Bonhoeffer: A Courageous Model for Postmodern Christians

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, the weighty, comprehensive biography by Eric Metaxes, continues to garner accolades, awards, and readers more than a year after its publication. In his 542-page, surprisingly readable tome, Metaxes introduces the German pastor-turned-spy to a new generation, packing his work with previously unpublished details and fascinating insight into Bonhoeffer’s personal life, his theological prescience, and his involvement in the conspiracy to kill Hitler.

Born in 1906 into a highly intelligent and talented family, Bonhoeffer came of age during Germany’s recovery from its devastating loss in World War I. His international travels and studies influenced his politics and theology, and, as Adolf Hitler rose to power, Bonhoeffer’s rhetoric and writings exhorted the church to remember its purpose. His work drew the attention of the Nazi regime, culminating in his imprisonment and eventual execution just weeks before Germany surrendered in 1945.

Setting the Record Straight

I had the good fortune to interview Metaxes several months ago. As we chatted, I wondered aloud why he would spend more than a year researching and writing about a man whom some scholars had deemed liberal, even atheistic at the end of his life? Metaxas scoffed at the atheist label, pointing to evidence either ignored or unknown for the last fifty years. He described Bonhoeffer’s beliefs and practices as personal, devotional, and reflective of a high view of Scripture. Those terms should be very recognizable to evangelicals, he noted.

“Anyone who’s a truly mature Christian, who has their eyes on Jesus, will recognize Bonhoeffer as a brother in Christ. Attempts by mostly liberal theologians to portray him as humanist or post-Christian are really off the mark,” the author asserts. “One of the reasons I’m glad my book has been published is to set that record straight. We need to see Bonhoeffer for who he was and not try to make him in our own image. Bonhoeffer was a robust, devoted servant of Jesus Christ.”

Greg Thornbury, dean of Christian theology at Union Seminary, has called Bonhoeffer “a Church Father for the postmodern era.” Metaxas wholeheartedly agrees.

“He is a model for living the authentic Christian life. Bonhoeffer is the ultimate example of someone who is discerning and obedient to Jesus in the deepest way. I believe that God gives us illustrations from history, and the life of Bonhoeffer is one of those. He is an example to believers of what it looks like to negotiate the difficulties of life, to deal with evil as a serious, devout, mature Christian.”

Half-German himself, with a grandfather who fought reluctantly for the Nazis and died during the war, Metaxes acknowledges that his heritage played a part in his decision to pursue Bonhoeffer’s story. But his coming-to-faith experience as a young adult played a strong role as well. Hearing of the young pastor’s courage and conviction in the face of tyranny inspired Metaxes for years. So when people began asking him about the subject of his next biography (he had just published Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery), he knew it would have to be Bonhoeffer.

His voice rose with passion as he discussed Bonhoeffer’s relevance for today’s Christian. ”There’s something about Bonhoeffer’s depth of faith, his witness and his theology, that speaks to us unlike no one else. You see a deeply Christian human trying to live out his obedience to Christ in the midst of incredibly difficult circumstances,” Metaxes asserts.

“He was zealously looking for God and stripping away fig leaves, saying in essence ‘I want God, no religious covering. The only covering I want is the blood of Jesus Christ, only Jesus can suffice in the face of evil, only Jesus can defeat evil and death.’ Bonhoeffer understood that early on, but he lived it out year after year. As the evil encroached, he grew closer and closer to Jesus.”

“The singular thing about Bonhoeffer that recommends him to this generation is that he calls us to a closer, authentic walk with Jesus, not just a merely religious walk, but one of true obedience to Jesus Christ,” says Metaxas. “His life asks us, ‘How do we live as authentic Christians all the way, in the face of struggles and evil?’”

Recent Developments

Metaxes has been somewhat overwhelmed but grateful for the attention and acclaim the book has received. Among the awards given were:

• 2011 ECPA Book of the Year
• 2011 Canterbury Medal by the Becket Fund recognizing courage in the defense of religious liberty
• 2011 Christopher Award winner highlighting the power of faith, courage, and action

In his May 12th acceptance speech at the Canterbury Medal Dinner Metaxes said, “There is no way for me to adequately respond to the encomia with which I have been so recently lauded. This is all too much, so if I seem unequal to it, that’s because I’m unequal to it.”

Acknowledging that the award had less to do with him and more do to with the subject of his book, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Metaxes joked, “[One] way that I can deal with this is by knowing that if I had written a biography of Charlie Sheen you wouldn’t have picked me.”

Turning serious, he remarked,”If you write a halfway decent [book] about a really really great human being, that kind of changes the equation. Without any question, I stand up here able to take this in because I know I’m really accepting this award . . . for Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”

Published in April 2010, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy was released by Thomas Nelson Publishers as a trade paperback on August 30, 2011.

Orginially posted on November 3, 2011.