Lips| 7.27.10 @ 1:13PM
I have nothing against Bonhoeffer per se. He willingly died as a martyr to the Faith. But, you remove his actions, and his writings are fairly mainstream (for the time). Yet, for many he is considered THE theologian or Christian thinker for the 20th Century. It is one thing to memorialize a man of heroic virture. But it is something else to place him on such a high theological pedistal. If one wishes to read something intimately profound I would suggest the writings of the 2 Carmelite reformers St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross. If one is looking for the theological foundations for Redemptive Suffering there is also the writings of the Little Flower. In all 3 cases, their thinking returns to the Cross of Christ. In this sense, Bonhoeffer shares a very close fellowship - a fellowship of suffering.
Mark| 7.27.10 @ 2:49PM
Purple,
Your reaction to Bonhoffer has more to do with the fact that he was a Protestant than with the merits of what he wrote. I, too, am a Carholic, but not a blind one. Bonhoffer's great works do not diminish the great Catholic thinkers one iota.
Tony in Central PA| 7.28.10 @ 2:57PM
Bonhoffer is widely admired by many Catholics. EWTN ( a Catholic cable channel ) has had a regular program running for years about Dietrich Bonhoffer , " A Knight for Truth " featuring his fiance ( Maria von Wedemeyer ).
I have read the book and I recommend to anybody, Christian or not.
I tried to imagine myself in Bonhoffer's position, considering the moral questions he must have wrestled with as a pastor and theologian. Would it be morally allowable to participate in a conspiracy to kill a person such as Hitler ? Would be be morally allowable to not participate in such a conspiracy if you had the opportunity to stop somebody like Hitler ?
In the end, the multiple plots to kill Hitler failed. It was almost as if the devil himself was protecting him. Bonhoffer was executed only a couple of weeks before the war ended. It was a move typical of the irrationally ruthless Nazi regime when the war was known to be lost even by Hitler.
Alan Brooks| 7.27.10 @ 1:31PM
Lutherans wont admit that Luther was a precursor to Hitler, anymore than Leninists will admit Lenin was a precursor to Stalin.
Mark| 7.27.10 @ 2:59PM
Mr. Brooks, I suggest you read Bonhoffer's biography to understand what the Lutheran Confessing Church did to stand up to Hitler. Then see if you still want to post more hateful garbage. I am wondering what type of bravery you have shown in the face of evil. Cowardly postings on Internet message boards do not count.
RCV| 7.28.10 @ 2:15PM
Luther was indeed a brave man to stand up to the corrupt Church of his day. But it's also blindness to not acknowledge the sickness of his blatant anti-semitism. Fortunately, Bohnhoffer did not inherit that part of his Lutheran heritage. He was an amazingly brave human being and an inspiration for ages to come.
Stang52| 7.27.10 @ 11:29PM
Alan Brooks: What a leap Luther to Hitler? Perhaps you could pass around a little of what you're smoking for the rest of us.
stang52| 7.27.10 @ 11:27PM
Purple Lips: Might want to study up on your history as it appears you know very little of Hitler's Germany.
Alan Brooks| 8.11.10 @ 10:56AM
"Alan Brooks: What a leap Luther to Hitler? Perhaps you could pass around a little of what you're smoking for the rest of us."
No more a leap than Rousseau to Obama. Perhaps you don't know the definition of precursor? Well at least RCV gets it, and he's not smoking the maryjane.
Rebecca| 7.27.10 @ 8:17AM
I don't fault him for visiting fashionable Manhattan, not finding the gospel and commenting on it.
In modern terms, it would be an anti-Obama observation, in that the clinging of religion is or should also be for those who govern. A poor and powerless man with a strong faith is a potential for martyrdom, because he cannot risk much more than his life. A person with contacts, money and wealth would seem to have a harder time risking losing the safety net those things provide.
What can be learned from Bonhoeffer's story is the cost of integrity.
I admire Purple Lips' recollection of what a Catholic Education used to mean and the impact on one's whole life. There are a lot of young and middle aged adults today that when asked will say something like "I was raised Catholic, but haven't gone for years; I supposed to be a Catholic." Of all the Catholic celebrities I can think of Maritn Sheen seems the most devout. Madonna, the Kennedy's, Pelosi, Mel Gibson usually come to my mind as representative of the modern Catholic.
Darragh| 7.27.10 @ 6:21PM
If you go to a Catholic church, there still are plenty of middle aged people there, although there certainly are plenty of "recovering Catholics" as well... For me the Church is Christ...I was too lazy to go for many years, so it is all the sweeter to go now.
I look forward to reading this bio.
KyMouse| 7.27.10 @ 9:58AM
A few years ago, Focus on the Family Radio Theatre made an audio dramatization called "Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom." I thought it was very well done and quite inspirational. It's available for $10.99 at christianbook.com, and new and used copies are also available at amazon.com.
MOS was 71331| 7.27.10 @ 12:54PM
As far as the census is concerned, any adult claiming to be a catholic or a mormon or a baptist is tabulated as what he or she claims to be. As far as I'm concerned, to be a catholic or a mormon or a baptist, one must agree with major portions of that church's doctrine.
To put it simply, if you believe it is moral for a woman to have an unborn child deliberately killed, you are not a catholic. I can't stop you (Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden) from calling yourself a catholic, but calling yourself a catholic doesn't make you one.
There are many millions of adult Americans calling themselves and their minor children catholics. Unlike Rebecca, I've no wish to consider any of them, celebrities or non-entities, representative of "the modern Catholic."
MOS was 71331| 7.27.10 @ 12:57PM
Add the recently departed (but unlamented) Teddy Kennedy to my list of pols claiming to be catholic.
David| 7.28.10 @ 2:00PM
Even according to the Catholic church, someone who disagrees, even someone who has been excommunicated, is still Catholic unless he or she takes steps to explicitly leave the church; not merely disagree with its teachings.
I understand the point you're making, and why you feel that way, but you're seriously misstating the Catholic church's position.
KJW| 7.27.10 @ 2:05PM
Who was it who said: "If your enemy has a conscience, be like Gandhi?
If your enemy doesn't have a conscience, be like Bonhoeffer?"
grame| 7.28.10 @ 7:37AM
Reading Bonhoeffer's Letters from Prison reveals a man on a journey and trying to examine himself and learn from the choices he is making and the consequences of those choices. Personal Responsibility. Humility. Gratitude. Brokeness over his sin.
Remaining faithful to The Creator God to whom he has given all regardless of what befalls him is a lesson we can all learn from regardless of the name over the door of our church. Those are just outside shells that will fall away and reveal truly what we are worshipping in this life.
Bonhoeffer allowed the Holy Spirit to examine and scour every corner of his life that it might be sanctified for God's purpose. He is not someone to be worshipped but someone from whom we can all learn how to practically apply the scripture to our lives.
Hershl| 7.28.10 @ 8:04AM
I just want to thank our Christian friends who support Israel and the Jewish people in this difficult time.
We are all in this together with a common enemy whose goal is to destroy our Judeo-Christian society and enslave us to their cult of submission ( Arabic word Islam means submission).
I find it utterly fantastic that many liberal Christians and Jews actually defend the Muslims when they are attacking us.
http://jewishdailyreport.wordp.....ngelicals/
Larry| 7.28.10 @ 4:54PM
Another example of a religious who died in the concentration camps for the faith is Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, the Catholic priest who died at Auschwitz, standing in for a Jewish man who had been selected for reprisal as the result of an attempted escape from the camp. Fr. Kolbe never wrote any great theological works like Dietrich Bonhoeffer (whom I admire greatly), but he also died for the faith with courage and the love of Christ.