Today is the 70th anniversary of the martyrdom of the man of God Dr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who in life and death bore witness to the Kingdom of God against a neo-pagan regime which strove to radically reinvent Europe in rebellion against the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus.
Dr Bonhoeffer himself, as a genuine evangelical, would be wholly averse to any hagiographical polishing of his life, and would be the very first to endorse critical checks on any tendency to glorify him rather than God, most especially any tendency to glorify him for the purposes of triumphalistic churchy self-congratulation. He would point to Christ and never to himself. But bearing that in mind, let us gratefully and reverently commemorate his example. In a day in which whole communities of men are once again tempted to take refuge from the trials of the world in the stormy darkness of collective egoisms rather than in God, and to cast aside the love of neighbor in favor of violence and self-aggrandizement, Dr Bonhoeffer’s witness is still a beacon of light.
2 replies on “Dr Bonhoeffer’s 70th Anniversary”
[…] in proportion to the extend to which the state has been deified or has deified itself. Thus, in Hitlerite Germany Christianity was viewed as subversive of the dominant political order. The same was true in first […]
You mention Bonhoeffer as a “genuine evangelical”. Could you define “evangelical” and explain why you believe Bonhoeffer was an evangelical? Thanks.