Well I finished one heck of a long book this week. There still may be time to read something else in August, something a little smaller than 540 pages! It has taken me over a month to get through this book. It may well be the longest book I have ever read. I kind of wished it was my own copy and not a library book because so many times I wanted to underline something in:
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
Again, I am astounded by how little I know about history. I knew nothing of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I knew nothing about the role of the church in Germany before and during World War 2. I knew nothing of the suffering of Christians pastors who dared resist Hitler.
I was struck by how the church in general always seems to be trying to stay true to the gospel. You see it today. It was a problem in the 1920s. It was probably a problem all the way back to the day Jesus walked the earth. There is always some liberal agenda trying to weaken the gospel, some wolf in sheep's clothing trying to deceive the people into something cheap and untrue. There is always someone seeing the problem and trying to ring the warning bell that you must come back to the gospel. You must stay the course. You must pursue God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Bonhoeffer was the voice calling out in the wilderness when the German church and people seemed to be floundering, first as the Third Reich was just a backdrop to the ebb and flow of church stability. Then, as the Third Reich sought to make the German church and people into something entirely different from what the church has been from the beginning. They sought to create some new kind of christian. People fell for it partly because they were so crushed and humiliated after World War 1 and probably because their faith was just not as interwoven into their lives as it should have been. Then, it probably had a lot to do with fear.
What was a little scary to me as I was reading this book was just how duped the German people were by Hitler and by how clever and intuitive Hitler was that he could worm his way into the German's heart and mind. Convincing them all along that he was a Christian like them but all the while didn't give a hoot and was actually surrounded by people who wanted to go back to the pagan religion of ancient Germany with all its mysticism etc. The whole seduction of the people kind of reminded me of current affairs and our 2008 election where the Barack Obama talked a good talk and wooed people into hope and change. He has ultimately not brought hope and the change he has brought has only undermined the rule of law already established and sought to take away American's individual liberties. The parallels are there and are quite alarming.
Bonhoeffer and his highly intelligent and influential family saw through the facade very early on and worked to see the mad man ousted. Many of them lost their lives, including Dietrich who almost made it. He had nearly slipped through the fingers of the SS and just 2 weeks before the end of the war and Hitler's suicide he was hanged.
Bonhoeffer's contributions to Germany, the church, theologians, to his students, to his fellow prisoners and to all the people who continue to read the books he had written can not be quantified.
Definitely well worth the time to read this book and see the stark contrast between a man of God and a mad man.
No comments:
Post a Comment