Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

by Eric Metaxas

On April 2213, Bonhoeffer delivered a lecture titled “The Question of the Boundaries of the Church and Church Union.” It was typically measured, thorough, and definitive, to the point of being elegant and beautiful, like a winning equation. In it, he explained how the Confessing Church was not solely concerned with dogma, but neither was it unconcerned with dogma. In a memorable and hideous turn of phrase, he said that the Confessing Church “takes its confident way between the Scylla of orthodoxy and the Charybdis of confessionlessness.” He talked about the boundaries of engagement, explaining the vital difference between engaging “another church”—such as the Greek Orthodox Church or the Roman Catholic Church—and an institution that was “anti-church,” such as the German Christians. One could have differences with another church, but engage in a dialogue to further mutual understanding. One could not have a dialogue with an institution that was “anti-church.” This lecture on the eternal question, What is the church? helped his students make clear, biblical sense of a confusing issue at a confusing time in German church history.