Bonhoeffer for Armchair Theologians

Stephen R. Haynes

Lori Brandt Hale

Illustrations by Ron Hill

© 2009 Stephen R. Haynes and Lori Brandt Hale

Illustrations © 2009 Ron Hill

1st edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press Louisville, Kentucky

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by permission.

Book design by Sharon Adams

Cover design by Jennifer K. Cox

Cover illustration by Ron Hill

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Haynes, Stephen R.

Bonhoeffer for armchair theologians / Stephen R. Haynes, Lori Brandt Hale.—1st ed.

p. cm.—(Armchair series)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 978-0-664-23010-4 (alk. paper)

1. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 1906–1945. I. Hale, Lori Brandt. II. Title.

BX4827.B57H36 2009

230′.044092—dc22

2009011993

Contents

1. Life

2. Christ Existing as Community

3. Costly Grace

4. Stellvertretung and Ethics as Formation

5. Religionless Christianity

6. Legacy

For Further Reading

Index

CHAPTER ONE

Life

Many recountings of Bonhoeffer’s biography begin at the end, suggesting that the meaning of his life can only be comprehended by looking backward from his anti-Nazi resistance, imprisonment, and execution. But we will attempt to view Bonhoeffer’s life as it was lived—from beginning to end. It started in a relatively idyllic time when terms such as “world war,” “fascism,” and “genocide” were not yet part of the European lexicon.

Family Background

Bonhoeffer’s family bequeathed to him a proud heritage. In addition to a concrete inheritance that included the writings of Luther and Schleiermacher and a signet ring with the Bonhoeffer family’s sixteenth-century coat of arms, Dietrich’s ancestors—the Bonhoeffers, von Hases, and Kalckreuths—left to him a keen intellect, an impressive musical aptitude, and a comfort in his own skin.

His great-grandfather Karl August von Hase was a professor of church and dogmatic history called by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to the University in Jena. Karl August’s son Karl Alfred—Dietrich’s maternal grandfather—was chaplain to Wilhelm II of Prussia. His son Hans von Hase—Dietrich’s uncle—was a rural pastor. On his father’s side, Bonhoeffer’s ancestors included respectable government officials, as well as socialists, Freemasons, and Swedenborgians. Dietrich’s paternal grandmother was Julie Tafel Bonhoeffer, a forceful woman whose independence and progressive thinking impressed the young man. He ...