Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great Lutheran pastor and theologian who was part of a plot to kill Hitler. Years ago I read The Cost of Discipleship, but thought now I might read his biography to learn from the inside something about how a country buckles under to the Nazis, step by step, and a dictator takes over. What I learned:
1. Bonhoeffer was truly a remarkable man of faith who gave himself utterly to reading, study, writing, and nurturing young clerics. He was also a bit of a prig, always a bit of a dandy, and an unacknowledged homosexual.
2. The plot to kill Hitler was long considered and morally/spiritually justified by Bonhoeffer in the sense that one person (the killer) might sacrifice himself for the greater good. Bonhoeffer was not the leader in this failed effort. All conspirators were executed.
3. Bonhoeffer’s faith underwent a dramatic change. At the end, he discarded as unnecessary a concern with theology, the church, and even faith itself. He felt that a person working for the common good had absorbed Christ into himself and needed no labels. The task was to stay grounded in the immediate world. [Reminds me of Mother Teresa, who finally said she saw no evidence of God, so she must go on with her work alone.]
I’m not sure how reading the biography was helpful to me. I did see the progress of how the Nazis took over. I already knew the facts, but feeling the growing pressure on the young clergyman was like watching our contemporary pressures bear down harder and harder.
I believe we’ll survive as a Democracy. I do. But it’s a scary time. I read about the ghastly tortures imposed by the Nazis, and Bonhoeffer’s death by a particularly ghastly hanging, and I think, there is no end to the horrors human beings can inflict on each other. No end to how hardened minds and hearts can get.
Point being, I think for what I have for today’s Wobbly, is that the full range of human behavior can and must be seen and written about—from the valiant and courageous life of Bonhoeffer to the evils of the Nazi regime. Let us write what we know, what we see. The more writing, the better. At the end, in prison, Bonhoeffer was denied his books and, worse, any paper or pen for writing. He was alone except for the guards. If you want to erase a person, give him (in this case) no way to express himself.
We exist mutually. Literally. There is no self unless we’re seen. We breathe in air from outside our own skin, we take in food and water from outside. There is no outside. We are made of each other’s cells. We are a part of everything. Everything is a part of us. Literally.
The P.S. . . . .
I promised a list of local readings I will be doing for Doctor of the World. ( I won’t attempt any readings outside Michigan until the bigger book comes out in the fall.) Here’s what I have at the moment:
Scheduled Local (and Zoom) Events—
April 22nd , Notebooks Collective w/ interviewer Anne Marie Oomen. A great conversation format. On Zoom: The Notebooks Collective. We’ll be talking about Doctor of the World, and probably The End of the Clockwork Universe, coming out in the fall.
April 24th, reading at Bookman Bookstore in Grand Haven, MI, 6:30.Their Poetry Night reading, with Jack Ridl, Teresa Scollon, and Greg Rappleye).
April 25th, Michigan Writers Triple Book Launch at The Circuit, (Teresa Scollon, Ellen Stone and me). The Circuit is the re-purposed church on 14th Street in T.C.
May 2, 3:00 Reading at Cordia Senior Living, plus Q & A, Traverse City
May 15th Crooked Tree District Library at Walloon Lake. Jennifer Mikesell is the new director. She’s working to build a programs for the arts. This reading will be the inaugural event. We’ll have a little Q & A afterward.
May 23, Noon (bring your lunch!) Dog Ears Books, Northport.
July 19th, 3:00, Bellaire Library, Bellaire, MI. With Q & A.