Dietrich Bonhoeffer Biography - Research Paper Example

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4, 1906 in the German ofBreslau. Although his family was not overly religious, it had a strong artistic and musical heritage and Bonhoeffer was soon to display a great musical talent from an early age. Music was to eventually become very important to him throughout his life. Bonhoeffer surprised his family when at the age of 14 years, he suddenly announced that he wanted to join a seminary and train to become a priest (Gruchy, 1999). Bonhoeffer joined seminary school and in 1927 he eventually graduated from the University of Berlin with a doctorate in Theology. Upon his graduation, Bonhoeffer spent a considerable amount of time in America and Spain and this exposure gave him a wiser outlook on life in addition to also helping him move from academic study towards what was a more practical interpretation of the Gospel. As a young man, he was quite moved by the Church’s involvement in both social injustice and the protection of the oppressed people (Bonhoeffer, 2005). Bonhoeffer eventually returned to Berlin in 1931 where he was ordained as a priest while at the age of 25 years. The period around the early 1930s were marked by great upheaval across Germany as a result of relatively high levels of mass unemployment due to the effects emanating from the Great Depression and the general instability of Weimar German that led to Hitler’s election in 1933. Although Hitler’s election was largely welcomed by parts of the church and the German population, Bonhoeffer emerged as one of the few firm opponents of Hitler’s philosophy. In January 1930, barely two days after Hitler’s successful election as the Germany’s chancellor, Bonhoeffer made a radio broadcast that essentially criticized Hitler and particularly so the rather idolatrous cult of the Fuhrer. This broadcast was however cut off mid air (Larsen & Larsen, 2002). Bonhoeffer’s criticism of Hitler’s regime did not end with the radio broadcast and in April 1933, He publicly raised opposition to the Jewish persecution that was being conducted by Hitler and pointed out that the church had an inborn responsibility to ensure that it effectively acts against this kind of policy. Bonhoeffer sought to try and organize the German protestant church so as for it to firmly reject the Nazi ideology that was gradually infiltrating the church. This resulted in the creation of a breakaway church – the Confessions Church which Bonhoeffer himself helped to form together with Martin Niemoller. The Confession church as started by Niemoller and Bonhoeffer sought to stand in opposition t the German Christian movement which enjoyed a great amount of Nazi support (Gruchy, 1999). The difficulty of organizing bold initiatives against the Nazification of both the church and society caused Bonhoeffer to feel greatly disillusioned and in the autumn of 1933, he decided to take a two year appointment to a London based, German speaking Protestant church. He returned to Germany after two years to share in its rather bleak outlook and struggles. Shortly after his return, the leadership of the Confessions church faced oppression which caused one of its leaders to flee to Switzerland, another to get arrested and Bonhoeffer’s authorization to teach get revoked in 1936 when he was denounced and termed as a pacifist and enemy of state. The Nazi government finally closed down the Confession church seminary and Bonhoeffer travelled across Eastern Germany over the next two years conducting private seminaries to sympathetic students (Larsen & Larsen, 2002). Bonhoeffer fled Germany on June 1939 over fears of being arrested and forced to take an oath to Hitler. He eventually returned to the country after a period of less than two years as he felt guilty for seeking sanctuary and afraid to try and practice what he preached. He was unjustly denied any right to publish any article or speak in public. He joined the German military intelligence unit, the Abwehr and it was while at this unit, that Bonhoeffer became aware of various assassination plots against Hitler. Bonhoeffer started questioning his pacifism and acknowledged the need for violent opposition to Hitler’s regime. While at the Abwehr, he served as a messenger for one of Germany’s small resistance movements in addition to making contact with some of the British government associates. He also made efforts to help some German Jews in their escape to neutral Switzerland but when this plot was uncovered he was arrested and imprisoned at Tegel Military prison for a period of one and a half years. He was moved to the Gestapo high security prison after the July 20 1944 failed bomb plot before his being transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp and later on to the Flossenburg concentration camp. He continued to minister to some of his fellow prisoners and on April 8, 1945, he was eventually sentenced to hang after being given a rather cursory court martial. To prolong his death, the Nazi hung him by wire (Retter, 2008). Bonhoeffer made numerous contributions to the advancement of Christianity. Some of his latter works and particularly so the Letters and papers from prison are seen to have greatly influenced some of the new theology moods that appeared in the early sixties. This is exemplified by the works of Bishop John A. T. who made great use of Bonhoeffer’s terminology. Although the radical attempt to try and build a theology existing without the God-hypothesis by the God-is-dead movement is not widely accepted as being a positive contribution to theology, the movement used some of Bonhoeffer’s terms and sought to operate under the guise of attempting to eventually fulfill Bonhoeffer’s proposal for a religionless Christianity. Although great value has certainly come from asking for the content and true meaning of the word God, it still stands that for Bonhoeffer, Christ fundamentally filled the meaning of this word (Roark, 1972). The church is of significant importance to Bonhoeffer’s thought and if objectivity is truly a reality in the various theological circles, Bonhoeffer’s views can serve as an elementary basis for the ecumenical happening between the called out emphasis of Protestantism and the institutional ideology that is commonly found in Roman Catholicism. This objectivity can be of aid in helping protestants understand that the evidently mystical body of Christ actually has space in world and is exactly where it is possible to find Jesus Christ, while Catholic theologians will be made to understand that formal institutionalism is in fact alien to the New Testament. Bonhoeffer’s works attracts Roman Catholicism in a manner in which it is not possible for it to be attracted by the other names in Protestant theology and it has been remarked that his works speak to Catholics as a Catholic despite the emergence of these works from some of the more vital sources of protestant tradition. On the other hand, Bonhoeffer is able to attract Christians as a result of his deep respect for the innate authority of the scripture in the determination of the meaning of Incarnation, the church’s actual role in the modern world, and the idea behind the Christian community (Roark, 1972). Conclusion and Personal Reflection on Bonhoeffer’s Life and Work In life, Bonhoeffer emerged as one of the most pronounced opponents of Nazism when few people in Germany were brave enough to stand against the system and Hitler. He was a very tough advocate for all that he believed and although he twice managed to seek asylum as when he fled Germany due to a fear of Nazism and Hitler, he always returned to continue with his fight and eventually died a brave man. His life’s works continue to have a great impact in the development of Christianity to this day. References Bonhoeffer, D. (2005). Who am I? poetic insights on personal identity. Minneapolis Augsburg Books. Gruchy J. (1999). The Cambridge companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Larsen, D. & Larsen, S. (2002). Dietrich Bonhoeffer--costly grace : 6 studies for individuals or groups with study notes. Downers Grove, Ill. : InterVarsity Press. Retter, R. (2008). Theological political resistance the role of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans -Bernd von Haeften in the German resistance against Hitler. Berlin Logos-Verl. Roark D. (1972). The Significance of Bonhoeffer. Retreived from http://www.religion -online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2737&C=2492 Read More