Book Review #12 – “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (this post is in process and incomplete at this time)
Book Review #12 – “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (the Character of Christian Community); published 1938.
Brief Review of Bonhoeffer’s Life (1906-1945). Is anyone looking for a hero these days? Consider Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The events in his courageous and faithful life that led up to his martyrdom in Nazi Germany would probably need to include these:
1906. He was raised in Berlin in a strong Christian home, his father being a successful psychiatrist and MD who had the bravery to speak out against the apparent shift in Germany that was giving rise to euthanasia for the unwanted and “undesirable.” Dietrich decided at sixteen years of age to be a Christian theologian, and that strong desire remained with him to his dying day.
1927. DB earned his Doctor of Theology degree at 21 years old, and decided to spend a year studying theology at a well-known seminary in New York, Union Theological Seminary. While there, he became entrenched in an African American church in Harlem, the Abyssinian Baptist Church, because of his friendship with a fellow seminarian at Union. During his year in the church, he taught Sunday School, joined various church clubs and Bible studies, visited the homes of church members, and read many of the novels and poetry written by Harlem Renaissance authors. He loved everything about that Black church… the gospel preaching, his friendships within the church, the intimate Christ-centered community, and the inspirational worship music, especially the spirituals from the slavery era. He collected as many records of Negro Spirituals as he could before returning to Germany, where he taught them to his various churches as pastor. One friend of his remembered when, during a difficult time in Nazi Berlin, Bonhoeffer focused on singing with his church “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
1931. His experience in Harlem changed his life, tenderizing his heart to social justice issues, especially regarding racial and ethnic minorities. He said often that he was “truly moved by the people on the margins.” He soon was involved in various ministries to the poor in Germany, preaching and teaching in working-class neighborhoods noted for its high employment and poverty. Bonhoeffer also began ministering in a care facility devoted to those with mental and physical disabilities. It was during this time that he experienced an important rebirth in his faith, a redirection of focus, from his more intellectual beliefs to more of a daily lifestyle of faith. He stated that he wanted more than anything else to simply obey more literally the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. During this year, at 25 years old, Bonhoeffer was ordained into the Lutheran pastorate.
1933. He decided to broadcast the truth in a more wide-ranging way, and delivered a prophetic radio message that turned out be a turning point in his life. In his speech, he declared that Germany must not allow itself to slip into an idolatrous cult by following a dangerous leader who would turn into a “seducer” and “misleader.” Bonhoeffer’s open criticism of Hitler and Nazism resulted in that broadcast being cut off suddenly and without warning before Bonhoeffer was able to finish.
1935. Germany was indeed slipping into just what Bonhoeffer had feared, and he was tempted to leave Nazism behind and go somewhere else. But his famous mentor, theologian Karl Barth, sharply criticized Bonhoeffer in a personal letter, accusing him of “abandoning his post” in Germany, of letting his “splendid theological armory” go to waste while “the house of your church is on fire.” So Bonhoeffer committed himself to remaining with his fellow German Christians during this mortal danger of Nazism. His fellow pastors in Germany who did not compromise their beliefs during this time, those who were called the “Confessing Church,” invited Bonhoeffer to a village named Finkenwalde to lead an illegal, underground seminary. This school would train young pastors in Scripture, the Christian life, theology, and in the faith development needed for what everyone saw was coming right around the corner with Hitler. Bonhoeffer led this forbidden seminary for two years, and put together his notes from this experience of Christian community in 1938 in his book “Life Together.” He also wrote his most famous work during this time, “The Cost of Discipleship,” a study of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Not only that, but he also completed his book on the Psalter, “The Prayer Book of the Bible: An Introduction to the Psalms.”
1937. Heinrich Himmler ordered the Gestapo to close the doors to Bonhoeffer’s illegal seminary, and two months later Himmler arrested all 25 of its pastors and students. Bonhoeffer was also ordered to never step foot into Berlin again, banned from even entering the city to see his parents and friends.
1939. The Nazi government continued to harass Bonhoeffer by banning him from any public speaking and making it illegal for him to print or publish any of his writings. Bonhoeffer then secretly conducted what he called a “seminary on the run,” in which he traveled from one village to another in Germany, quietly preaching, teaching and encouraging Christians who did not want to compromise with Nazism.
1940. Bonhoeffer made the momentous decision to become a double agent, joining the German Military Intelligence, the Abwehr.