Summary
A splendid and thorough biography of German theologian and pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Metaxas might be best known for his biography of William Wilberforce (which spawned the movie, Amazing Grace). But many Christians will have come across his work without knowing it - as he wrote for a number of years for Veggie Tales.
Most know the basics on Bonhoeffer. German theologian-pastor who taught briefly at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and pastored churches in Germany, London, and Spain. Bonhoeffer is best known for his involvement in the Confessing Church movement, opposing the Nazi-controlled Reich church. Bonhoeffer directed an underground Seminary, which led him to write Life Together, a great little book about the community and Finkenwalde. His most famous book, The Cost of Discipleship, had a huge impact on me in college when I first began to consider what the Christian life ought to look like. It also was prophetic, as Bonhoeffer was soon called on to live what he preached. He stood with the Jews in Germany, counted the cost, and involved himself in the conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer was found out, imprisoned, and executed just weeks before the end of World War II.
What Worked
I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I came to this book. I've read most of Bonhoeffer's books, took a class on his theology while at Seminary, and read a biography written by his friend, Eberhard Bethge. Despite an extensive background in Bonhoeffer, I learned a lot from Metaxas' treatment of his life. In particular I was struck by Bonhoeffer's commitment to piety, Bible reading, and prayer. I was challenged by the excerpts from Bonhoeffer's journal detailing his rich devotional life.
I was surprised Bonhoeffer's pastoral side, and his commitment to people. To read his books (often very heady), you'd expect him to be a cool academic. But far from it. Bonhoeffer was brilliant. But he was thoroughly committed to his work as a pastor and, like the apostle Paul, was deeply involved in the lives of a wide range of people. I especially enjoyed reading about Bonhoeffer's tenure as a Sunday school teacher, working with teens in a working class neighborhood.
Historians and scholars are often not very good writers. Sometimes bad writing even seems to be a badge of honor - as if boring prose somehow proves the biographer's diligence in research. But Metaxas writes beautifully. And because of it, the book is an easy read, and sometimes feels more like a novel than history.
What Didn't
Cries of hagiography are nothing new to religious biographers. And Metaxas has been getting his fair share of those criticisms. In particular, critics have claimed that Metaxas seems to re-shape Bonhoeffer into an American evangelical. While it is obvious that Metaxas greatly admires Bonhoeffer, I didn't get the sense that he massaged Bonhoeffer's theology to make it more palatable to theological conservatives. Rather, I think this book is a helpful corrective.
In Letters and Papers from Prison, Bonhoeffer speculates about "religionless Christianity." Liberals have attached to this and a few other spurious statements and have claimed Bonhoeffer is one of their own. But Metaxas rightly points out that you cannot interpret the whole of Bonhoeffer's theology through the lens of these statements made in personal letters at the end of his life. For one thing, he didn't mean most of these for publication. Rather than mature statements, they were musings made to close friends and family. Second, some of the letters were written in code, intentionally innocuous because Bonhoeffer knew that his correspondence was being reviewed by the Gestapo. And third, he was under intense duress in those last days. Martin Luther says some curious things in his Table Talk, especially during those years where he suffered chronic pain. His legacy shouldn't be determined by those statements and neither should our view of Bonhoeffer be shaped by these statements in his letters. Taken as a whole, Bonhoeffer's work suggests that while Bonhoeffer probably shouldn't be classified as an evangelical, he certainly is orthodox.
Grade
Four out of five stars ****
Read it if
...you are interested in Bonhoeffer, World War II, or historical theology.
No comments:
Post a Comment