BONHOEFFER
In
September, right at the beginning of our church year, Rev. Galen Guengerich challenged
members of the congregation and visitors by scheduling a demanding series
of readings and discussions about the German theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer. This pastor and theologian, who was born in 1906, struggled
for much of his
adult life with the ethical dilemma posed by Hitler’s Nazi regime
to his society, his church and his own feelings of social responsibility.
As
a result, he became a member of a small group of resisters who protested
the war against the Jews and the assault on the tenets of his own Evangelical
church. While he continued to believe that Christianity had superceded
Judaism, he strongly condemned state persecution of the Jews. Now that
we are again
in an era of racial turmoil and religiously based terrorism, an examination
of this eminent theologian is extremely timely.
One of his
concerns was to preserve the tenets and missions of his church that included
the conversion of the Jews. Most Evangelical pastors ignored
Hitler’s racism and persecution of even baptized Jews, while focusing
on doctrinal problems posed by the Nazi’s rejection of Old Testament
teachings. In contrast, Bonhoeffer and a like-minded group of pastors
and theologians began to condemn the persecution of the Jews as a matter
of
ethics and justice.
Bonhoeffer,
who had spent several years abroad early in his career, including work
at Union Theological Seminary in New York, may have been influenced
by the more open religious climate in the United States, and may have
learned about racial discrimination when he visited African-American
protestant churches.
He carried these insights back to his own church work in Germany. His
own ethical and theological search led him into groups that actively
tried to resist Hitler’s programs. Through a brother-in-law,
he was drawn into such a circle operating out of the office of Military
Intelligence.
Bonhoeffer was able to use his international ecumenical contacts to serve
as an agent for that resistance movement. Eventually, this also involved
him in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler during a meeting.
In April
1943, Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo as a traitor and he
spent the rest of his
remaining years in harsh prisons and concentration
camps. Two of his brothers and two of his brothers-in-law were executed
by the Nazis. Bonhoeffer had no doubts that the same fate awaited him.
Yet hope
persisted. While in prison, he married a young woman who shared his beliefs,
although the marriage could never be consummated. He continued to write
while in prison, however, including a very moving poem that indicated
his acceptance
of his fate (see below).
The lecture/discussion
series included the showing of a commercial film made by Martin Doblmeier
who was present at its showing in the
Sanctuary on October 16, attended by many members of the general public.
The film vividly illustrated the rise of Hitler and National Socialism
in Germany during the years before the Second World War and the effect
on Jews and other resistors during the Hitler period. The film ended
with the announcement of Bonhoeffer’s execution by hanging on
April 9, 1945. The irony of that date is made manifest by the fact
that by then all the concentration camps had been liberated and Hitler
committed suicide only a scant ten days later.
One of Bonhoeffer’s most lasting contributions to Christian theology
is his conviction that one must not seek “cheap grace” through
theological posturing, but that real grace must be earned by deeds
and by taking risks. Bonhoeffer certainly went to his death having
earned such grace.
Bonhoeffer’s poem,
Who Am I?, written in prison in June of 1944:
Who am I? They
often tell me
I would step from my prison cell
poised, cheerful and sturdy,
like a nobleman from his country estate.
Who am I? They
often tell me
I would speak with my guards
freely, pleasantly, and firmly,
as if I had it to command.
Who am I? I have
also been told
that I suffer the days of misfortune
with serenity, smiles and pride,
as someone accustomed to victory.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
Am I really what others say about me?
Or am I only
what I know of myself?
Restless, yearning and sick, like a bird
in its cage,
struggling for the breath of life,
as though someone
were choking my throat;
hungering for colors, for flowers, for the
songs of birds,
thirsting for kind words and human closeness,
shaking
with anger at capricious tyranny and the pettiest slurs,
bedeviled
by anxiety, awaiting great events that might never occur,
fearfully
powerless and worried for friends far away,
weary and empty in prayer,
in thinking and doing,
weak, and ready to take leave of it all.
Who am I? This man or that other?
Am I then this man today
and tomorrow another?
Am I both all at once? An impostor to
others,
but to me
little more than a whining, despicable weakling?
Does what is
in me compare to a vanquished army,
that flees in disorder before
a
battle already won?
Who am I? They mock me these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever
I am, you know me, O God. You know I am yours.
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