dietrich bonhoeffer (db) had seen that the barman declaration would be the means to a world wide recognition of the confessing church as the only church in germany (excluding, of course, the german christians of the reich church. this hope was not to be realized.
unless otherwise noted quotes are from db...'do not try to make the bible relevant. its relevance is axiomatic...do not defend God's word but testify to it..trust the word. it is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity...
the proclamation of grace has its limits. grace may not be proclaimed to anyone who does not recognize or distinguish or desire it...the world upon whom grace is thrust as a bargain will grow tired of it and it will not only trample upon the holy, but also will tear apart those who force it on them...the preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance..
the nuremberg laws which forbid marriage between jew and gentile db thought should be challenged by the church (do not limit outspoken concerns to those between state and church proper)..which should speak into the world..be a voice in the world..also it is important to speak for those who could not speak... God is not interested in the worship of one who should not speak out'..
nazis deal with confessing church in 1937 onward cannily ..not banning directly but gradually liquidating it through intimidation and suppression...for db prayer was the display of the strongest possible activity...was it ok to assassinate hitler? db gives the example of a drunken driver killing pedestrians on a main street..it would be the responsibility of everyone to do all they could to stop the driver from killing more people...
von moltke, of the prussian house of lords, was a part of the kreisau circle, another group involved in conspiracy. in 1942 he said, concerning the nazi abuse of human rights, 'certainly more than 1000 people are murdered in this way every day and another 1000 german men are habituated to murder...what shall i say when i am asked, "AND WHAT DID YOU DO DURING THAT TIME?...since saturday the berlin jews are being rounded up. then they are sent off with what they can carry...how can anyone know KNOW these things and walk around free'. in writing to his sons before his execution in 1945 he said he had tried to help the victims of the nazis and prepare the way for a change to new leadership...'in that my conscience drove me...and in the end that is a man's duty'. he believed that only by believing in God could one be a total opponent of the nazis.
...from anthony eden, a top british official, a response to george bell, a church of england contact with db, concerning his plea for british support for german conspirators against hitler, '...THE LONGER THE GERMAN PEOPLE TOLERATE THE NAZI REGIME THE GRATER BECOMES THEIR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CRIMES WHICH THE REGIME IS COMMITTING IN THEIR NAME...'
'if we inquire the will of God.... freedom from all doubt and all mistrust, we will discover it'... about his involvement to end hitler's life db says in his book, ethics, '..the structure of responsible action includes both readiness to accept guilt and freedom..if any man tries to escape guilt in responsibility he detaches himself from the ultimate reality of human existence, and what is more he cuts himself off from the redeeming mystery of Christ's bearing guilt without sin and he has no share in the divine justification which lies upon this event' db knew that to live in fear of incurring 'guilt' was itself sinful. God wanted His beloved children to operate out of freedom and joy to do what was right and good, not out of fear of making a mistake. to live in fear and guilt was to be 'religious' in the pejorative sense that db so often talked and preached about. he knew that to act freely could mean inadvertently doing wrong and incurring guilt. in fact, he felt that living this way meant that it was impossible to avoid incurring guilt, but if one wished to live responsibly and fully, one would be willing to do so...the great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. for evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the christian who bases his life on the bible it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil...who stands fast? only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God - the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God'.
this was how db saw what he was doing. he had theologically redefined the christian life as something active, not reactive. it had nothing to do with avoiding sin or with merely talking or teaching or believing theological notions or principles or rules or tenets. it had everything to do with living one's whole life in obedience to God's call through action. it did not merely require a mind, but a body too. it was God's call to be fully human, to live as human beings obedient to the one who had made us, which
was the fulfillment of our destiny. it was not a cramped, compromised, circumspect life, but a life lived in a kind of wild, joyful, full-throated freedom - that was what it was to obey God...'..i must be more zealous to please God than to avoid sin..
37 year old db sought to do everything, including his relationship and engagement to 18 year old maria von wedemeyer, 'unto God' as an act of faith..he wrote, 'when jeremiah said, in his people's hour of direst need just before they were to be sent into exile from a totally ruined and subjugated county that, "the houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land" it was (via God) a token of his confidence in the future' in his wedding sermon to his best friend eberhard bethge who was marrying his 16 year old niece, renate he said, 'we ought not to be in too much of a hurry here to speak piously of God's will and guidance. it is obvious, and should not be ignored, that it is your own very human wills that are at work here, celebrating their triumph; the course that you are taking at the outset is one that you have chosen for yoursels; what you have done and are doing is not in the first place, something religious, but something quite secular...unless you can boldly say today: 'this is our resolve, our love, our way', you are taking refuge in a false piety. 'iron and steel may pass away, but our love whall abide for ever'. that desire for earthly bliss which you want to find in one another, and in which, to quote the medieval song, one is the comfort of the other both in today and in soul - that desire is justified before God and man.'
..from db's poem 'who am i'...'or is something within me still like a beaten army, fleeing in dis- order from victory already achieved'. flesh and spirit, with faith and doubt, a good work in the process of being completed.
db found the daily watchwords (losungen) from the moravian church very helpful spiritually.
..'not the shallow, banal this-worldliness, or the enlightened, the busy, the comforable or the lascivious or the profound this-worldliness but the profound this-worldliness characterized by discipline and the constant knowledge of death and resurrection. db became a bit concerned about 'the dangers in his book 'discipleship' (the christian life advocated in this book has a temptation to become religious in the pejorative, barthian sense..TO USE THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AS A MEANS TO ESCAPE LIFE RATHER THAN AS A MEANS TO LIVE LIFE MORE FULLY)'...completely abandon every attempt to make something of oneself (rather)..by this worldliness...living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. in so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God in the world...watch with Christ in gethsemane. that, i think is faith; that is metanoia (english - repentance, a change of mind) and that is how one becomes a man and a christian (jeremiah 45). how can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray when we share God's sufferings through a life of this kind?..the essence of chastity is not supression of lust but total orientation of one's life toward a goal..'
july 1944..db sent this poem 'stations on the road to freedom
discipline
if you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things
to govern your sould and your senses, for fear that your passions
and longing may lead you away from the path you should follow.
chaste be your mind and your body, and both in subjection,
obediently steadfastly seeking the aim set before them;
only through discipline may a man learn to be free.
action
daring to do what is right, not what fancy may tell you,
valiantly grasping occasions, not cravenly doubting -
freedom comes only through deeds, not through thoughts taking wing.
faint not nor fear, but go out to the storm and the action,
trusting in God whose commandment you faithfully follow;
freedom, exultant, will welcome your spirit with joy
suffering
a change has come indeed. your hands, so strong and active,
are bound; in helplessness now you see your action
is ended; you sigh in relief, your cause committing
to stronger hands; so now you may rest contented.
only for one blissful moment could you draw near to touch freedom;
then, that it might be perfected in glory, you gave it to God.
death
come now, thou greatest of feasts on the journey to freedom eternal;
death, cast aside all the burdensome chains, and demolish
the walls of our temporal body, the walls of our souls that are blinded,
so that at last we may see that which here remains hidden.
freedom, how long we have sought thee in discipline, action and suffering;
dying, we now may behold thee revealed in the Lord
one of hitler's would be assasins..'a human being's moral integrity begins when he is prepared to sacrifice his life for his convictions..'
db...'stifter once said, "pain is a holy angel, which shows treasures to man which otherwise remain forever hidden; through him men have become greater than through all joys in the world"...there is an even holier angel than the one of pain, that is the one of joy in God'...
db would not let go of maria even when she expressed the possibility that she did not love him (note: she was young, their love had not been proved; he, most likely, knew that she would wound herself grievously for the future when she saw the meaning of her fickleness in his extremity...besides! odds were she probably would never see him...or see him free) his response as her response lessened never flagged. he so gently and beautifully held out to her the picture of love that never faileth and yet, more than once, ended his letters 'tell me what you think and act as you must' (a double edged irony..offering her freedom and, at the same time, gently hinting toward duty?)
db..'the only fight which is lost is that which we give up..'
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