Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Two books to not miss

February 5, 2024

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Two books to not miss

Yesterday, February 4, was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s birthday. Recently I was lucky to happen on to a copy of the book My Dearest Dietrich from one of the many “Little Library” stands we have around our county and towns. A free book without needing to worry about overdue library books! And the knowledge that you won’t have to make space on your bookshelves. You keep it as long as you like and then pass it on. 

The book is part romance but soon gets into the nitty gritty of World War 2 and the horrible consequences of Hitler’s reign. 

It caught my eye because in the 1970s, students at my college, Eastern Mennonite, were encouraged to read The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a lengthy text of some 350 pages. I still have my copy because of its message. (One of the few college texts that managed to survive my weeding out of precious, favorite books.)

When I started reading My Dearest Dietrich, (published 2019) basically I knew that the end story would be sad and tragic, but Bonhoeffer and the author Amanda Barratt offer a well-written true story (but fictionalized) that gives courage to all of us in these uncertain and difficult times. The world has too many wars going on in too many places.

Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and also a committed pacifist who believed and lived Christ’s words regarding killing others. Actually, they were first God’s words to Moses way back when God commanded “You shall not kill.” (Exodus 20: 13).

Bonhoeffer was also a deep thinker, exploring various aspects of Christ’s teachings and helping those who are trying to live out God’s way for our lives. Bonhoeffer’s classic line quoted often in various places “When Christ calls a man [today we’d say person], he bids him come and die.” So how does that work in times of war? During World War 2, Bonhoeffer took the road of working against the Hitler regime as an underground conspirator against Hitler.

There is a short history/memoir of Bonhoeffer’s life that is included in my copy of The Cost of Discipleship by George Leibholz, brother-in-law of Bonhoeffer. Leibholz writes that when war seemed inevitable in the 1930s, some of Bonhoeffer’s friends and followers urged him to leave Germany to perhaps save his life since he was totally “opposed to serving in the Army in an aggressive war.” At an ecumenical conference in Denmark in 1934, someone asked Bonhoeffer what he would do when war came. He answered, “I shall pray to Christ to give me the power not to take up arms.” By June of 1934, American friends who knew him (from an earlier year he spent at Union Theological Seminary in New York City), got him out of Germany.

“But soon he felt that he could not stay there, he had to return to his country. When he got to England on his return from the U.S., his friends quickly realized that Bonhoeffer’s heart “belonged to his oppressed and persecuted fellow Christians in Germany and that he would not desert them at a time when they needed him most. … I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people. … I cannot choose security.” [From Leibholz’s memoir on Bonhoeffer.]

This gives us one picture of how dedicated and faithful Dietrich was. I won’t spoil the reading of either The Cost of Discipleship or My Dearest Dietrich but as difficult as his life became, the real Dietrich does not disappoint. When incarcerated, he was instrumental in helping other prisoners cope with their ghastly circumstances, including helping care for those who were sick or about to die, or sharing his own pathetic food.

These are a couple of books very worth reading and studying in these times. A friend and former colleague of mine, Jerry L. Holsopple at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) created a multimedia play with Justin Poole which opened in 2022, was produced again in January 2024, and promises to come back to EMU stage and theater again. I will try not to miss it next time!

Are you familiar with the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? What have you learned?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.