Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy [Hardcover]

Eric Metaxas is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther, If You Can Keep It, Miracles, Seven Women, Seven Men, andAmazing Grace. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the New Yorker, and Metaxas has appeared as a cultural commentator on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. He is the host of The Eric Metaxas Radio Show, a daily nationally syndicated show aired in 120 U.S. cities and on TBN. Metaxas is also the founder of Socrates in the City, the acclaimed series of conversations on "life, God, and other small topics," featuring Malcolm Gladwell, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, Baroness Caroline Cox, and Dick Cavett, among many others. He is a senior fellow and lecturer at large at the King’s College in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

What led you to write a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer?

I'd first heard the story of Bonhoeffer in the summer of 1988 and was simply amazed by it. I was baffled that I'd never heard it before. It haunted me for years, not least because my mother is German and lived through the war, and because my grandfather was killed in the war at age 32 while reluctantly fighting for a regime he hated. The idea that Bonhoeffer stood up for the Jews because of his Christian faith staggered me, and I always thought that I would someday dig deeper into his life.

Have you been surprised by the success and acceptance that Bonhoeffer has received?

I have been stunned. It was very painful to write, but in the midst of the difficulty of writing it, I knew that God was with me—that it was His story and His book. To be perfectly honest, He made that clear to me. He didn't appear in a burning bush or anything, but He has other ways of communicating these days. Honestly, I knew He was involved in my writing this story and that this was His book, but I simply had no idea it would be a bestseller and would have such an impact. I am deeply humbled and grateful, and I have absolutely no confusion about who is the Author of this book's success.

What were some of the special insights you discovered about the Bonhoeffer family?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer didn't arise out of a vacuum. He came out of a family that, as a whole, was at the very center of the conspiracy against Hitler from the beginning of the early1930s. It's hard to fathom, but at age 27, Bonhoeffer himself gave a speech denouncing the Nazi idea of "The Leader Principle” (Das FührerPrinzip) just four days after Hitler became chancellor in early February, 1933. The radio broadcast was cut off before Bonhoeffer could finish his speech, and it's thought that the Nazis were behind that. Bonhoeffer’s whole family had an innate sense from the very beginning that Hitler was the worst thing that had ever happened to Germany and that he would destroy the nation of Shiller, Goethe, and Bach. So Bonhoeffer's family played a huge role in shaping who he was and how he lived.

Were there some unusual or unique sources that you were able to utilize?

There is a spectacular 2003 documentary on Bonhoeffer by Martin Doblmeier. He generously gave me permission to use all of the many interviews that he did with Bonhoeffer's relatives and friends, most of which did not make it into the final cut of the film. The interview with Eberhard Bethge sheds light on Bonhoeffer's attitude toward what happened at Kristallnacht. It also explains how Bonhoeffer could have become involved in a plot to assassinate the head of state. This subject in particular has long needed a more in-depth explanation, and I feel I’ve been able to provide that because of the interview with Bethge. I also had the privilege of interviewing two people who knew Bonhoeffer. One is Renate Bethge, the widow of Bonhoeffer's best friend and biographer. Renate was also his niece and figures centrally in much of my book. The other person is the elder sister of Bonhoeffer's fiancée.

You mention the romance that Bonhoeffer experienced that spanned his final days in prison? Who was the object of his love? What is known of their romance?

My book offers the first full account of their relationship. That's because the letters between them were not published until 1992 by the elder sister of Bonhoeffer's fiancée, whom I had the privilege of meeting. No one has ever used that material to tell Bonhoeffer’s story until now. Maria von Wedemeyer was only eighteen when she and Bonhoeffer fell in love. At thirty-six, Bonhoeffer was literally twice her age. Maria’s mother was strongly against herdaughter’s engagement to Bonhoeffer, and by the time they were officially engaged, Bonhoeffer had been arrested and taken to Tegel prison. Their romance is an incredibly beautiful story, but a sad one too.

You quote some fairly strong words that Bonhoeffer wrote about the state of Christian faith and practice that he witnessed in the U.S. in the training of pastors. Why did he go to Union Theological Seminary? What were the things that he saw which were redeeming?

Bonhoeffer was a brilliant theologian who studied in Berlin under some of the finest theologians in the world. What was being done for theology at Union was, for him, extremely disappointing, and he said so—but he said it in his typically gracious way. He went to Union mainly for the experience of being in Americafor a year. He was too young to be ordained, he wasn't sure what to do with the next year, and his brother had studied in America. Bonhoeffer thought that studying in America would expand his cultural horizons.

When Bonhoeffer used the phrase religionless Christianity, what did he mean? Why has this been a source of controversy?

After his death, Bonhoeffer's theological legacy became unclear because of a few comments he made in letters to a friend about what he called "religionless Christianity." Some overzealous, post-war theologians took these comments far out of context and ran with them, effectively muddying Bonhoeffer’s theology and legacy for two generations. Withouttrying to, I think I was able to clarify some things in a helpful way for future generations just by quoting Bonhoeffer and putting his words into context. In many ways, it seems clear that Bonhoeffer is not the person he was long portrayed as—and I'm happy that the facts can, at last, speak to this. What Bonhoeffer was asserting by his use of the phrase “religionless Christianity”is that churchgoers in Germany were fixated on "being religious" in the superficial sense,and not on living a life of obedience to the teachings of Christ. This attitude lacked the moral rigor to stand up to the Nazi’s plan that led to the Holocaust and added to the great tragedy of German history. Bonhoeffer would have been horrified at how his meaning was distorted. His best friend, Eberhard Bethge—who wrote the first biography on Bonhoeffer in 1967 and to whom Bonhoeffer wrote the letters containing his thoughts on "religionless Christianity,"—desperately tried to rectify the misunderstanding. Bethge was simply unable to stem the tide of post-war, "God-is-dead" theology that miscast the real Bonhoeffer.

Does Bonhoeffer have a message for people today?

There are several, as anyone who has read the book would tell you. It really does seem that this is a story especially for today, which is why, in retrospect, I believe I had to write it—although I didn’t fully realize thisat the time. One message is that true faith—not phony religiosity, but real faith in the God of Scripture—is the only solution to true evil. The evil that Bonhoeffer faced in the Third Reich was not something most Germans knew how to deal withand, of course, most of them failed completely. But Bonhoeffer very presciently saw the Nazis for what they were and faced them with an extraordinary faith which manifests itself—among other things—as courage.

Bonhoeffer's writings and his whole life were uniquely integrated. One sees that his life was the very incarnation of his theology. For him—and this is the main point—if you don't live the things you claim to believe, you don't really believe them at all. Bonhoeffer believed what he wrote and taught, and his life and death are the spectacular and clear evidence of that. The story of Bonhoeffer’s life helps us to think about who we are, what we believe, and why. A life like Bonhoeffer’s can't help but be deeply inspiring.

Bonhoeffer is a powerful book. In many ways, Metaxas tells Bonhoeffer's story with such passion and urgency that one could easily mistake the book as a novel. The book begins by sharing about Bonhoeffer’s family and his early years. It quickly moves along into Dietrich's youth and early adulthood. As Bonhoeffer comes of age, his native Germany moves more and more toward Nazi rule. As the evils of Hitler rise, so does the character of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to oppose the lies of the Nazi party and its influence on the church. The reader is able to see Bonhoeffer's courage in the face of tremendous opposition and in the end the reader witnesses Dietrich's death for his Christian convictions.

Bonhoeffer is thoroughly Christian without being preachy. This is because Metaxas writes this book as a witness to an amazing man and that man's witness to God, allowing Bonhoeffer's life to speak for itself. He tells of his struggles and his victories. Whether we see Bonhoeffer's passion for spiritual development of his trainees in the Confessing Church or his desperate pursuit of a place to worship that preached theologically grounded sermons when he came to America, we come to discover a man full of Christian conviction. By the end of the book, we discover a genius, scholar, and leader that refused to flee from evil in the world, but fought against evil courageously. The reader is left longing for their life to matter in the same way that Bonhoeffer’s did.

Bonhoeffer is not an easy read. The text is nearly 600 pages long. At times, reading about the middle of Bonhoeffer’s life can be tedious. Both of these realities may be enough to scare some readers off. However, those scared off by the book's size and thoroughness will be missing out. Metaxas has written a biography that will not only be treasured by the person who purchases the book today. This book will be a book that grows in influence and respect in both faith and academic circles for years to come. – Clint Walker, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com