59 pages • 1 hour read
Eric MetaxasBonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Nature of Christian Identity and Practice
At both the individual and the communal level, Bonhoeffer’s theological work focused on the nature of Christian identity and practice. He championed a holistic vision of Christian life within the church community, a vision which he believed contrasted with the more individualistic approach that had developed in German Protestant theology.
At the individual level, German Protestant theology regarded faith in an increasingly atomized and spiritual way instead of emphasizing a more communal approach. Some Protestant theology emphasized the importance of believing certain doctrines about God and Christ, suggesting that one would experience salvation on that basis. Bonhoeffer argued that this theological approach left no necessary place for the church in Christian life, and that it failed to emphasize the practical action which he regarded as central to Jesus’s teachings on how to live. Bonhoeffer encouraged a vision of Christian spirituality which was rooted in the communal life of the church, stressing the importance of the practical and ethical sides of the gospel mandate. Christianity, he argued, was a life which called one to action rather than passivity—a principle which was exemplified in his own life and in the choices that led to his death: “[True Christianity] had everything to do with living one’s whole life in obedience to God’s call through action” (446).
At the corporate level of church fellowship, Bonhoeffer advocated for a reconsideration of the very nature of the church, which formed the basis of his doctoral dissertation. Many groups focused on their own particular denomination as the definition of the church, but Bonhoeffer was convinced that other church communions (with the exception of the Reichskirche) were just as much a part of the “true” church as his own. The church was ecumenical, a universal body of all Christians who held to the core tenets of the faith and sincerely sought to put the teachings of Christ into practice. He even argued that the church was, in a real instead of figurative sense, the instantiation of the Body of Christ—an instance of his real presence in the world: “Bonhoeffer would identify the church as neither a historical entity nor an institution, but as ‘Christ existing as church-community’” (63).
In contrast to prevailing church practices which emphasized attendance at weekly services, Bonhoeffer sought to build up a culture of mutual encouragement, daily prayer, and shared life together among his ministry ordinands. The life of the church was not, then, simply a matter of a rote weekly participation, but—just as in the case of the individual Christian life—a matter of practical, daily action, undertaken together with other believers.
The Interplay Between Faith and Political Action
One of the dominant themes in the biography is the interplay between faith and political action. Bonhoeffer thought political action was necessary under certain conditions. He believed that Christians should follow Jesus in active, practical ways in everyday life, even when it was dangerous to do so. His understanding of the Christian life made him regard political action against the Nazis as a moral necessity.
Bonhoeffer’s position was in some ways a reaction against the other major Protestant stances towards political involvement at the time. For the “German Christians” movement and the Reichskirche, faith and political action were so interwoven that they became inextricably bound together. To be a Christian was to be a nationalistic German, supporting the Führer with a passion that carried all the hallmarks of religious devotion. For some of the traditional Christian believers, however, such as those from pietist and some Confessing Church congregations, faith was almost entirely divorced from political action. They viewed faith as a doctrinal and spiritual matter, separate from whatever might be going on in the political sphere. Bonhoeffer rejected such views, regarding faith as an important guide to political action: “A major theme for Bonhoeffer was that every Christian must be ‘fully human’ by bringing God into his whole life, not merely into some ‘spiritual’ realm” (361).
Bonhoeffer argued that the gospel required Christians to speak out against oppression, care for victims, and hold the state accountable for its use of its divinely-appointed role in society: “[T]he church must question the state, help the state’s victims, and work against the state, if necessary” (155). Ultimately, this conviction was so strong that it drove Bonhoeffer—in most ways a pacificist—to join a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, reflecting his conviction that true faith requires action. Bonhoeffer believed that being passive in the face of Nazi oppression was a worse sin than assassinating Hitler. Bonhoeffer also viewed his pastoral role as not only one of congregational care and moral instruction, but of serving as a prophetic voice, thereby seeking to persuade other members of his congregation of the necessity of political resistance. He thus openly condemned Hitler’s antisemitic initiatives and urged others to resist Nazi influence in church practice and doctrine.
As such, Bonhoeffer held himself and his colleagues to a high moral standard, believing that the clergy must seek to take direct political action motivated by their Christian faith, regardless of the consequences.
Resistance Against Oppressive Regimes
Bonhoeffer’s role as a resistance leader changed and developed throughout the 1930s, and he offers many insights into the nature of resistance against oppressive regimes. His resistance efforts proceeded in four stages. He began by working within his own circles of influence, then by using whatever platforms were available to him to draw negative public attention to the regime. When public advocacy became too dangerous, he worked on covertly building up institutions of resistance, and finally he engaged in direct action to try to remove the regime from power.
Bonhoeffer was disaffected with Hitler and the Nazis from the beginning of their rise to power, and as a pastor most of his early attempts to resist their influence were limited to the theological and ecclesiastical circles in which he worked. Despite that limitation, he was clear in framing the issue for his contemporaries: “The question is really: Christianity or Germanism?” (185). He was active in what was called the “church struggle,” the debates within German Christianity over to what extent the churches should adopt the new sense of nationalistic fervor and outward antisemitism into their life and practice. In response to such pressures, Bonhoeffer took part in the Pastors’ Emergency League and was instrumental in involving expatriate German congregations in the church struggle.
Bonhoeffer also began using whatever opportunities came his way to expose the Nazi regime to negative public attention, both at home and abroad. Of this prophetic-style response, Metaxas notes Bonhoeffer’s fervency in trying to reach his audience: “He seemed to want to warn everyone to wake up […] They were all sleepwalking toward a terrible precipice!” (122). In Germany, just as Hitler’s election to high office was secured, Bonhoeffer gave a public radio address warning of the dangers of such a regime and the theological necessity of speaking out against its abuses. While serving in London, Bonhoeffer used his contacts in English ecclesiastical life to bring the darker side of Nazi Germany to the attention of the British public. The third stage of his resistance against the Nazi regime came in his work with the Confessing Church seminary. Here he quietly built an institution beyond the notice of Nazi observation, a method of education which could equip the churches of Germany to become continuing centers of faith-based resistance to the Führer.
The fourth and final stage of Bonhoeffer’s resistance came with his wartime work for the Abwehr, in which he played a crucial role in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. While the assassination attempt ultimately proved unsuccessful, Bonhoeffer’s work of ferrying information to contacts in the Allied world helped to expose the specter of Nazi abuses to the outside world. Even though he was not a soldier, politician, or any other figure normally associated with political resistance, Bonhoeffer exemplifies the many ways in which citizens can resist an oppressive regime from within.
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