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Bonhoeffer for a new generation
I was first introduced to Dietrich Bonhoeffer at 18. The testimony of the man's life, giving up a safe teaching post in the United States to return to Germany in 1939 - because he felt he could not be part of building something better in his native land if he had not accompanied his countrymen through a period of intense suffering first - was utterly compelling.
Of his written thoughts, some things riveted me. Other bits I could not understand. It was a mystery how a man who, when imprisoned by the Nazi authorities, could write such devout and meaningful prayers for his fellow prisoners, yet could also talk so positively about a world without God. When I shared how fascinating I found him the response was often, "Great man. Terrific witness. Shame about the theology."
Which is why I am delighted to commend Sabine Dramm's Dietrich Bonhoeffer: An Introduction to His Thought. Here is a book that tells the story of his life in parallel with the development of his thinking, and, in the process, reveals the extraordinary depth and consistency in the latter. At the core of Bonhoeffer's thought was the belief that in Jesus God deliberately became one with human beings and, since the time of Jesus, the Church has been the place where Jesus is made tangible and concrete.
But as a young man he sensed the present form of the Church was dying. Later, the extreme situation in Nazi Germany where the Church had allied itself with monstrous tyranny, led him to ask more sharply: Where has God gone? How does one clear the decks and find God afresh? What new form will a Church which witnesses with authenticity take?
Reading Dramm the seeming incongruities in Bonhoeffer's views suddenly make sense. I was particularly taken with her insight that Bonhoeffer's stand for peace was a courageous acceptance of insecurity, rather than the desire to remove the threat of conflict.
Richard Mortimer is secretary for ecumenical relations, United Reformed Church
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