We all need heroes. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of my all-time
heroes. This
was underscored during my recent reading of Eric Metaxas’s masterful and often
heart-wrenching biography of Bonhoeffer’s life [1].
I came to
the conclusion that Bonhoeffer was indeed my hero, but for reasons that were
not immediately apparent. Yes, it is true, he almost singularly stood up to Adolf
Hitler. Yes, at the risk of life, limb, and liberty, he fearlessly led the
resistance of Germany's “confessing church” against Hitler’s attempts to undermine the
church’s mandate to embrace the “other” – including Jews and other
“non-Aryans.” Yes, he defiantly stared down intimidating pressure from the Third
Reich to concede to their strange hybrid doctrine of Nazi ideology and theology
based on race; that is, the so-called, “German Christian Movement.” Yes, he
continued to stand firm as the pressure increased, leading to his arrest and imprisonment which included Buchenwald Concentration Camp. But, tragically, only days before Hitler
surrendered to the allies, Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis for his
perceived role in the failed Valkyrie
plot to assassinate Hitler, leaving his fiancée bereft of a life partner.
Bonhoeffer had come to the conclusion, along with others, that eliminating
Hitler was the only course of action left after every other means had been
exhausted. Millions of Jews, elderly, and disabled, continued to be exterminated
in the concentration camps and Bonhoeffer believed, that as reprehensible as
violence was, it had become immoral not
to act. Yet, even though his life was cut short, he packed
multiple “lifetimes” into his brief 39 years.
Academic
Genius Who Didn't Fit Our Categories
Bonhoeffer was a genius, but that is also not the primary
reason that I regard him as a hero. Yes, he was schooled in the world renowned
Berlin University’s theological faculty, and he had obtained a Ph.D. by the time he was
21 years of age. He was a curious mix of theological liberalism and conservatism
and to this day, it is still hard to pin him down into a theological or
political category. He was supervised by the famous liberal theologian, Adolf von
Harnack, who was a direct spiritual descendent of Friederich Schleiermacher,
regarded by many as the father of modern day liberal theology. Even though Bonhoeffer
rarely came to the same theological conclusions as von Harnack, they still mutually shared a deeply respectful and honoring friendship their whole lives.
Bonhoeffer greatly respected Harnack’s theological methodology while Harnack
greatly respected Bonhoeffer’s razor sharp mind even though their viewpoints
often led them to respectful differences. Bonhoeffer was also personally
mentored by the great Swiss theologian, Karl Barth. In addition, he was profoundly
impacted by the passion and vitality of the African American church while attending
Union Seminary in New York City. Bonhoeffer's keen theological mind, combined with a deep relationship with Christ which was immersed in the Scriptures, prayer, and community, provided the resources to confront one of the greatest evils in history.
Bonhoeffer
and Children
But no, it was not just Bonhoeffer’s remarkable courage in
opposing Hitler that impressed me, nor his willingness to go to the gallows for
his convictions. Nor was it because of his remarkable mind, gaining him a Ph.D.
by the time he was 21. Neither was it his remarkable contributions to our
Christian journey through his weighty classics such as, Life Together, and The Cost
of Discipleship.
What impressed me the most in my recent reading of
Bonhoeffer’s life was his heart for children,
and his willingness, with all the acute demands on his schedule, to take on a
significant role in children’s lives. Bonhoeffer loved kids so much that he
seriously considered becoming a pastor instead of a theologian. His highly
aristocratic and educated father and brothers thought this would be a waste of
his great mind, but he strongly believed that if he couldn’t communicate the most profound thoughts about God and the
Bible to children, something was wrong. In other words, his Ph.D. was useless.
For Bonhoeffer, there was much more to life than academia!
This conviction drove Bonhoeffer to constantly be involved in
the lives of children and youth. As a theological student, he was required to
do volunteer hours in church work. When he could have done otherwise, he purposely
chose to work with youth and children. Somehow, with all the demands of his
academic work, he found time to prepare each week for a Sunday school class. He
creatively used stories, even fairy tales, to convey truth. Not content to just
teach children once-a-week on Sundays, he, along with his youngest sister, Susanne,
began having kids into their home to play games, as well as take them on
outings throughout Berlin. He was deeply taken with children and they with him!
He became so popular that children from other classes left their classes to
join his!
A Rowdy Inner-City Confirmation Class
One of Bonhoeffer’s assignments was to take on a confirmation
class of 50 boys, aged 14 and 15, in a very rough inner-city district of
Berlin, where people lived in extreme squalor and poverty. The boys had
been so unruly that they had literally driven Bonhoeffer’s predecessor to his
grave! In Bonhoeffer’s first class with them, the boys were rioting, chanting
and even throwing various items as missiles! Bonhoeffer refused to react or
raise his voice, patiently waiting for them to quiet down, which they did
eventually. Somehow, his peaceful demeanor seemed to spread to the whole class.
He began to creatively tell stories, deliberately keeping them short which always left the boys wanting more. During the week, when he began to visit these
boys in their homes and meet their families, he witnessed the deplorable
conditions they lived in. Against social custom, he moved from his privileged area
in Berlin into a small flat in their neighbourhood, operating with an open-door
policy for the boys to come and visit, ask questions, and play games. He even
saw miraculous healings, including one time when he visited and prayed with a
boy at risk of having his leg amputated in the hospital. Miraculously, the boy’s
leg was saved after Bonhoeffer had prayed with him. Bonhoeffer won the boys’
hearts. His confirmation class altered the lives of each of those 50 boys
forever.
“Herr Volf ist Tot!”
One of my favourite and perhaps defining stories of Bonhoeffer with children
occurred during a season of ministry he had in Barcelona, Spain with German ex-pats. Again, he was
assigned to a Sunday school class which started with just one girl! The next
week, thanks to an energetic campaign to invite more children, 15 attended, and
again, during the following week, he visited all of these 15 children in their
homes and met their parents. The class quickly grew to more than 30 which never declined during his
season there.
One day, a 10 year old boy came to his office on an errand
from his parents, but the boy clearly had other things on his mind. He began wailing,
“Herr Volf Ist Tot!” that is, “Mr. Wolf,” (his dearly loved German Shepherd
dog), “was dead.” The little boy cried out his anguish, but after awhile, he
said hopefully to Bonhoeffer, “But, I will see Mr. Wolf in heaven, right?”
Bonhoeffer didn’t know how to respond. He knew that even a “Well, we don’t
know…” would be a “No” for this little boy, so he responded, “Look, God created human beings and animals
and I’m sure he also loves animals. And
I believe that with God, it is such that all who loved each other on earth –
genuinely loved each other – will remain together with God, for to love is part
of God. Just how that happens, we admittedly don’t know.” The boy’s
countenance changed dramatically now that he was confident that he would once
again play with “Herr Volf.” Bonhoeffer repeated several times to the boy that
“We don’t know how this happens...” but later he wrote, “The little boy knew.” After a few moments, the boy
remarked, “Today I really scolded Adam and Eve for if they had not eaten the
apple, Herr Volf would not have died!”
Bonhoeffer wrote, “There I stood, I, who was supposed to
‘know the answer,’ – feeling quite small next to this little boy, and I cannot
forget the confident expression on his face when he left.” Pastoral and
theological genius came together in Bonhoeffer's interaction with this 10 year old boy.
[1] Eric
Mertaxas: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr,
Prophet, Spy, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2010. I am so indebted to Mertaxas for this brilliant (re)telling of Bonhoeffer's story, which I read on an Okanagan pool deck in April. The photo is from the cover
of the book and I have drawn heavily from excerpts in this blog.
