Theologian of Resistance

The Life and Thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christiane Tietz, Victoria J. Barnett

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781506408446
• eBook ISBN: 9781506408453
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Since Dietrich Bonhoeffer's death in 1945, executed by the Nazis as a political dissident, he has continued to fascinate and compel readers as a theologian, witness, and martyr. Bonhoeffer's theological brilliance, committed discipleship, ecumenical insight, and courageous participation in the struggle against fascism have profoundly shaped contemporary Christian understanding and action. In John W. de Gruchy's estimate, had Bonhoeffer lived "he might have dominated the theological scene in the second half of the twentieth century in succession to Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Paul Tillich. As it was, he became the paradigmatic martyr-theologian" for our time. In this new biography, Christiane Dietz masterfully portrays the interconnectedness of Bonhoeffer's life and thought, theology and politics, discipleship, witness, and resistance, tracing the path from his childhood to his imprisonment and execution. Brief, lucid, and imminently accessible, Tietz's new account brings Bonhoeffer's story and work to life in a vivid retelling, unfolding his important and widely read texts, and including new, previously unseen pictures.

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INDEX

Abwehr. See Military Intelligence

Abyssinian Baptist Church, 22

Act and Being, 18–19, 21, 30, 124

African American churches, 22

Allied governments, 81–82

Althaus, Paul, 26, 27

antisemitism, 36–37, 38, 115. See also Jews, persecution of

apartheid, 116

arrests, of Bonhoeffer and conspirators, 83, 84, 93ff., 104, 106, 110, 129, 130. See also interrogations; Dohnanyi; Tegel

Aryan paragraph, in church, 37–39, 40, 43, 47, 126; state laws, 7, 37, 125

assassination of Hitler, vii, 104, 110, 113, 129. See also July 20 conspiracy; resistance

Bad Oeynhausen Confessing synod, 65

baptism, 63, 97

Barcelona, 13–19, 41, 124

Barmen synod, 48–49, 64–65, 74

Barmen Theological Declaration, 49, 126

Barth, Karl, 10–12, 23, 39–40, 45, 82, 125; and Barmen Declaration, 49; influence on Bonhoeffer, 10–12, 15–16, 25–26

Beer Hall Putsch (1923), 64

Bell, George, 48, 50–51, 77, 82, 112, 128, 129. See also ecumenical movement

Berlin, 1, 3ff, 8, 24, 26, 45, 88, 110, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127; Bonhoeffer’s studies, 9–12; Bonhoeffer’s assistantship, 18–19; Bonhoeffer’s pastorate, 28–30; Bonhoeffer’s university lectures, 30–33, 42, 61; and Church Struggle, 47, 55, 71, 73–74, 76; deportations of Jews, 82. See also University of Berlin

Best, Payne, 110

Bethel Confession, 41–42, 126

Bethge, Dietrich, 97

Bethge, Eberhard, 6, 56, 57, 59, 70, 78, 84, 96–100, 104, 105, 112, 113, 114, 126, 129

Bethge, Renate, 97

Bible, 5, 22, 24, 31–32, 40, 47, 74, 83–84, 97, 108, 128; centrality of for Bonhoeffer, 33–34. See also Psalms; Sermon on the Mount

Bismarck, Klaus von, 57

Bismarck, Ruth-Alice von, 57

Block, Eduard, 70

Bodelschwingh, Friedrich von, 41

Bonhoeffer family, 1–4, 5, 71, 77, 95, 96, 97–99, 108, 110, 123, 129; attitude toward religion and the church, 5, 9; attitude toward National Socialism, 35–36

Bonhoeffer, Julie (Tafel), 1, 5, 23

Bonhoeffer, Karl, 1, 2, 5, 7, 35, 71, 123

Bonhoeffer, Karl-Friedrich, 3, 69, 78, 128

Bonhoeffer, Klaus, 3, 8, 104, 110, 130

Bonhoeffer, Paula, 1–3, 5, 69

Bonhoeffer, Walter, 3

Boycott (April 1933), 36–37. See also Jews, early Nazi measures against

Breslau, 1, 3, 123

Brown Synod (September 1933), 39. See also German Christians

Brunner, Emil, 23

Buchenwald, 110, 130

Canaris, Wilhelm, 81–82, 110, 130

Catholic Church, persecution of, 69

Catholicism, 19; Bonhoeffer’s encounter with, 8-9; reception of Bonhoeffer, 114

Chamby (1935), 67, 127

charity, 20, 39; Barcelona, 14; Berlin-Charlottenburg, 30. See also youth work

“cheap grace”, 61. See also Discipleship

Christianity, 14, 15–16, 101; “religionless,” 101, 104, 113, 116, 117; this-worldliness of, 104

Christology, 1933 lectures, 11, 16, 42, 85; prison reflections on, 100, 103. See also Jesus Christ

“The Church and the Jewish Question” (1933), 38–39

church committees, 64–67

Church Dogmatics (Barth), 26

Church Struggle (Kirchenkampf), 5, 21, 33, 37, 55, 57, 60, 61, 71. See also Barmen; Confessing Church; ecumenical movement; Finkenwalde

Church, 30, 33, 40, 49, 53–54, 114, 115, 116–19; Bonhoeffer’s understanding of, 8–10, 11–12, 19, 63, 66, 104; church-state relationship, 38–39, 119–20; ecumenical, 14, 27–28, 51–52; as mandate, 87–88; and Nazi regime, 36–37, 42, 47–48; in United States, 20, 22. See also Catholic Church; Church Struggle; Confessing Church; German Christians; Reich Church; status confessionis

Ciernohorské Kúpele (1932 conference), 27–28

collective pastorates, 70–77, 77, 80

Commandments, 12, 24, 28, 53, 62. See also Sermon on the Mount

community. See Finkenwalde

Confessing Church, vii, viii, 52, 54, 55–64, 83, 113, 126; and ecumenical movement, 50–51, 66–68, 77; emergence of, 40, 48–49; legalization controversy, 74–77; loyalty oath controversy (1938), 63–74; Nazi state pressures on, 64–66, 69, 71, 127; and 1938 pogrom, 74–75. See also Bad Oeynhausen; Barmen; Church Struggle; Finkenwalde; German Christians

confession, 9, 41, 64, as foundation for the church, 64–66; of guilt, 117; personal, 72, 83. See also Barmen; status confessionis

confirmation classes, 29–30, 119

congregation, Bonhoeffer’s work in. See Barcelona; London; ministry; youth work

conscience, 18, 74, 85, 86, 101

conspiracy against Hitler. See July 20; resistance

“costly grace”, 61–62

creation, 31, 38, 41, 42, 71, 115

Creation and Fall, 31, 41, 42, 125

Cross, 20, 103. See also Christology

Crucifixion. See cross

Cuba, visit to (1930), 23

Dahlem synod, 52, 55, 64–66, 74. See also Bad Oeynhausen; Barmen

“death of god” theology, 116

death, 5–6, 20, 60, 90, 101, 103

Delbrück, Hans, 3

Denmark, 49–52, 66, 126, 127

Depression (economic). See Great Depression

Dewey, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• PREFACE
• FROM BRESLAU TO BERLIN, 1906–1923
• THE RETURN FROM TÜBINGEN TO BERLIN, 1923–1927
• WIDER HORIZONS, 1928–1931
• BEGINNINGS, 1931–1932
• THE BEGINNING CHURCH STRUGGLE, 1933
• PASTOR IN LONDON, 1933–1935
• DIRECTOR OF A PREACHERS’ SEMINARY, 1935–1937
• THE PATH INTO ILLEGALITY, 1937–1940
• THE CONSPIRACY PERIOD, 1940–1943
• PRISONER IN TEGEL, 1943–1945
• EPILOGUE: A MODERN SAINT?
• CHRONOLOGY
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX