Guest Blogger: Peter Moore

The Very Reverend Peter Moore, D.D., was the fourth Dean and President of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. He also served as the school’s first Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 1962 he founded the Fellowship of Christians in Universities and Schools (FOCUS), a parachurch organization which ministers to prep school students. He also served in parish ministry at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and as the rector of “Little” Trinity Anglican Church in Canada – a historic parish in Toronto’s downtown core.  Peter is a gifted academic and author of several books and articles.  He earned his degrees from Yale, Oxford, Episcopal Theological School, and Fuller Theological Seminary.  Currently, Peter is serving as Associate for Transformational Discipleship at St. Michael’s Church in Charleston, SC.

“A Book to Read, Treasure, and Ponder: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas (Thomas Nelson, 2010)”

Stand in front of Westminster Abbey and you will see ten relatively new statues carved into the West Wall. One of them is of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who is the subject of a new book by Eric Metaxas. Metaxas, a friend of mine, also wrote a best-selling biography of William Wilberforce entitled Amazing Grace.

But who is this Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose name most of us recognize but can’t say much about? He was a German. He was a Lutheran minister. He stood against Hitler. He wrote several important books including The Cost of Discipleship. He was hung by the Gestapo just weeks before the war ended with Germany’s surrender. But beyond that, few of us know the details of his short but highly significant life. Here’s why it’s useful – and immensely edifying – to read this new biography.

When I was a seminary student back in 1961 Bonhoeffer was a liberal hero. In his final writings, composed while in prison, he spoke of the need for “religionless Christianity.” Liberals pounced on these words as signifying that this World War II martyr was “one of them.” Did he not anticipate the “Death of God” movement? Did he not predict the end of Christendom? Liberals salivated at the prospects and touted him as their own.

Eric Metaxas has blown that myth right out of the water, but in doing so has given us not a “conservative” Bonhoeffer (save in his commitment to classical Christian doctrine), but a man of action who defied classification save as a man with a passion for God and a profound commitment to the purity of the church.

Few realize that towards the end of his short life (Bonhoeffer died at the age of 39 in 1945) he served in Hitler’s Intelligence Agency, posing as a Nazi – but in reality being a double agent. He also worked tirelessly to get the Ecumenical Movement (the World Council of Churches) to recognize the Confessing Church, the remnant of Lutheran believers he and Karl Barth pulled together, as the one and only authentic church in Germany. In these and so many other ways, he was out on a limb, desperately trying to save the Lutheranism in which he had been reared from near total extinction in its submission to the oppressive hand of the Third Reich.

But why didn’t the world-wide church recognize that the state church of Germany had been totally taken over by Hitler in the 1930’s and ceased to be a credible witness to the Gospel? The answer is that the animus towards Germans in general at that time was so strong that the Allied powers and their politicians, including even Western churchmen, wouldn’t believe that there was a reliable German anywhere to be found. Despite his many contacts in England, Bonhoeffer failed to convince Churchill that a resistance movement inside Germany actually existed. Later, of course, we learned of the many efforts to assassinate Hitler, including the famous Valkerie plot that Bonhoeffer supported from his prison cell. But even they drew yawns from the Allied Powers. Germany as a nation, it seemed, had totally capitulated to Hitler’s demonic reign.

This is why Bonhoeffer stands out and why his witness shines even brighter. He was born to a prestigious family, with connections to nobility. He was a highly educated theologian recognized on both sides of the Atlantic. He studied and taught for a time at New York City’s Union Seminary. He moved in and out of powerful circles with a growing conviction that the vast majority of Christian leaders in Germany had lost their way and no longer believed in the power of God’s Word to redeem and renew.

How Bonhoeffer came to his confidence in the Bible (albeit interpreted through the lens of higher criticism), who influenced him in his formative years, why he saw through the vapid American liberal Protestantism he encountered at Union Seminary, and why “discipleship” will always be associated with his name are yours to discover by reading this fascinating book.

I confess that as I read the book tears came to my eyes several times. There is no rhyme or reason why Bonhoeffer — given his background and comfortable upper middle class upbringing — should have become one of the few men in Germany to confront the most blatant personification of evil perhaps of all times. The only explanation seems to be that God touched him and captured his mind and then — wrapping his heart in steel — sent him out to do battle and lose. But as with so many losers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ultimately a winner by the Grace of God. He still speaks to you and me and asks us: “Are you prepared for the real cost of discipleship, or are you counting on cheap grace to get you through heaven’s gates by the skin of your chinny chin chin?”