Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Man

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The second section of the book and last section that will be covered in this paper is the section the covers the Sermon on the Mount. Bonhoeffer’s explanation of the Sermon on the Mount is another crucial part of The Cost of Discipleship. Here, Bonhoeffer places a special emphasis on the beatitudes for understanding Christ. It is here that the disciples are called blessed for an extraordinary list of qualities.

The poor in spirit “have no security, no possessions to call their own, not even a foot of earth to call their home, no earthly society to claim their absolute allegiance.” [10] This was the case for many of the disciples in every part of their lives. They literally had nothing and clung to nothing except Christ. So Bonhoeffer is saying that Christians should also live likewise as if they had nothing and wholly depended on Christ to fulfill even their most basic needs.

Bonhoeffer says that the meek area “community of strangers possesses no inherent right of its own to protect its members in the world, nor do they claim such rights, for they are meek, they renounce every right of their own and live for the sake of Jesus Christ.”[11] So these meek people will hold their tongue and keep their peace, they will not seek revenge for wrongdoings, they will not make a scene when someone openly disrespects them because they are determined to leave the judgments up to God and God alone. Just like all Christians should be meek in all their actions and surrender all their rights to God even their rights to defend themselves and trust that God will protect and provide for them.

The merciful have “renounced their own dignity” [12]and have given up all power and possessions have become devoted to others. “As if their own needs and their own distress were not enough, they take upon themselves the distress and humiliation and sin of others.” [13] They help the needy, the sick, the outcasts, and the wronged. The peacemakers detest violence that is often used to solve problems.

Then there are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake and are willing to suffer for the just cause. Bonhoeffer says that “the world will be offended at them, and so the disciples will be persecuted for righteousness’s sake. Not recognition, but rejection.” [14] These will receive a great reward in heaven and be like the prophets who also suffered for their faith.

Bonhoeffer's Ethics

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote Ethics between 1940-1943 and was just planned to be lectures originally. Ethics is often thought of to be Bonhoeffer’s most insightful work and is widely thought to be his major theological influence. Dietrich believed that Christian aethics must be reflected in reference to the Christian whose only wish is to be completely submissive to God, and not in reference with the person who is only concerned with a self-promoting philosophy. In his chapter Conformation, Bonhoeffer speaks against “Christian prommes and the thoughtless and superficial slogan of what is called practical Christianity.” [15]Bonhoeffer states that the word ‘formation’ must be taken at a different angle then what was accustomed. He even says “the Holy Scriptures speak of formation in a sense that is entirely unfamiliar to us.” [16] Whenever the Scriptures talk about formation or the forming of the world they are not concerned with plans and programs Christ. True formation can really on come from this form. “ But here again it is not a question of applying directly to the world the teaching of Christ or what are referred to as Christian principles, so that the world might be formed in accordance with these.”[17] On the contrary this formation can only be accomplished by being drawn into the form of Jesus Christ. “As confirmation with the unique form of Him who was made man, was crucified, and rose again.”[18]

The reason Bonhoeffer’s Ethics is so valuable is not because it solved all the questions that were facing the church at the time but rather Bonhoeffer acknowledged the fact that life is complicated and you cannot answer every question. Because with every answer there will only be more questions. No matter what though people will still strive to control everything and Bonhoeffer simply reminds us that any and all systems outside the will and Word of God is doomed to fail. As troubling as Bonhoeffer's Ethics may be, it is a bracing call to the current church to repent and return to a life of prayer which was the traditional mark of the early church.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Prison Correspondence

This paper’s last reflection on the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was hanged in 1945 for his part in an assassination attempt on Hitler, will focus on his Letters and Papers from Prison begun in 1942. These letters show some of Bonhoeffer’s best and most insightful works, as well as troubling observations concerning the church in the turbulent middle years of the twentieth century.

In viewing the terrors of war, Bonhoeffer reminds us that what we hate about is usually found in ourselves.[19] This warning against contempt for humanity is very important in light of other authors of the time whose hatred for the war eventually disheartened them with all of humanity. The difference of opinion between some of these authors and many others and Bonhoeffer’s is a direct result of his personal relationship with Christ. The conclusions of some of the other authors were the pessimistic observations of those who had seen the absolute worse in humanity and left the war without a final hope or any hope to be completely honest.

Bonhoeffer faced death on a daily basis for years and came to some bold conclusions concerning how believers might bare themselves facing their own mortality. He believed that

Christians could live the miracle of life by facing death daily; where life could actually be seen as the gift of God that it is. Basically take every day realizing it could be your last and live it to the fullest and the only way to live life to the fullest is by living your life for God. It is we ourselves, and not our outward circumstances, who make death potentially positive. Death can be something voluntarily accepted.

Final Analysis of Bonhoeffer

Before the movies like Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Bonhoeffer testified on the violence of war. His letters detail the horrors of what life was like in the prison camps, and it is easy to see from his letters and his account that every day he fully expected to die. Every day was filled with pain, misery, sorrow, and death. Bonhoeffer was able to accurately describe for us what life