Bonhoeffer's Letters

This is Dietrich Bonhoeffer writing from his cell at Tegel Prison (pictured at left) to his closest friend Eberhard Bethge:

My thoughts and feelings seem to be getting more and more like those in the Old Testament, and in recent months I have been reading the Old Testament much more than the New. It is only when one knows the unutterability of the name of God that one can utter the name of Jesus Christ; it is only when one loves life and the earth so much that without them everything seems to be over that one may believe in the resurrection and a new world; it is only when one submits to God's law that one may speak of grace; and it is only when God's wrath and vengeance are hanging as grim realities over the heads of one's enemies that something of what it means to love and forgive them can touch our hearts. In my opinion it is not Christian to want to take our thoughts and feelings too quickly and too directly from the New Testament...Why is it that in the Old Testament men tell lies vigorously and often to the glory of God (I've now collected the passages), kill, deceive, rob, divorce, and even fornicate (see the genealogy of Jesus), doubt, blaspheme, and curse, whereas in the New Testament there is nothing of all this? 'An earlier stage' of religion? That is a very naïve way out; it is one and the same God. But more of this later when we meet.

Meanwhile evening has come. The NCO who has just brought me from the sick-bay to my quarters said to me as he left, with an embarrassed smile but quite seriously, 'Pray for us, Pastor, that we may have no alert tonight.'

Letters and Papers from Prison (Touchstone, 1997)

When this was written Bonhoeffer had been in prison for about 8 months awaiting trial. Although his letters continue to speak hopefully of being released, one can sense a darker note starting to creep in. The mention of collecting passages from the OT on lying hints at Bonhoeffer's working out of the theological and ethical implications of his own activity during this period. Bonhoeffer was far more deeply involved in the anti-Nazi resistance than his interrogators first suspected, and this necessitated almost constant deceit. Even his personal letters were sometimes written with an eye toward deceiving the authorities. What a strain it must have been! This excerpt also gives us a glimpse of Bonhoeffer the pastor. His fellow prisoners gravitated to him and even the prison guards recognized something of Christ in the young pastor.

I'm reading Letters and Papers from Prison for the first time. It's a gripping and emotional read -- emotional because I know how the story will end. The letters are arranged chronologically and there's a terrible dramatic impetus as the months go by. These writings allow such an imtimate entrée into Bonhoeffer's life and thought, that it's as if we're somehow accompanying him on a 2-year-long march to the gallows. I'll be sharing more from this book in the days leading up to the anniversary of Bonhoeffer's final witness on 9 April 1945.