Marginal Christianity

        Seventy years ago today (April 9) the Nazis's murdered Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the Flossenburg prison camp two weeks before the Allies liberated the area. What follows are my reflections on the continuing critical importance of Bonhoeffer to us today. They form the thesis of my next book, Chuchiness: Why Only Dietrich Bonhoeffer Can Save Us Now!.         When Bonhoeffer taught a seminar on the theology of Karl Barth during his year in the U.S. in 1930, he began by urging participants to forget everything they thought they knew about theology if they hoped to understand Barth. For Bonhoeffer himself, I think, we need tot ry to forget everything we think we know about church to understand him.           And seventy years after his death we’re still struggling to do that!           DB’s reception in North Amer...

              When Bonhoeffer taught a seminar on the theology of Karl Barth during his year in the U.S. in 1930, he began by urging participants to forget everything they thought they knew about theology if they hoped to understand Barth. The same, I think, can be said about us trying to understand DB.           And seventy years after his death we’re still trying to do that!           DB’s reception in North America depended a lot on Bonhoeffer’s character and courage in engaging and resisting the demonic paganism of the Third Reich. A number of movements in the latter half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in this country have appealed to him and sought to utilize his example and ethics to support their agendas.   While that’s something we all do all the time, it’s particularly problematic in the case of...