Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On this day in 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung in Flossenburg concentration camp in Germany. Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and pastor who was martyred during WW II for his opposition to Hitler, including being a part of a plot to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship has probably affected me more than almost any other book I have read, other than the Bible, and speaks to the Christian in modern times as a powerful and most relevant voice coming down through the ages.

I have just finished reading Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison and am amazed at his astute political, social, and spiritual observations. But he did not stop with observation. He acted. He acted courageously during extremely difficult times. While I do not advocate assassination as a means to eliminate evil (many countries have tried such tactics and new dictators pop up before the old one's body is cold), I do understand Bonhoeffer's stance. He did not feel that he could ask the military men of other countries to kill Hitler if he himself was not prepared to do it. He saw himself as entirely at God's mercy for his decision and while the plot(s) failed, Bonhoeffer did not attempt to avoid responsibility to God or others regarding his actions.

In his Letters and Papers from Prison, Bonhoeffer argued at one point in his incarceration that so many people at that time in Germany wanted security and safety. Due to this, among other things, they were willing to give up their integrity and accountability to God for their lives; to commit evil deeds, or stand by as others committed atrocities, that are still hard to imagine. That is a sharp and true word for us today in the U.S. and modern Western civilization. One that pierces the conscience and influence of the times.

As Bonhoeffer was led to the gallows he said to one of his fellow prisoners who survived the camps, "This is the end----for me, the beginning of life".

I have only just begun to realize what kind of close walk with God, the level of obedience, those words indicate.