Dietrich Bonhoeffer: following, even when you have to pay with your life

To answer the question of how to look at the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is not easy. What is striking is that the theologian is quoted with approval both in pious and liberal circles. He arouses admiration for his original theology and no less for his conscientiousness as a resistance fighter in World War II.

The broad appreciation also shows the elusiveness of the Lutheran theologian. There are several reasons for that. The main one is that Bonhoeffer was in full development during his lifetime. Not without reason, his friend Eberhard Bethge gave his bulky biography on Bonhoeffer the subtitle "Theologian – Christian – Contemporary". In doing so, he typified three very different phases in Bonhoeffer's life.

"We should never argue with the devil about our sins, but we should speak about our sins only with Jesus. We should tell the devil that Jesus has called to Himself, not the righteous but sinners. And that we –in defiance of the devil– wish to remain sinners in order to be with Jesus, than be righteous with the devil." -(Excerpt from "Temptation")

These periods help to understand him better. First of all, Bonhoeffer was a theologian. At university, he was shaped by a liberal climate, where the historical-critical method of reading the Bible was the starting point. That shaped him throughout his life. In this sense, Bonhoeffer is a thoroughly 'modern' theologian.

Yet he struck out on a different path from his liberal teachers. Three 'encounters' are the reason for that. First, there was the discovery of Martin Luther's theology. In it, he discovered the "sola gratia"; by grace alone. Lutheran lines can be found in many of Bonhoeffer's works, regularly with direct quotations.

A second defining encounter was with the work of his contemporary Karl Barth (1886-1968). Barth's emphasis on God's revelation –vehemently opposed by Bonhoeffer's teachers– aroused admiration in the young German theologian.

Conversion

A third 'encounter' was the most profound for Bonhoeffer: the one with the Word. He writes about it himself: "I plunged into work in a very un-Christian way. An... ambition that many noticed in me (...). Then something happened which has completely changed my life to the present day. For the first time, I discovered the Bible. That's a terrible thing to say. I had often preached, seen a great deal of the church, and talked and preached about it – but I had not yet become a Christian. In a wild and untamed way, I was still my own master." Bethge speaks of conversion from theologian to Christian, the second phase in his life.

During this period, Bonhoeffer would write some of his best-loved works: "Living Together" and "The Cost of Discipleship". Revealing is his reckoning with "cheap grace", where Christians want to find freedom in the Gospel, but not Christ's call to follow Him: a call that costs people their lives.

A Lutheran depth, the sharpness of his analysis of man as an enemy of grace, the focus on pietistic dealings with God – it is undoubtedly these tones through which Bonhoeffer's work also found acceptance in Dutch Reformed circles.

At the same time, in his teachings, there is always a certain distance from Reformed theology. Bonhoeffer thinks strongly from the community, which is sanctified in Christ and therefore shares in His grace. This results in generality in his speaking about salvation, pushing personal appropriation of salvation into the background.

"Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before (…). Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought and sought again, the gift which must be asked for (…). Such grace is costly 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 (…), 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." (From "The Cost of Discipleship")

Without religion

Much more difficult still is to characterise Bonhoeffer in his last phase of life, that of "contemporary". Especially in prison, his thinking is still developing strongly, as his letters and notes, collected in "Letters and Papers from Prison", show.

The world has become "verbal", writes Bonhoeffer, and Christians will have to take a different place in it. The church should no longer aspire to old positions of power; even speaking about God can no longer be done as before. Bonhoeffer speaks of a "religionless faith" that "speaks worldly of God, without religion. God lets us know that we must live as people who can cope with life without God."

It is not easy to gauge his words. Liberal movements in the last century often used them as an argument for a theology that focuses not so much on God but on social justice in this world. Understandably, they found in Bonhoeffer's words a starting point for their position. Still, it is questionable whether they did full justice to the theologian.

Three divergent phases in the life of a theologian of great thinking power make it difficult to put his theology under a single heading. Moreover, Bonhoeffer's thinking was never complete. His theology was still developing, especially during the prison years 1943-1945. But it never concluded, amounted up to an overall vision. Bonhoeffer was only 39 years old when the Nazis executed him and thus also brought his theologising to an end.

This is the first part of a triptych about three remarkable post-war theologians Dietrich Bonhoeffer, C.S. Lewis and Tim Keller