Dietrich Bonhoeffer

About driving a spoke into the wheel of injustice
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (1943-1945)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and Nazi resister. He is considered to be a modern Christian martyr who voluntarily returned to Germany to speak out against Hitler and accept almost certain death for doing so. He was executed shortly before the Allies defeated Germany near the end of World War II, just 23 days before the Nazis' surrendered.

The integrity of his Christian faith and life, and the international appeal of his writings, have led to a broad consensus that he is the one theologian of his time to lead future generations of Christians into the new millennium.

Bonhoeffer was a member of a group of an organization that helped Jews escape to Switzerland. He also took part in a conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler. Hitler personally ordered his execution.

He was hanged in the concentration camp at Flossenbürg on April 9, 1945, just three weeks before the city was liberated . His brother and two of his brothers-in-law also died at the hands of the Nazi regime for their participation in the Protestant resistance movement. The letters he wrote during these final two years of his life were posthumously published by his student and friend, Eberhard Bethge, as Letters and Papers from Prison. His correspondence with his fiancé, Maria von Wedermeyer, has been published as Love Letters from Cell 92.

An SS prison doctor who was at the execution described Bonhoeffer as "kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God", and he went on to say "at the place of execution, he again said a short prayer... In almost 50 years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."

Bonhoeffer on Abortion

According to Bonhoeffer, killing an embryo in mother's womb violates the right of emerging life granted by God. Entering the marriage is in his view associated with recognizing this right of future new life as right that spouses do not have at their own discretion. If this right is not honored, marriage is ceasing to be a marriage and becomes a mere affair. Honoring this human right opens a room for the free creative will of God that can elicit a new life from this marriage. If we investigate the question whether the human embryo is a human being or not, this only serves to obfuscate the fundamental issue that God intended, by all means, to create a human being here and that we are wittingly taking the life of this developing innocent human being against the natural course of events. This is nothing else than a murder. Although the motives of such act can differ widely, they however do not change the very fact of this murder whatsoever. When this is taking place in the hopeless human loneliness and poverty, the guilt is more correctly to be attributed to society than to an individual. In any case, this definitely requires a personal approach and tactful treatment of person with such experience. Namely the mother that underwent the difficult decision process that contradicts her own nature, will be unlikely denying the weight of guilt. Only God as Creator and donor of bodily life has right to have the life at His disposal. The right to end this life is reserved by God to Himself, as He is the only one who knows towards what goal he wants to lead the life.

List of major works

• Ethics. When Gestapo arrested Bonhoeffer, most manuscripts of this work were hidden in various shelters. Only later, based on sketch of Bonhoeffer's concept, they were put together by author's friend Eberhard Bethge who prepared the first edition published in 1949.

Quotes

• "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak; not to act is to act."

Dietrich Boehoeffer on folly being more dangerous than evil

King Solomon stated: "One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless." (Proverbs 14:16). So fools are often evil.

Dietrich Boehoeffer on folly being more dangerous than evil:

“

Folly is a more dangerous enemy to the good than evil. One can protest against evil; it can be unmasked…. Evil always carries the seeds of its own destruction, as it makes people , at the least, uncomfortable. Against folly we have no defense. Neither protests nor force can touch it; reasoning is of no use; facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved – indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool…is completely self-satisfied; in fact, he can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make him aggressive. …we shall never try to convince a fool by reason, for it is both useless and dangerous. If we are to deal adequately with folly, we must try to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is a moral rather than an intellectual defect. There are people who are mentally agile but foolish, and people are slow but very far from foolish. …We notice further that this defect is less common in the unsociable and solitary than in individuals or groups that are inclined or condemned to sociability. It seems then, that folly is a sociological rather than a psychological problem, and that it is a special form of the operation of historical circumstances on people, a psychological by-product of definite external factors. If we look more closely, we see that any violent display of power…produces an outburst of folly in a large part of mankind; indeed, this seems actually to be a psychological and sociological law: the power of some needs the folly of others. …the upsurge of power makes such an overwhelming impression that men are deprived of their independent judgement…. The fact that the fool is often stubborn must not mislead us into thinking that he is independent. One feels in fact, when talking to him, that one is dealing, not with the man himself, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like, which have taken hold of him. He is under a spell, he is binded, his very nature is being misused and exploited. Having thus become a passive instrument, the fool will be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. But at this point it is quite clear, too, that folly can be overcome, not by instruction, but only by an act of liberation; and so we have come to terms with the fact that in the majority of cases inward liberation must precede outward liberation, and until that is taken place, we may as well abandon all attempts to convince the fool. In this state of affairs we have to realize why it is no use trying to find our what ‘the people’ really think and why the question is so superfluous for the man who thinks and acts responsibly…. The Bible’s words that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ tell us that a person’s inward liberation to live a responsible life before God is the only real cure for folly. But there is some consolation in these thoughts on folly: they in no way justify us in thinking that most people are fools in all circumstances. What will matter is whether those in power expect more from people’s folly than from their wisdom and independence of mind.

”

External links

• Bonhoeffer.org A website dedicated to his memory describes his sacrifice
• A Third Testament: Free e-book about Christian saints, including Augustine, Kierkegaard, and Bonhoeffer