Bonhoeffer's Ghost
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ghost pursues him through time.
“Why”, asks the Ghost, “did one drawn to the Sermon on the Mount and to nonviolence, retaliate?”
We guess the answer:
"The very enormity of Hitler’s evil." Even pacifists said, “We must fight!”
Bonhoeffer offers this explanation, but Bonhoeffer knows the Ghost has more to say. Bonhoeffer himself knows more.
Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity builds on the Sermon on the Mount. So too Bonhoeffer’s "world come of age". And his famous notion of cheap grace most certainly attaches a cost to discipleship.
But for doing what? There’s the rub.
Painfully, Bonhoeffer knows there is a lasting contradiction between his actions then - the attempt to kill Hitler - and what he might have done.
So he is not surprised to hear the Ghost explain, “Evil for evil merely breeds more evil.
"Jesus knows a better way; he is more canny. Negotiation is his style and parable his sword. He shakes the very props of Empire with a word.
"Why did he die? It was to show the power and shape of Abba’s love. To vindicate and demonstrate the truth of Abba’s Way.
The Ghost continues. “Dietrich, it is not too late. Inspire those who come after to speak what you could have elaborated from your own prophetic writings. Instead of creeds, obedience. Instead of a set of beliefs, a way of life. Instead of ‘church’, a practiced faith. Instead of assent to war and its ways, a removal of the sword from Caesar and the final coming of age which is Abba’s Way.
“This way confronts but does not kill. This way puts on no airs and claims no truths. It simply acts and values Abba-like That’s all.
“You knew it then: The old way will not work. Do not allow the world to venerate you for the wrong thing.”
Bonhoeffer says, “I am a man of unclean lips. I lived in a world of unclean lips.”
The Ghost replies, “Send a new message to the world. Love is nonviolence. Love is to do no harm. Love is to walk into the maw of evil as Jesus did, raising not one finger to oppose it."
Bonhoeffer answers, "You have already said it. Beyond religion, beyond even 'worldly Christianity', beyond the world as it has been, Abba's way."
“Why”, asks the Ghost, “did one drawn to the Sermon on the Mount and to nonviolence, retaliate?”
We guess the answer:
"The very enormity of Hitler’s evil." Even pacifists said, “We must fight!”
Bonhoeffer offers this explanation, but Bonhoeffer knows the Ghost has more to say. Bonhoeffer himself knows more.
Bonhoeffer’s religionless Christianity builds on the Sermon on the Mount. So too Bonhoeffer’s "world come of age". And his famous notion of cheap grace most certainly attaches a cost to discipleship.
But for doing what? There’s the rub.
Painfully, Bonhoeffer knows there is a lasting contradiction between his actions then - the attempt to kill Hitler - and what he might have done.
So he is not surprised to hear the Ghost explain, “Evil for evil merely breeds more evil.
"Jesus knows a better way; he is more canny. Negotiation is his style and parable his sword. He shakes the very props of Empire with a word.
"Why did he die? It was to show the power and shape of Abba’s love. To vindicate and demonstrate the truth of Abba’s Way.
The Ghost continues. “Dietrich, it is not too late. Inspire those who come after to speak what you could have elaborated from your own prophetic writings. Instead of creeds, obedience. Instead of a set of beliefs, a way of life. Instead of ‘church’, a practiced faith. Instead of assent to war and its ways, a removal of the sword from Caesar and the final coming of age which is Abba’s Way.
“This way confronts but does not kill. This way puts on no airs and claims no truths. It simply acts and values Abba-like That’s all.
“You knew it then: The old way will not work. Do not allow the world to venerate you for the wrong thing.”
Bonhoeffer says, “I am a man of unclean lips. I lived in a world of unclean lips.”
The Ghost replies, “Send a new message to the world. Love is nonviolence. Love is to do no harm. Love is to walk into the maw of evil as Jesus did, raising not one finger to oppose it."
Bonhoeffer answers, "You have already said it. Beyond religion, beyond even 'worldly Christianity', beyond the world as it has been, Abba's way."
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