On Behalf of People & In the Will of God: The Life of Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I won’t assume you’ve heard that name before today. For some of you, you’ve only heard the name and are vaguely familiar with why he is a notable evangelical figure. A number of you have read and reflected on his works and have even let them shape your theology in some form. Others, just like myself, will hear this name for the first time, read his story and be captivated by this man who is controversial at least, and shapes only parts of our theology at best.
Bonhoeffer, who was born in Germany in 1906, didn’t grow up very religious, so by the time he was a teenager and began to speak of becoming a theologian, his brothers mocked him for it. There was much of a disconnect between the German culture and the Church. After World War I, there was this idea that the Church just didn’t have much to offer to the average citizen of Europe. Bonhoeffer took on a mindset that sought to change that idea about the Church, a reformers mentality.
Bonhoeffer went on to study theology and receive his second PhD by the age of 22. Around 1930 Bonhoeffer found himself in New York, on a teaching scholarship at Union Seminary. During his time there he began to attend a church in Harlem, Abyssinian Baptist Church, a predominantly African-American church.
Bonhoeffer and the Black Church
This was a significant experience for Bonhoeffer, during his time in New York, he is recorded as professing that the only place the gospel was preached in America was in the black church. Which makes sense for the context of the culture in that time, when minorities and their suffering can be explained by a Jesus that suffered. Yet it seems today it is many of those same black churches (and many predominantly white churches as well) that have strayed from a true gospel – and in today’s cultural context have latched on to a false prosperity gospel. Many of these churches would do good to reflect on the history of their churches and re-examine their bibles to reclaim a true gospel.
During his time in New York City, he did visit many of the prominent and influential churches in the city and heard many of the great white preachers the city had to offer. He was just simply unimpressed, reporting in a letter to one of his mentors, that American preaching was theologically bankrupt and self-indulgent. He says in a letter to his mentor Diestel:
“In New York, they preach about virtually everything; only one thing is not addressed, or is addressed so rarely that I have yet been able to hear it, namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross, sin and forgiveness, death and life… The sermon has been reduced to parenthetical church remarks about newspaper events. As long as I’ve been here, I have heard only one sermon in which you could hear something like a genuine proclamation, and that was delivered by a Negro (indeed, in general I’m increasingly discovering greater religious power and originality in Negroes).”
Once Bonhoeffer walked through the doors of Abyssinian, he stayed, getting involved as a lay leader and practicing his most obvious giftedness as a teacher and disciple maker of young people – in this case, African-American young people in Harlem. A tall, athletic, German man, who spoke broken English, with a strong German accent seemed to thrive in this environment. Mind you, this took place three decades before the civil rights movement – which Bonhoeffer clearly saw the need for. This experience, as you would imagine deeply shaped his theology of caring for and serving people, especially the oppressed. His experience when he returned to Germany only reinforced this theology that much more.
Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany
Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1935, where he would go on to run a seminary, but his vocal objections to Nazi policies resulted in him losing his freedom to lecture or publish; the government literally closed the seminary in 1937. This objection that Bonhoeffer had toward Nazi policies is not at all controversial, but his response and his belief that he had a personal responsibility (and the Church had a communal responsibility) to act was and still is widely scrutinized.
The Holocaust, a genocide of European Jews, was underway by 1941. Bonhoeffer continued to struggle with understanding what his role was in standing against what was clearly wrong and caring for those who were harshly targeted. He cared to discern, What would God have me do? Not necessarily against an oppressive regime, but on behalf of my brother or sister. He had a heart to advocate for those who were crushed, who were dehumanized. He wrestled with understanding what was the will of God for this very moment, for these very people.
There is a practicality to Bonhoeffer’s understanding of manifesting Christ through the life of the believer – That when we care for the material life (through Christ) we are simultaneously ministering (the gospel) to their eternal souls. He saw being an interruption, to Adolf Hitler and Nazi policies, as a evangelical responsibility. His theology wouldn’t allow him to justify non-action. His involvement in the German resistance movement would ultimately land him in a concentration camp, and ultimately led to his execution.
Pastor Joel Lawrence characterizes Bonhoeffer’s views in this way, saying, “the world was created by God and for God and therefore we ought to care about the life of the world.” Pastor Lawrence cites Bonhoeffer’s prison letters where Bonhoeffer mentions that we need more of the Old Testament in our theology. The materiality of creation, and Genesis chapters 1 through 3, really captured Bonhoeffer. He essentially made the case that in our religiosity we over-spiritualize things by focusing too much on the New Testament.
Bonhoeffer’s point? Well, he agrees it is good to be concerned about the life of the soul, but we are created from the dust and God breathed His life into that which is material. We should care not only for the eternal souls of the hungry and the homeless, but care for their stomachs and the place in which they lay their heads. So, he acted by joining a resistance that plotted to assassinate Hitler. Though Bonhoeffer was not at all the driver or even a complicit actor in this plan, he is considered a very controversial figure because of his relation to it. He would ultimately be thrown in a concentration camp, known as Flossenburg, where he would eventually be hanged in 1945 – ironically, just weeks before the liberation of Germany.
Bonhoeffer’s Politics
“It is not comfortable for us to act politically, but it may become necessary for us to act politically for the sake of our brother or sister whom we love, for the cause of love for a neighbor.” – Dr. Reggie Williams (attributing Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Bonhoeffer didn’t necessarily care about politics, he cared about the people and how they were affected by politics – its on us, as evangelical believers to understand the difference and have a correct perspective when engaging in politics. Dr. Reggie Williams highlights Bonhoeffer’s mediation on those who were being oppressed by a political regime and how Christ identified with the outcast and with the suffering. Dr. Williams also brings attention to the kind of language Bonhoeffer used in the midst of his struggle with the Confessing Church in 1933 in regard to advocating for those who are being hurt politically. Dr. Williams paraphrases Bonhoeffer as saying, “The Church shouldn’t just tend to the victims who are crushed by the wheel but should throw itself into the spokes of the wheel.”
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of the victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
He says this with the backdrop of his experiences under two political regimes that pursued false ideas of an “ideal humanity” (White Supremacy both in America and Nazi Germany), which left both African Americans and European Jews as communities that were severely mistreated. I presume Bonhoeffer would encourage us to act on behalf of the life of the unborn, I also presume Bonhoeffer would encourage us to act on behalf of the life of those crippled by racial injustice.
The direction his work was going was considered dangerous and controversial, some may even say it was anti-patriotic because of what he was thinking about doing and his involvement in the German resistance movement. He was indeed a complex man in his ideology. Bonhoeffer had deep appreciation for some aspects of German liberalism and yet deep appreciation of what Carl Bart was doing to recapture biblical orthodoxy. He was in some ways a mediatorial figure between neo-orthodoxy and classic German liberalism, and yet not rejecting one or the other – but rejecting certain parts of both. In this sort of complexity, he clearly was not beholden to any idea or political regime, but it was his allegiance to Christ that drove him. This allegiance to Christ is what should ultimately make us uncomfortable with subscribing to any political platform. If we are beholden to Christ and His word, then we will often find ourselves wrestling just as Bonhoeffer did. This wrestling may not be between policy ideas, but simply a recognition that there are people made in the image of God, worthy of my Christ-like service. There is a weight to that which should leave us longing to know exactly how God wills us to act on their behalf – not only practically, but politically.
The tension of Bonhoeffer in today’s politics is one that would have a deep appreciation for the Democratic Party’s desire to meet the practical and material needs of the people; wages, healthcare, housing, race relations, pursuit of social justice, etc. Yet, he would have a deep appreciation for the GOP’s desire to preserve the soul and moral order of a society that pursues biblical orthodoxy in the life of a citizen; traditional view of marriage and sexuality, the sanctity and preservation of life, pursuit of liberty and freedom for the citizen. Yet simultaneously, he undoubtedly would reject much of both political platforms.
Bonhoeffer & The Evangelical
Bonhoeffer, characterized by his own experiences, influence, and theological reflections is a very complex believer and theologian to understand. He does not easily fit into a categorical box. If one were to attend a Bonhoeffer conference today, he would find people from across the Christian theological spectrum. It is not because of the lack of works that we have or the understated-ness of some of his reflections and theology, but it is primarily because he genuinely had a complexity to him that comes with his wrestling to know the will of God.
We do have a small collection of Bonhoeffer’s works. He does leave a lot to be desired from his writings and reflections. Yet it is the very reason Bonhoeffer garners so much attention. He left much unsaid, because he genuinely didn’t have answers. He was forced to struggle, to pray as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, under great stress and great desire to be confident that he would understand and obey the will of God.
In so many different ways Bonhoeffer walks a thin line, on the edge of what most evangelicals would say is heresy or unrighteousness (sin). He spent his life wrestling with God and the scriptures to not get too comfortable in orthodoxy, but to be sure He was doing exactly what God would have him do. What Bonhoeffer appreciated about German liberalism was its worldly-mindedness. He thought it important to have an awareness of the world, of creation, of people which understood God’s ultimate mission was indeed people. May we as followers of Jesus, have such a heart for people that we would wrestle in prayer to know and obey the will of God and what He would have us do on behalf of our brother or sister.