Essential terminology

Aryan paragraph

Christology

Civil disobedience

Confessing Church

Discipleship

Duty

Grace

Religionless Christianity

Secular pacifism

Systematic theology

Tyrannicide

What you will learn about in this chapter

The OCR checklist

Christian moral action

The teaching and example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on:
- duty to God and duty to the state
  - Bonhoeffer’s teaching on the relationship of Church and state, including:
    - obedience, leadership and doing God’s will
    - justification of civil disobedience.

Church as community and source of spiritual discipline
- Bonhoeffer’s role in the Confessing Church and his own religious community at Finkenwalde

the cost of discipleship
- Bonhoeffer’s teaching on ethics as action, including:
  - ‘costly grace’
  - sacrifice and suffering
  - solidarity.

Learners should have the opportunity to discuss issues related to Christian moral action in the life and teaching of Bonhoeffer, including:

whether Christians should practise civil disobedience
whether it is possible always to know God’s will
whether Bonhoeffer puts too much emphasis on suffering
whether Bonhoeffer’s theology has relevance today.

Contextual references:

For reference, the ideas of Bonhoeffer listed earlier can be found in: Letters and Papers from Prison and The Cost of Discipleship, Chapter 1.

Suggested scholarly views, academic approaches and sources of wisdom and authority:

Romans 13:1–7
Barmen Declaration (www.sacred-texts.com/chr/barmen.htm)
Luke 10:38–42.

Introduction

‘The church as we know it has got to change.’ Is this the reality that Bonhoeffer was trying to achieve for his times and the twenty-first century? In this chapter, you will be studying the key concepts and ideologies of Bonhoeffer, including his views of sacrifices, duty and responsibility to Christ and humanity: ‘Not hero worship, but intimacy with Christ’ (Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship).

The life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy

Early life

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born to Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer, on 4 February 1906 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). His father was a psychiatrist and neurologist and his mother was a teacher. In addition to his other siblings, Dietrich had a twin sister, Sabine Bonhoeffer Leibholz: he and Sabine were the sixth and seventh children out of eight.

The early 1930s were a period of great upheaval in Germany, with the instability of Weimar Republic and the mass unemployment of the Great Depression leading to the election of Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) as chancellor in 1933.

Bonhoeffer was a firm opponent of Hitler’s philosophy; however, it was widely welcomed by the German population, including significant parts of the Church.

Two days after Hitler’s election Bonhoeffer made a radio broadcast criticising him, and the dangers that awaited due to the Führer. As Bonhoeffer spoke his radio broadcast was cut off mid-air. (The cause of this is not known.)

In the same year, Bonhoeffer spoke out about the persecution of Jews and argued that the Church had a responsibility to act against this kind of policy. This idea stemmed from his deep conviction in the idea of ecumenism. He said the church must not just ‘bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself’ (Bonhoeffer, No Rusty Swords).

Education

His family were not religious, although his mother’s grandfather was the Protestant theologian Karl von Hasse. However, at the age of 14 he announced that he wanted to train to become a priest and study theology. This was clearly a shock to his family due to their backgrounds having strong musical and artistic heritages. This was an opportunity for Bonhoeffer to express his ideas and worldviews. He began his studies at the University of Tübingen in 1923. He went on to gain a doctorate in theology for his influential thesis, Sanctorum Communio: eine Dogmatische Untersuchung zur Soziologie der Kirche (Communion of Saints) and graduated in 1927 from the University of Berlin. His second thesis, Akt und sein (Act and Being), was published in 1931.

After his request to be ordained was not granted, because at the age of 24 he was too young, Bonhoeffer went to America to pursue postgraduate studies at New York City’s Union Theological Seminary. He also spent time in Spain, and this gave him more confidence in his opinions of the Church’s practical understanding and interpretation of the Gospels and, in particular, the stance which it took in supporting the social and injustices that these societies were facing. This was to contribute to his radical thinking in challenging both Church and state. Through his experiences in the USA, Spain and so forth, Bonhoeffer came to realise the importance and necessity of the churches working together across all their divisions.

Return to Germany

In 1931, aged 25, Bonhoeffer returned to Berlin and was ordained as a priest. He also joined the staff of the University of Berlin as a lecturer in systematic theology.

The Confessing Church

Bonhoeffer sought to organise the Protestant Church to reject Nazi ideology from infiltrating the church. This started a new revolution and eventually led to the formation of the Confessing Church, with help from Martin Niemöller. The Confessing Church sought to stand in stark contrast with the Nazi-supported, German Christian movement.

In 1933 Bonhoeffer was offered a parish post in eastern Berlin. However, he refused it in protest of the nationalist policy and instead accepted a two-year appointment as a pastor of two German-speaking Protestant churches in London.

He explained to the theologian Karl Barth that he had found little support for his views and that ‘it was about time to go for a while into the desert.’ Barth saw this as running away from the problems in German and said, ‘I can only reply to all the reasons and excuses which you put forward: “And what of the German Church?” ’

Karl Barth the man (1886–1968)

Karl Barth

Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy

Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian who is often considered to be the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century.

His father, Johann Friedrich Barth, was a professor of theology and a pastor. From 1911 to 1921 Karl Barth was a Reformed pastor in the village of Safenwil in Aargau. Later he became a professor of theology at Göttingen (1921–1925), Münster (1925–1930) and Bonn (1930–1935).

He left Germany in 1935 after refusing to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler. He returned to Switzerland and became a professor in Basel (1935–1962).

His most famous work is the 13-volume Church Dogmatics, published between 1932 and 1967.

After two years in London, Bonhoeffer returned to Berlin. He felt a call to go back to his native country and share in its struggles, despite the bleak outlook. Shortly after his return, Bonhoeffer had his authorisation to teach revoked after being denounced as a pacifist and enemy of the state.

In 1937, as Nazi control of the country intensified, the Confessing Church seminary was closed down by Heinrich Himmler Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (commander of the Protection Squad). During this period, Bonhoeffer wrote extensively on subjects of theological interest which were deep-rooted in his stance on ecumenism and social injustice in the world. The Cost of Discipleship is a study on the Sermon on the Mount and argues for greater spiritual discipline and practice to achieve ‘the costly grace’.

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.

(Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)

Worried by a fear of being asked to take an oath to Hitler or be arrested, Bonhoeffer left Germany for the USA in June 1939. After less than two years, he returned to Germany because he felt guilty for seeking sanctuary and not having the courage to practise what he preached.

It was at this time that he developed the idea of secular pacifism. He had always considered that he was a pacifist but came to realise that this form of pacifism was based on a secular belief that did not take account of a Christian’s preparation for the Kingdom of God and that there were occasions when evil must be challenged.

On 8 April 1945, Bonhoeffer was given a cursory court martial and sentenced to death by hanging. Like many of the conspirators, he was hung by wire, to prolong the death. He was executed with fellow conspirators, such as Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and Hans Oster.

Just before his execution, he asked a fellow inmate to relate a message to Bishop George Bell of Chichester: ‘This is the end – for me the beginning of life.’

The camp doctor at Flossenbürg who witnessed the execution of Bonhoeffer later wrote,

I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer … kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he 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 fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.

Duty to God and duty to the state

The definition of the word according to the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘Moral obligation; the binding force of what is morally right.’ e.g. ‘It’s my duty to uphold the law.’

Bonhoeffer’s work Ethics was written from 1940 to 1943. Christian ethics, he says, must be concerned with the regenerated person, whose chief desire should be to please God, not with the one who is looking for an airtight philosophical system.

Bonhoeffer wrote that ‘instead of knowing only the God who is good to him and instead of knowing all things in Him, [man] knows only himself as the origin of good and evil.’ With this statement, he entered into one of the most difficult philosophical and theological problems in the history of the Church: the problem of evil. Bonhoeffer believed that the problem of evil could be understood only considering the Fall of man (Genesis 3:1–24). Due to modern humanity having a vagueness about what is right or wrong, Bonhoeffer urged Christians to be concerned with the living will of God rather than the set of rules people may follow.

Bonhoeffer knew that the opposition to Hitler and the decision to overthrow him were going to be a very difficult time. He got to the point that acknowledging the Hitler’s assassination was the only hope for the freedom of the Church; however, this caused a great dilemma: ‘Is murder ever right?’ Bonhoeffer came to believe that evil must be opposed even if this involved murder. He relied on the principle that God would forgive the person who became a sinner by opposing evil in this way.

World War II was at its severest point, and the greatest problem facing Christians and the Church was that of ethics. They found themselves opposing sides of war. For the difficulties they faced, Bonhoeffer advised them to turn to Christ, in whom they could receive answers.

The key controversy was that Bonhoeffer suggested that the state cannot represent the Church and therefore cannot have any power or authority over it. The questions we should consider are: ‘Should the state and Church be separate?’ ‘Should the Church get exclusivity from the state?’ ‘If we live in the land, should we not abide by the laws of the land?’

Obedience to the will of God

We in live a world where the views of the public are mixed and varied due to political leadership, which is probably at an all-time low. There are many uncertainties surrounding the choices people in power make for others. The times in which we live and the people who rule have divided the people in either accepting their rules or rebelling against them. The focus in obeying God’s will is made clear in the New Testament and is set out in the teachings of Paul in the Epistle to the Romans.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due them – taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.

(Romans 13:1–7)

The purpose of this quotation is so that Christians might better understand how it is that God would have people relate to those whom he, in his sovereignty, has placed in authority.

However, Bonhoeffer was asking the question, ‘Is it God’s will to obey the state?’

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christian should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.

(Bonhoeffer, Sermon)

For discussion

What does he mean by this quote? Does he suggest that people bow down too much to the state and the rules of others rather than spreading the truth about the Church’s beliefs?

Remembering what he had faced under the reign of Hitler, Bonhoeffer fought fervently for social justice. Bonhoeffer’s conviction is clear in the quote, stating that people must submit, abandon their selfish ways and become selfless. He is saying that taking a strong stance can help people stand together so that justice can prevail. There must be balance, but people should not forget others in doing so.

It comes down to the basics of the importance of Christian love. Bonhoeffer is very focused on Christian autonomy; however, Christians can achieve this by living moral lives. His argument extends to the concepts of people submitting to prayer and focusing on Christ as their role model.

Leadership

Bonhoeffer spent much of his life opposing what he considered to be bad leadership. When Hitler was elected chancellor in 1933, his was one of the first voices in Germany to urge for caution.

He wrote extensively on topics concerning Christian theology and effective spiritual practices. Considering his personal perspective witnessing Hitler’s rise, he also addressed the nature of leadership and power.

The primary focus on leaders, whoever they may be, is linked with the degree of power; however, this can be challenged by this statement attributed to Abraham Lincoln: ‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.’

Bonhoeffer claimed that Germany allowed a leader with his own motives and agendas to lead the country. In doing so the people had submitted to giving up who they were. Leadership should be an area where someone takes everyone’s views into perspective. They should realise that leadership goes beyond the leader.

Bonhoeffer’s words about true leadership, therefore, are appropriate for anybody. He certainly had Hitler in mind and political leaders in general while writing this passage:

If [the true Leader] understands his function in any other way than as it is rooted in fact, if he does not continually tell his followers quite clearly of the limited nature of his task and of their own responsibility, if he allows himself to surrender to the wishes of his followers, who would always make him their idol – then the image of the Leader will pass over into the image of the mis-leader, and he will be acting in a criminal way not only towards those he leads, but also towards himself. The true Leader must always be able to disillusion. It is not just that this is his responsibility and real object. He must lead his following away from the authority of his person to the recognition of the real authority of orders and offices … He must radically refuse to become the appeal, the idol, i.e. the ultimate authority of those whom he leads … He serves the order of the state, of the community, and his service can be of incomparable value. But only so long as he keeps strictly in his place … He has to lead the individual into his own maturity … Now a feature of man’s maturity is responsibility towards other people, towards existing orders…

… Only when a man sees that office is a penultimate authority in the face of an ultimate, indescribable authority, in the face of the authority of God, has the real situation been reached. And before this Authority the individual knows himself to be completely alone. The individual is responsible before God. And this solitude of man’s position before God, this subjection to an ultimate authority, is destroyed when the authority of the Leader or of the office is seen as ultimate authority … Alone before God, man becomes what he is, free and committed to responsibility at the same time.

(Bonhoeffer, ‘Leadership Principle’, 1933)

Bonhoeffer acknowledged that leadership is a normal and necessary part of life. Authentic leadership, in Bonhoeffer’s view, is the administration of an objective office.

The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them.

(Life Together)

Justification of civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is sometimes, though not always, defined as non-violent resistance.

Bonhoeffer believed in non-violent resistance but considered that it was his Christian duty to use force against an evil regime. He was arrested on 5 April 1943 on the grounds that he helped Jews escape to Switzerland. He then spent 18 months in a military prison in Berlin. He was accused of involvement in the July 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler and was placed in the Buchenwald concentration camp. From there he was taken to Flossenbürg, where he was hung for treason in 1945. This stance might seem to oppose or contradict his views on modelling life on Jesus and Christianity being about love. The key to understanding Bonhoeffer’s view on civil disobedience is that Christians have a responsibility towards the state; however, this does not mean that they require the state to become Christian, but must do things in accordance with the will of God.

Bonhoeffer was truly against the state in the rule of Hitler; he felt that the Church was being sidetracked into Nazism.

In the Old Testament, revenge or retribution is seen as a legitimate aim of punishment.

‘Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered’ (Leviticus 24:19–20). The commandment’s original intention was to limit revenge.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells his disciples that they must offer no resistance or retaliation towards their enemies.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

(Matthew 5:9)

But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.

(Matthew 5:39)

When Jesus was arrested one of the disciples cut off the ear of one of the guards. ‘Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” ’ (Matthew 26:52).

For discussion

This appears to contradict Jesus’ attitude or behaviour on two separate occasions, or does it? Can one do anything to stand up for what they believe in?

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they became angry and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself”?’

He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,” it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’

Historical examples of civil disobedience

So, to conclude, the key aspect of Bonhoeffer’s views was that people should not allow themselves to become consumed with the euphoria of the moment and time, but have the will of God in mind on all occasions. If God’s will is fulfilled, then whatever the consequences of your action God will forgive.

The Church as community and source of spiritual discipline

Bonhoeffer said that the Church must act as a source of morality and hope for all. The focus must be God’s will; however, this needs to encompass everyone even if they are not Christian. The Church needs to be a beacon of hope and willing to be able to give the communities the strength and focus to live moral lives, through either teachings or actions. It needs to stop hiding behind its four walls and embrace everyone, even a society without religion. Bonhoeffer said that ‘Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.’

The key focus of Bonhoeffer was that people should not judge anyone, but embrace everyone: ‘Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others, we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.’

If a community is to unite then it starts with the Church. The Church needs to come out of a place complacency and contentment and make a more practical impact in society. The Church needs to assert itself in a confident powerful manner that can influence people by example; the key to this is showing love and empathy to all.

We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them. So often Christians, especially preachers, think that their only service is always to have to ‘offer’ something when they are together with other people. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking. Many people seek a sympathetic ear and do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking even when they should be listening.

The Church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community.

We have approached a ‘religionless’ age. Some call it a post-Christian world. Ethics and politics are no longer directly influenced by religious beliefs. For many self-describing Christians, their lives show no visible difference from unbelievers. So how can the Church change this? Bonhoeffer would argue that if the Church becomes complacent and does not allow God’s will to be complete then it is not following God’s commandments. Eventually there can be no distinction between state, God’s will and emulating a moral source for people to follow.

Bonhoeffer asked, ‘How can Christ become Lord of the religionless as well?’ and ‘Is there such a thing as a religionless Christian?’ He answered these questions with ‘the nonreligious interpretation of biblical concepts’.

What is religionless Christianity?

Bonhoeffer wrote, ‘If religion is only the garb in which Christianity is clothed – and this garb has looked very different in different ages – what then is religionless Christianity?’ In order to make Christianity current and relevant in today’s world, he invites the Church to rid itself of all non-essential ideas or concepts. He invites people to rethink the way Christians represent Christ and his Word and work in their lives.

What matters is not the beyond but this world, how it is created and preserved, is given laws, reconciled, and renewed. What is beyond this world is meant, in the gospel, to be there for this world – not in the anthropocentric sense of liberal, mystical, pietistic, ethical theology, but in the biblical sense of the creation and the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

(Letters and Papers from Prison)

Bonhoeffer’s idea of religionless Christianity not only opens a door for people to reach a post-Christian world but also can help them understand the relationships and links between God and science.

The Confessing Church

The Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) was a movement within German Protestantism during the period of Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to the government.

In November 1933 Niemöller founded the Pastors’ Emergency League, which resisted the programmes of the German Christians. The Synod of Barmen was held in May 1934, and its theological declaration transformed the defensive movement against Nazi control of the churches into an organised revival, especially where German territorial churches were subject to Nazi administration.

The Confessing Church was formed by Martin Niemöller in 1934 with 6,000 ministers, leaving only 2,000 behind in the National Reich Church. This was a challenge to the Nazis. Around 800 ministers were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Christians were not the only ones being persecuted by the Nazis. About one-third of Jehovah’s Witnesses were killed in concentration camps as they weren’t willing to fight for any cause and therefore refused to serve in the army.

When the German Christians first proposed the Aryan paragraph, Bonhoeffer became active in a counter-group called the Young Reformation Movement. (His sister’s marriage to a converted Jew undoubtedly provided personal motivation.) The Young Reformers advocated an outright rejection of excluding non-Aryans from pulpits or pews.

Barmen Declaration (The Theological Declaration of Barmen) of 1934 was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the delegates to the Synod that met in the city of Barmen in May 1934, the German Christians were said to have corrupted the Church government by making it bow down to the state and had introduced Nazi ideology into the German Protestant churches which went against the Christian gospel.

(i) the subordination of the Church to the state (8.22–3) and

(ii) the subordination of the Word and Spirit to the Church. ‘8.27 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.’ On the contrary, The Declaration proclaims that the Church ‘is solely Christ’s property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance.’ (8.17) Rejecting domestication of the Word in the Church, The Declaration points to the inalienable lordship of Jesus Christ by the Spirit and to the external character of church unity which ‘can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit. Thus, alone is the Church renewed’ (8.01): it submits itself explicitly and radically to Holy Scripture as God’s gracious Word.

The declaration was mostly written by the Reformed theologian Karl Barth. The declaration states that Christ is in the centre and that the church accepts only things which are in line with Jesus Christ.

In 1936, the unity of the Confessing Church started to disappear because political differences led the Lutheran churches to form the Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany. The Reformed and United sections of the Confessing Church remained active in protesting euthanasia and the persecution of the Jews. Due to the pressure from the Nazis the Confessing Church was eventually forced underground. In 1937 Niemöller and many other clergy were arrested. After World War II, the Confessing Church continued, but was seriously damaged by the conscription of both clergy and laity. In 1948, it ceased to exist when the churches formed the reorganised Evangelical Church in Germany.

The religious community of Finkenwalde

In 1935 Bonhoeffer was presented with a much sought-after opportunity. He was asked to return to Germany to take over and lead an illegal preacher’s seminary, founded by theologians, who were preparing for the profession of priesthood after studying at the university.

The seminary existed for two years before the Gestapo ordered it closed in August 1937.

The two years of Finkenwalde’s existence produced some of Bonhoeffer’s most significant theological work as he prepared these young seminarians for the turbulence and risk of parish ministry in the Confessing Church.

Bonhoeffer and his seminarians were under Gestapo surveillance; some of them were arrested and imprisoned. Throughout, he remained dedicated to training them for the ministry and its challenges in a challenging time. In this period Bonhoeffer wrote his classics, Discipleship and Life Together.

The focus of the community of Finkenwalde was to promote a positive moral living standard for all. The time in Finkenwalde should have characterised young theologians for their whole lives. Bonhoeffer led with them a consistent Christian life, from which these young theologians had the power to withstand the burdens and afflictions to which they were to be subjected in their work within the Confessing Church.

The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of new monasticism which has in common with the old only the uncompromising attitude of a life lived according to the Sermon on the Mount in the following of Christ. I believe it is now time to call people to this.

(Bonhoeffer, Letter to His Brother, 1935)

(Bonhoeffer, Life Together)

The cost of discipleship

‘What is Christian discipleship?’ By definition, a disciple is a follower, one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another. A Christian disciple is a person who accepts and assists in the spreading of the good news of Jesus Christ.

This quote states that when someone becomes a disciple of God there are many sacrifices, and the key sacrifice is that the person surrenders everything to God and his will: ‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die’ (Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship). Bonhoeffer goes on to state that ‘Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ’ (The Cost of Discipleship). However, what can the call to discipleship, the belief in the word of Jesus, mean to the community? What was the purpose of Jesus? What is God’s will for people today?

Bonhoeffer feared that many do not follow because, for example, a human rather than the divine word is preached. Discipleship is much easier than man-made rules and dogmas, but more important. What Jesus wills is to be done and he gives the grace to do this. Discipleship may be hard, but it is not limited – it is a great sacrifice. Discipleship is the road to the fulfilment of Christianity.

Ethics as an action

For Bonhoeffer, the foundation of ethical behaviour is based on how the reality of the world and the reality of God were reconciled by the reality of Christ. Both in his teachings and in his life, ethics was centred on the demand for action by responsible men and women in facing evil. Evil, he claimed, was concrete and specific, and it could be overridden only by the specific actions of responsible people. Bonhoeffer took an uncompromising position in his seminal work Ethics, which was directly reflected in his stance against Nazism. In 1940 his early opposition turned into active conspiracy in trying to overthrow the regime. It was during this time, until his arrest in 1943, that he worked on Ethics.

Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment. Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living. God’s command is enough and your faith in him to sustain you. Then at last freedom will welcome your spirit amid great rejoicing.

(Bonhoeffer, Ethics)

Under the guide of Barth, Bonhoeffer was steered towards the belief that God chooses to reveal himself to the people.

Costly grace

(Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)

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. In such a community the world finds a cheap covering for its sins, still less has any real desire to be delivered from these sins. 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 is the grace people allow themselves. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship.

However, Bonhoeffer mainly focuses on costly grace, which entails making sacrifices. At what cost? Bonhoeffer wanted politics and personal ends to be separate from Church and state. Grace allows people to make choices and assumes they will make the best choice. Grace cannot be bought; it is an ultimate sacrifice. Grace is costly, because there are major implications. Why did Jesus die on the cross? What was the purpose? What does Jesus’ sacrifice mean for all Christians?

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.

(Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)

People should seek life and freedom only in Jesus Christ. He is said to contain the fullness of both grace and truth.

Sacrifice and suffering

Jesus said in Luke 9:23–25, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?’

Robert H. Stein notes that three conditions for following Jesus are laid out in this passage:

The first involves a need to deny oneself. This is much more radical than simply a denial of certain things. This mandates a rejection of a life based on self-interest and self fulfillment. Instead a disciple is to be one who seeks to fulfill the will and the teachings of Christ.
The second condition involves the need to take up one’s cross … Jesus’ own crucifixion reveals more fully to Luke’s readers that this call is a commitment unto death. There needs to be a willingness to suffer martyrdom if need be.
The final condition is the need to follow Jesus. In contrast to the other two conditions, indicating that following Jesus must be continual.

(Luke: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture [The New American Commentary])

Bonhoeffer’s conviction was based on ‘costly grace’ because it cost Jesus his life. Grace is also costly because it costs people their very lives if they follow Jesus. The ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made had no boundaries, so people in their quest to complete God’s will must go through sacrifice and suffering. They will have to embrace the life of sacrificing various aspects of things that could possibly lead them astray.

To Bonhoeffer, true and biblical discipleship had to be costly and self-sacrificing. There really was no other way to follow Jesus. As a Christian, he followed Jesus regardless of the cost to his own safety and position. Even if he had to suffer to follow Jesus then that was the level of sacrifice he was willing to complete. In the Cost of Discipleship, he wrote, ‘Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his Master … If we refuse to take up our cross and submit to suffering and rejection at the hands of men, we forfeit our fellowship with Christ and have ceased to follow him.’

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

(James 1:2–4)

Suffering to James can result in true joy when trials test a person’s faith. The cost of following Jesus comes at a price. The key question is whether people are willing to make that sacrifice.

Solidarity

Right up until the day he was put to death Bonhoeffer was an acting representative of Christ suffering with the victims of Hitler’s rule. At the centre of Bonhoeffer’s theology of the cross was his ethics of suffering solidarity. Due to Jesus Christ’s suffering and pain to set humanity free from sin and bondage, God revealed that he is aware of the suffering. This shows that God is willing to go through suffering with humanity and ensure that he is in solidarity with his people.

The Nazis were ordering all men of his age to register with the military. Bonhoeffer was convinced that this was not God’s will for him, so he decided with support from his family and friends to travel to America to avoid the coming war.

Once in New York, Bonhoeffer began to question his decision to flee Germany. It appeared that God was calling him back to Germany to face the Nazis with his fellow Germans.

In a letter to Reinhold Niebuhr in July 1939, Bonhoeffer wrote these words (from A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer):

I have had the time to think and to pray about my situation and that of my nation and to have God’s will for me clarified. I have come to the conclusion that I have made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period of our national history with the Christian people of Germany. I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.

In the article, ‘Religionless Christianity and Vulnerable Discipleship: The Interfaith Promise of Bonhoeffer’s Theology,’ David H. Jensen writes,

Bonhoeffer’s participation in Operation 7 … offers … evidence of his solidarity with those most vulnerable under Nazi terror. By the fall of 1941 and continuing until his arrest, Bonhoeffer’s cumulative actions displayed a concern with those victimized most brutally by Nazism and a willingness to put himself at risk on their behalf.

Bonhoeffer was an example of a deeply committed follower of Jesus who submitted to the will of God. He was a man who offered his life where Christ could become present in the world through suffering solidarity and passionate love.

This showed that Bonhoeffer was committed to ensuring that social justice took its place and that justice prevailed. No matter where he was he still made his voice heard, showing the Nazis that he was in solidarity with injustices and the Jews. However, it is important to remember that he believed that eventually all Jews should convert to Christianity.

In his letter to his friend and biographer, Eberhard Bethge, he wrote this testament:

If we are to learn what God promises and what he fulfils, we must persevere in quiet meditation on the life, sayings, deeds, sufferings, and death of Jesus. It is certain that we may always live close to God and in the light of his presence, and that such living is an entirely new life for us; that nothing is then impossible for us, because all things are possible with God; that no earthly power can touch us without his will, and that danger and distress can only drive us closer to him. It is certain that we can claim nothing for ourselves, and may yet pray for everything; it is certain that our joy is hidden in suffering, and our life in death; it is certain that in all this we are in a fellowship that sustains us. In Jesus God has said Yes and Amen to it all, and that Yes and Amen is the firm ground on which we stand.

(391)

Bonhoeffer’s relevance today

When looking back at Bonhoeffer’s life and work there are many facets to consider: he completed his doctorate in theology at the age of 21 from the University of Berlin, and he was a caring minister whose life and ministry were shortened by the Nazis at a young age. Further to this Bonhoeffer left the Christian world powerful messages in works including: Grace (Cheap and Costly), Religionless Christianity and Cost of Discipleship. Christology forms the framework of all Bonhoeffer’s theology, and there is much which can be learned from this focus.

Bonhoeffer’s life was extraordinary. He lived in extraordinary times and under very difficult conditions. Still today his life and work continue to engage the minds of Christians and others alike. Bonhoeffer’s legacy of a life of faith as personally intense and substantive as it was has proved very influential. It was his stance and conviction that made his faith stronger and more fervent, with the struggles following Hitler becoming chancellor, the churches bowing down to the state and the persecution of the Jews among many others. People rightly continue to be humbled by the courage, faith and self-sacrifice that Bonhoeffer showed until the very end of his life.

Even after his death, Bonhoeffer’s life and thought continue to play a vital role for individuals throughout the world. Although his influence has been largely on those within Christian communities, his focus on social injustice and the correct treatment of people is still an inspiration today for people to try to make a difference. However, not everyone would agree with the stance and teachings that he held. One of the main contentions is whether Christians can cope in modern societies. Would they eventually become overwhelmed by allowing distractions to rule them or would they be guided by God’s will? Also, would his theology work in today’s multifaith societies?

As Christology is the interpretative key to Bonhoeffer’s reading of the Bible and practice, so should it be for the Church. What then is the function of Christology?

(Greek: Χριστός Khristos, messiah, and λογία logia, word). study which is about the ontology of the person of Jesus as found in the New Testament.

Summary

Review questions

Look back over the chapter and check that you can answer the following questions:

1 Who founded the Confessing Church?
2 What did Bonhoeffer mean by ‘religionless Christianity’?
3 Who was Karl Barth?
4 What do you think are the main strengths and weaknesses of Bonhoeffer’s teachings?

Terminology

Do you know your terminology?

Try to explain the meaning of the following ideas without looking at your books and notes:

Aryan paragraph
Christology
Civil disobedience
Grace
Secular pacifism
Systematic theology
Tyrannicide.

Read the question carefully – remember that although Bonhoeffer’s life is important in understanding him, it is his teachings which you will be questioned on. Answer the question set, not the one you would like to have been set.

Sample exam-style question

To what extent do you think that Bonhoeffer’s views on civil disobedience are compatible with Christianity?

Further possible questions

Living

22 Christian moral action

What you will learn about in this chapter

The OCR checklist

Introduction

Early life

Systematic theology

The Confessing Church

Duty to God and duty to the state

Obedience to the will of God

For discussion

Leadership

Justification of civil disobedience

For discussion

Historical examples of civil disobedience

The Church as community and source of spiritual discipline

What is religionless Christianity?

The Confessing Church

The religious community of Finkenwalde

The cost of discipleship

Ethics as an action

Costly grace

Sacrifice and suffering

Solidarity

Bonhoeffer’s relevance today

Summary

Review questions

Terminology

Do you know your terminology?

Examination questions practice

Sample exam-style question

Further possible questions

Further reading