Last week in the context of his discerning the
will of God through a conscious and considered practice of prayer, I mentioned
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the biography I have been reading. Several people inquired afterward for
clarification about him and the book, so let me share with you now something that
may be helpful.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 to a
German protestant family of great social, cultural, and academic distinction,
one of eight children, including a twin sister.
He lost one older brother killed in World War I. Even among such precocious siblings, he stood
out for his musical and intellectual abilities.
While it may seem like a logical progression to us, it was shocking to
his family when his studies in theology led him seek a career not as a
professor and scholar, but rather as a pastor.
Having completed his doctoral studies while
still too young to become a pastor (as I said, he was gifted), he worked with a
German Lutheran community abroad in Spain, and spent a year in New York at
Union Theological Seminary. That gave
him an experience of religious life in the United States, notably mainstream
Protestant liberalism (using that term in the specific theological sense) and
the black Christian communities.
Meanwhile, Germany went through the crushing poverties
and shame that the victors of World War I placed upon it, leading to economic
and social near-collapse, from which arose Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Not only Dietrich but his entire family
discerned from the first moment not only the threat that Nazism presented, but
also the authentic evil that underlay their program and propaganda. Dietrich, however, as a significant figure in
the German national protestant church, was faced with specific challenges and questions
of what to say and do.
Without going into too much detail, let me just
tell you that he resisted that evil at every level and in every way at his disposal. Most of that would seem trifling “inside
baseball” in questions of theology and pastoral practice, but in fact was of
monumental consequence. Bonhoeffer
discerned that if he conceded to the bullies on these small points of speech
and practice, what is commonly called “going along to get along,” he would have
no solid ground on which to stand when the so-called “big questions” came
around. He worked actively against the
Nazis and Hitler constantly from the beginning until the end.
For years I have heard of him as a theologian,
especially in the context of his book whose title is usually rendered in
English as The Cost of Discipleship. But the book I have been reading is a recent
biography by Eric Metaxas: Bonhoeffer: Pastor,
Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Long
interested in the history of the period, including especially within Germany, I
find myself binding together many threads of which I had been partially
informed with what I am learning about Bonhoeffer.
Also, I recognize at many turns the theological,
practical, and ecclesial resources that Bonhoeffer either lacked completely or
had to try to invent himself that would have been more readily at his disposal
in the Catholic Church and her tradition.
The extraordinary ability and inspiration of this great Christian shines
forth all the more in this context.
While encouraging you to learn more about him,
I share with you a solitary quotation in which he explains one of the key
concepts he introduced: “cheap grace.”
“Cheap
grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of
forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline,
Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace
without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
It is no less pertinent to us today than it was
when Dietrich Bonhoeffer first articulated it.
Monsignor Smith
