Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (2010) is a biography of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, written by Eric Metaxas. Metaxas’s Bonhoeffer has become the standard treatment of Bonhoeffer’s life and work for the general market, although its reception from professional Bonhoeffer scholars has been mixed. The book focuses on Bonhoeffer’s role in guiding the German Confessing Church’s response to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, the development of Bonhoeffer’s theological stance, and his participation in a conspiracy to assassinate the Führer. Bonhoeffer became a New York Times bestseller and the recipient of several awards, including the ECPA Book of the Year and a Christopher Award. Metaxas is a noted biographer and bestselling author, having written books on the lives of notable Christian leaders like Martin Luther and William Wilberforce, as well as works of culture and religion, such as Is Atheism Dead? (2021) and Letter to the American Church (2022). In addition to such works, he has also written several dozen children’s books and is active as a podcast host and a speaker for conservative events.

This study guide uses the 2020 revised and updated edition from Thomas Nelson.

Content Warning: Bonhoeffer makes frequent reference to issues relating to antisemitism under the Nazi regime, including the persecution, torture, and mass murder of the Holocaust.

Summary

Bonhoeffer follows the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) from his earliest childhood to his death in the Nazi concentration camp of Flossenburg, shortly before its liberation by Allied forces.

Bonhoeffer’s family was academically-inclined and highly cultured, representing a proud German lineage connected to great leaders and thinkers on both his father’s and mother’s side. His father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was a leading psychologist in Germany, and many of his siblings became leaders in fields from law to nuclear physics. Bonhoeffer’s mother, while not a regular churchgoer, nonetheless held a sincere faith which she passed on to her children.

Bonhoeffer grew up during the tumultuous years around World War I, which claimed the life of a brother. Like almost all Germans of their time, the Bonhoeffers felt that the settlement at the end of the war unfairly placed the blame on Germany, together with the burden of humiliating, economy-draining reparations. This national sense of being slighted and exploited by the rest of the world would carry Germany all the way into the 1930s, where it would undergird the popularity of Hitler’s reactionary nationalism.

Bonhoeffer studied theology at the Universities of Tübingen and Berlin, all the way to a doctoral degree and a post-doctoral thesis. At the time, most German universities followed the liberal theology laid down by eminent scholars like Adolf von Harnack. Liberal theology was a version of Christian thought which tended to treat the Bible as a purely historical text, not an inspired revelation. Bonhoeffer, however, was more closely aligned to the neo-orthodox position of the prominent scholar Karl Barth, who defended the Bible’s role as “the Word of God,” to be treated as a real and transformative encounter with God.

Upon graduation, Bonhoeffer had to choose between an academic career of teaching theology at the university level or a pastoral role. While he maintained a teaching role periodically at Berlin over the years, he largely opted for the latter career, taking on pastoral roles in Spain, Germany, and England. He also undertook a study trip to the USA, taking advantage of a fellowship offer in New York. While he was unimpressed with the low level of theological sophistication in American universities, he was struck by the spiritual vitality of African-American churches, especially enjoying the musical tradition of spirituals in their hymnody.

As Hitler and the Nazis took advantage of political and economic discontent in Germany to rise to power in the early 1930s, Bonhoeffer began speaking out against the dangers he could already see arising. Most problematic at first was the capitulation of German Lutheran churches to the Nazi agenda, willingly incorporating nationalistic and ethnic-specific rhetoric in their resolutions. This emerging party of so-called “German Christians” set the tone for the German church (soon to be called the Reichskirche). Although Bonhoeffer and other pastors labored hard to get the church to back off from its inflammatory stances, they ultimately felt the need to withdraw. Bonhoeffer, together with influential clergy like Martin Niemöller, was instrumental in forming the Pastors’ Emergency League, which served as a resistance movement against the German Christian takeover, and then of the Confessing Church, which broke off and formed its own denomination. Bonhoeffer viewed the Confessing Church as the true, orthodox Christian church in Germany, while regarding the Reichskirche as a heretical movement due to its unbiblical embrace of nationalism and racial exclusivity. After a stint as a pastor in London, Bonhoeffer returned to Germany to run a seminary which trained ordinands for the Confessing Church, first at Zingst and then at Finkenwalde. His seminary included not only academic theology, but the adoption of a semi-monastic common life for the ordinands, with shared meals, prayers, and worship. The principles he developed in these experiences reinforced the conclusions he expressed in two of his most famous books, The Cost of Discipleship (1937) and Life Together (1939). When Nazi pressure forced the seminary to close, he continued to train ordinands in a decentralized, mentor-based style of education. He also fell in love with a young woman in the seminary’s local area, and they eventually became engaged.

During this time, Bonhoeffer became involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, drawn in by close associates in both his professional and family life. Now working as an Abwehr agent, Bonhoeffer was useful to the conspiracy due to his many international contacts in the ecumenical movement, by which he could communicate information to the Allies. He reconciled the effort with his largely pacifistic theology by asserting that, in the current circumstances, it would be more of a sin to do nothing than to work for Hitler’s elimination. Unfortunately, all the assassination attempts failed, and Bonhoeffer and the other conspirators were arrested.

While incarcerated, Bonhoeffer passed the time in writing and in discussion with his fellow prisoners. His theological reflections would later be published by his friend, Eberhard Bethge, as Letters and Papers from Prison (1951). Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis at Flossenburg in April 1945, shortly before Allied forces reached the area. His memory was honored in churches around the world; particularly in Germany, England, and America, he is remembered both as an influential theologian and a Christian martyr.