Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

by Eric Metaxas

the essence of Christianity is not about religion at all, but about the person of Christ.

religion was a dead, man-made thing, and at the heart of Christianity was something else entirely—God himself, alive.

For him, philosophy was man’s search for truth apart from God. It was a type of Barth’s “religion,” in which man himself tried to reach heaven or truth or God. But theology begins and ends with faith in Christ, who reveals himself to man; apart from such revelation, there could be no such thing as truth. Thus the philosopher—and the theologian who operates on a philosopher’s assumptions—chases his own tail and gazes at his own navel. He cannot break out of that cycle, but God, via revelation, can break in.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew. And then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak for me.

He was thinking about the deep call of Christ, which was not about winning, but about submission to God, wherever that might lead.

Christianity did in fact come from the East originally, but it has become so westernized and so permeated by civilized thought that, as we can now see, it is almost lost to us.