Now he signed up with the German secret service to serve as a double agent—while traveling to church conferences over Europe, he was supposed to be collecting information about the places he visited, but he was, instead, trying to help Jews escape Nazi oppression.
Bonhoeffer also became a part of a plot to overthrow, and later to assassinate, Hitler. As his tactics were changing, he had gone to America to become a guest lecturer. But he couldn't shake a feeling of responsibility for his country. Within months of his arrival, he wrote theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, "I have made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the Christian people of Germany.
I will 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.
Bonhoeffer, though privy to various plots on Hitler's life, was never at the center of the plans. Eventually his resistance efforts mainly his role in rescuing Jews was discovered. On an April afternoon in , two men arrived in a black Mercedes, put Bonhoeffer in the car, and drove him to Tegel prison. Bonhoeffer spent two years in prison, corresponding with family and friends, pastoring fellow prisoners, and reflecting on the meaning of "Jesus Christ for today.
In another passage, he said, "To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, to make something of oneself a sinner, a penitent, or a saint on the basis of some method or other, but to be a man—not a type of man, but the man that Christ creates in us.
It is not the religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life. Born in Breslau, Germany, in , Bonhoeffer received his doctorate from Berlin University in , where he lectured as part of the theology faculty in the early s and was ordained a Lutheran pastor in In rebellion against the Nazi-controlled state church, some 2, Lutheran pastors organized the Pastors' Emergency League in , which later became the Confessing Church.
Bonhoeffer was head of the independent church's seminary at Finkenwalde. It was one of five seminaries closed by the Nazis in A member of the resistance, he communicated with the British government and also worked on his book, Ethics, from until his arrest in Hence, Christian ethics cannot exist in a vacuum; what the Christian needs, claims Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is concrete instruction in a concrete situation.
Although the author died before completing his work, this book is recognized as a major contribution to Christian ethics. Bonhoeffer's fellow resisters tried to kill Hitler but were unsuccessful. On April 23, two other members of the conspiracy, Bonhoeffer's brother, Klaus, and a second brother-in-law, Rudiger Schleicher, were executed, seven days before Hitler committed suicide.
In his rationale for the General Conference resolution, Sigman wrote: "During a time of grave darkness in Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer shined the light of Christ all the way to a hangman's noose. You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist.
Please sign in or create an account. Description A new comprehensive biography of this hugely important Christian martyr, 60 years after his execution at the hands of the Nazis Bonhoeffer has gained a position as one of the most prominent Christian martyrs of the last century.
Close Preview. Table of Contents 1. Foreword to the English edition 2. Introduction 3. Childhood and Youth 4. Student Years 5. Travel Years 6. Before the Storm 7. London 9. The Secret Seminary at Finkenwalde In the Pomaranian Forests New York Resistance Imprisioned The End Epilogue Acknowledgements Bibliography. About the contributors. Title mentioned in author profile on The Topeka-Capital-Journal. Related Titles. Singing at the Winepress. Tyler Atkinson. Catholic Theology.
Tracey Rowland. Creation, Christ and Culture. Richard W. Theology and the Future. Trevor Cairney. Faith in the Public Square. Rowan Williams. Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love. Elizabeth A. Place, Ecology and the Sacred. I am not one to speculate much about how I would respond in such a time. Thankfully, I did not live during that time and did not need to make that decision.
Nor do I damn Bonhoeffer for his decision to participate in the plot. In my view he might have made a bad choice, and it does not take away from his work as pastor, theologian and teacher of the church.
As I said, I realize I am in the minority. I am willing to be considered wrong. Maybe the term has shifted in meaning. But I worry that we so badly desire to hold someone up as a martyr, that we risk confusing the heart of what it means to be a martyr. Almighty God, your Holy Spirit gives to one the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, and to another the word of faith.
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