Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 19:52:57 EDT
From:         JEK@NIHCU.BITNET
Subject:      Dietrich Bonhoeffer (9 April 1945)
X-To:         CHRISTIA@ASUACAD.BITNET, BSTUDY-L@UTARLVM1.BITNET,
              IVCF-L@UBVM.BITNET

Today, 9 April, is the commemoration of William Law and of Dietrich
Bonheoffer, theologians and scholars, one Anglican and one Lutheran.
The two have much in common (see previous posting on William Law.)

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, THEOLOGIAN AND MARTYR (9 APRIL 1945)

Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, son of a professor of psychiatry and
neurology at the University of Berlin. He was an outstanding
student, and at the age of 25 became a lecturer in systematic
theology at the same University. When Hitler came to power in 1933,
Bonhoeffer became a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the
center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis. He organized and for a
time led the underground seminary of the Confessing Church. His
book LIFE TOGETHER describes the life of the Christian community in
that seminary, and his book THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP attacks what he
calls "cheap grace," meaning grace used as an excuse for moral
laxity. Bonhoeffer had been taught not to "resist the powers that
be," but he came to believe that to do so was sometimes the right
choice. In 1939 his brother-in-law introduced him to a group
planning the overthrow of Hitler, and he made significant
contributions to their work. (He was at this time an employee of the
Military Intelligence Department.) He was arrested in April 1943 and
imprisoned in Berlin. After the failure of the attempt on Hitler's
life in April 1944, he was sent first to Buchenwald and then to
Schoenberg Prison. His life was spared, because he had a relative
who stood high in the government; but then this relative was himself
implicated in anti-Nazi plots. On Sunday 8 April 1945, he had just
finished conducting a service of worship at Schoenberg, when two
soldiers came in, saying, "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, make ready and come
with us," the standard summons to a condemned prisoner. As he left,
he said to another prisoner, "This is the end -- but for me, the
beginning -- of life." He was hanged the next day, less than a week
before the Allies reached the camp.

His works in print (paperback) include the following:
 THE MARTYRED CHRISTIAN (MacMillan $7; 160 readings from his works,
288p)
 LETTERS AND PAPERS FROM PRISON (MacM $9)
 CREATION AND FALL and TEMPTATION (bound together) (MacM $5)
 MEDITATING ON THE WORD (Upper Room $8) (large type Walker $10)
 LIFE TOGETHER (Harper $8)
 THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP (MacM $7)
 ETHICS (MacM $7)
 SPIRITUAL CARE (Augsburg Fortress $8)
 THE PSALMS: PRAYER BOOK OF THE BIBLE (Augsburg Fortress $6)
 CHRIST THE CENTER (Harper $8)

Some of his later writings insist that many Christians do not take
seriously enough the existence and power of evil. Because of this
and other statements of his, some theological advocates of
"secularist Christianity" in the 1960's attempted to claim him as
their own. In my judgement, a study of his writings (even his later
writings) as a whole does not support this claim. However, it is
true that he never had a chance to edit his prison letters and
papers, or put them into context, and accordingly it is not
surprising that they contain some statements that baffle the reader.

The following hymn was written by him in the concentration camp,
shortly before his death.

 By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
  and confidently waiting come what may,
 we know that God is with us night and morning,
  and never fails to greet us each new day.

 Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
  still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
 Oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation
  for which, O Lord, You taught us to prepare.

 And when this cup You give is filled to brimming
  with bitter suffering, hard to understand,
 we take it thankfully and without trembling,
  out of so good and so beloved a hand.

 Yet when again in this same world You give us
  the joy we had, the brightness of Your Sun,
 we shall remember all the days we lived through,
  and our whole life shall then be Yours alone.

     This hymn appears in the 1982 Episcopal Hymnal (#695). The
translator is F. Pratt Green (1903- ) listed in hymnal indexes
sometimes under Green and sometimes under Pratt Green. The
translation copyright is Hope Publishing Company 1974.
     The hymn appears as #637 in the current Finnish Hymnal,
translated by Anna-Maija Raittila, and beginning "Hyvyyden voiman
ihmeelliseen suojaan".

   O God our Father, who art the source of strength to all thy
   saints, and who didst bring thy servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer
   through imprisonment and death to the joys of life eternal:
   Grant that we, being encouraged by their example, may hold fast
   the faith that we profess, and that we may seek to know, and
   acccording to our knowledge to do, thy will, even unto death;
   through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with
   thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
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