Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Cross and Community
Until I was eighteen-years-old, I held dual citizenship in two countries. The first was in the United States, where my father was born, and me; the second, Germany, where my mother was born. It was a unique experience growing up in a cross-cultural home. I would antagonize my mother with questions about life in Germany: “What’s the word for this? Do they have words for that? Does everyone wear funny overalls over there?” (I’ve since discovered that the term is lederhosen.) Although I’ve only visited the motherland twice, I still find myself filled with curiosity concerning the nation consisting of half my heritage.
Even the novice church history student knows that many important events occurred in Germany.[1] Notable figures like Martin Luther and Nicolaus Zizendorf were German. Many of the important philosophies and theologies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries emerged from German thinkers. Even in the early years of the twentieth century, important world history was being made there.
For it was during that century’s first half that the world was introduced to another German: Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Since then, his legacy has made a profound impact on the church, and the culture at large. As Eric Metaxas’ biography puts it, Bonhoeffer was a pastor, martyr, prophet, and spy. In this essay, we will consider Bonhoeffer’s life, exploring two themes laced throughout his life: the costly grace of the cross and the community of the Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Short Life
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4, 1906 in Breslau. He and his twin sister Sabine were two of eight children. Born into an upper-middle class, professional family, his father Karl was a distinguished psychiatrist and neurologist. His maternal grandfather was Karl Von Hase, a well-known theologian and church historian. Moreover, his brother Karl discovered spin isomers of hydrogen in 1929. Certainly, Bonhoeffer came from a good pedigree.
Bonhoeffer was outstanding in his own right. He studied to become a minister, earning the equivalent of his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Tübingen, his Doctor of Theology from Berlin University (graduating summa cum laude), as well as an additional doctorate—all before the age of 25.[2] As we might expect, he became an excellent academic theologian.
Bonhoeffer studied for a year in America at Union Theological Seminary, where he pursued post-graduate studies.[3] While he appreciated their emphasis on the Christian’s responsibility to help correct society’s ills, he was disappointed with their theological liberalism and shallowness. During this time, he attended an African-American Baptist church in Harlem, which would have a profound spiritual impact on him. He also kept busy writing, his dissertations being published as Sanctorum Communio (1930) and Act and Being (1931). However, he returned to Germany in 1931.
Two major events would occur in Bonhoeffer’s life in the next several years. First, along with Karl Barth and others, Bonhoeffer organized the Confessing Church in 1933. Amidst political and theological turmoil, Bonhoeffer and his colleagues penned the Barmen Declaration, stating, “We repudiate the false teaching that the church can and must recognize yet other happenings and powers, personalities and truths as divine revelation alongside this one Word of God.”[4] At the time, the German Church had made itself subservient to the State, and ultimately Adolf Hitler. The Barmen Declaration effectively drew a line in the sand by placing Christ as the Church’s ultimate authority.
Second, Bonhoeffer began an underground seminary in Finkenwalde around 1935 to train pastors for the Confessing Church. During this time, persecution of the Confessing Church intensified. Yet Bonhoeffer continued writing and published his more popular books: The Cost of Discipleship (1937) and Life Together (1939).[5]
In 1939, Reinhold Niebuhr invited Bonhoeffer to return to America to lecture. Bonhoeffer accepted Niebuhr’s offer for a time, but felt in the end that he needed to “be with his brothers” during Germany’s turmoil.[6] Thus, Bonhoeffer returned to his home country, where he was arrested for resistance efforts in 1943. The Gestapo had discovered Bonhoeffer’s involvement in sending financial help to Jews. He then spent two years in Tegel prison.[7] In 1944, the Nazis discovered the “Zossen” files, which incriminated Bonhoeffer as one of the conspirators in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. Finally, on April 9, 1945, by direct order of Hitler, Bonhoeffer was hanged.[8] This was only weeks before Allies liberated the camp from the Nazis, and Hitler committed suicide.
In a mere 39 years, Bonhoeffer accomplished much. Here, we will consider two themes that comprise the contours of Bonhoeffer’s life.
Community of Believers: Prescribed and Applied
Community is a trendy word nowadays. Reportedly, millennials are all about it—and rightfully so. However, Bonhoeffer defines community in a way that coffee shop small groups would only dream of. Many would assume that Bonhoeffer’s thoughts on community began with his “Thursday Circle” or Finkenwalde.[9] Ironically, they begin at least as early as his first dissertation: Sanctorum Communio, or “The Communion of the Saints.” Beginning with his dissertation and continuing throughout his life, Bonhoeffer would always find his way back to his first love: the Church and the community of believers of which she consists.
Bonhoeffer writes, “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.”[10] For Bonhoeffer, and for us, Christ stands in the center of any true community, for it is His work upon the cross that destroys the barrier between God and man, and mankind himself. Bonhoeffer stresses the importance of forgiveness and gratitude in any genuine community, for we are bound together by Christ for Christ.[11]
Bonhoeffer also articulates different “ministries” we must practice in community. These include silence, meekness, listening, helpfulness, and bearing with one another. Notice that these are listed in reverse of most “community guides” today. At the same time, this is not to say the other ministries are inferior—by no means! On the ministry of holding one’s tongue, Bonhoeffer writes,
Where the discipline of the tongue is practiced right from the beginning, each individual will make a matchless discovery. He will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing the other person, judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place where he can gain ascendency over him.[12]
Bonhoeffer also encourages us to follow Christ’s example in bearing one another’s burdens. He writes, “It is the fellowship of the cross to bear the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian. If any member refuses to bear that burden he denies the law of Christ.”[13] For Bonhoeffer, community does not stand alone, but is rooted squarely in Christ’s work and grace.
The Cross and Grace: Costly, Never Cheap
Bonhoeffer also shows us that believers’ obedience (discipleship) finds its impetus in the costly grace of the cross. If we view grace as cheap, we rob ourselves of true discipleship:
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. . . . 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.[14]
Instead, Bonhoeffer writes that we should seek and proclaim costly grace: “[It] is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.”[15] Bonhoeffer then ties justification to costly grace, when he writes, “The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.” Bonhoeffer continues with this idea, sewing a thread between costly grace, Christ’s incarnation, and our own discipleship:
Bearing the cross does not bring misery and despair. Rather, it provides refreshment and peace for our souls; it is our greatest joy. Here we are no longer laden with self-made laws, but with the yoke of him who knows us and who himself goes with us under the same yoke. Under his yoke we are assured of nearness and communion. It is he himself who disciples find when they take up their cross.[16]
Conclusion
For years debate has persisted on Bonhoeffer’s theological leanings. His brief statements on “religionless Christianity” have perked liberals’ attention, while evangelicals present Bonhoeffer as conservative. To whom does Bonhoeffer belong? Does he fall in line with the neo-orthodox, or does he herald historic orthodoxy? These are useful questions, though beyond our scope here.
What is clear are the two themes cited above. As I look at Bonhoeffer’s life and writings, captivated as he was by His Savior’s grace and bride, I feel as if I am reading the works of a blood-bought brother. Not only did Bonhoeffer write about it; he lived it. In Bonhoeffer’s own words, “What is the ‘extraordinary’? It is the love of Jesus Christ himself, who goes to the cross in suffering and obedience. It is the cross. What is unique in Christianity is the cross.”[17]
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[1]While these men are all “German,” like all countries, Germany’s borders have changed over time. That is to say, the Germany of Martin Luther and Nicolaus Zinzendorf look geographically different than the Germany of Bonhoeffer’s time.
[2] “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: German Theologian and Resister,” Christianity.com, 2008, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/martyrs/bonhoeffer.html (accessed June 20, 2014).
[3]Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, For the World (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 21.
[4]“Dietrich Bonhoeffer: German Theologian and Resister.”
[5]This article is a testament to The Cost of Discipleship’s significance: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/april24/5.92.html.
[6]Nichols, 20.
[7]“Dietrich Bonhoeffer: German Theologian and Resister.”
[8]Nichols, 154.
[9]Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010),64.
[10]Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, trans. Jon W. Doberstein (New York: Harper, 1954), 21.
[11]Nichols, 69.
[12]Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 92.
[13]Ibid., 101.
[14]Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, (New York: Touchstone, 1959), 45. Also see F. Leroy Forlines’ Biblical Ethics for similar themes concerning cheap-easy believism.
[15]Ibid.
[16]Bonhoeffer as quoted by Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, For the World (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 55.
[17]Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 144.
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