Jean Bethke Elshtain Scholar of Religion, Political Philosopher and Active Bonhoeffer Society Member

Home , Bonhoeffer family, Hans von Dohnanyi, Jean Bethke Elshtain

Number 106  Fall 2013 Jean Bethke Elshtain Scholar of Religion, Political Philosopher and Active Bonhoeffer Society Member

ean Bethke Elshtain, professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago, died on August 11, 2013. Her writings on Jpolitics, ethics, and theology shaped the discipline of Christian ethics after the end of the Cold War, and her provocative, realistic perspective on the war on terror reminded us that the new century requires us to explore old questions about just war in a different way. Her students and colleagues knew her also for her profound appreciation of the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the International Bonhoeffer Society benefitted especially from her lecture on “The Profile of Bonhoeffer’s Political Resistance from the Perspective of Political Science” at Sigtuna in 2012. Professor Elshtain was a Inside This Issue prolific author, with more * * * * * * * than 20 books to her credit, and her interests ranged Reports from Augustine to Jane Addams. Running through all her writings, German Section 6 however, were key concepts from the history of Western politics: German Resistance 7 authority, democracy, sovereignty, and the state. These ideas, as Memorial Center she articulated them in Augustine and the Limits of Politics, shape our images of God, just as our idea of God sets limits to what is Society News possible in politics. She devoted her Gifford Lectures in 2005-06 to President’s Message 2 these themes, and the resulting book, Sovereignty: God, State, and Note to Members 3 Self, is a masterful exposition of the sense of authority and autonomy Annual Meeting 15 that is part of both modern psychology and modern politics. But she Annual Dinner 19 warned that this autonomy rests on an idea of divine sovereignty that may not stand up to theological scrutiny. Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Book Reviews 4,12 she challenged the pretensions of modern thought to self-sufficiency while maintaining the Enlightenment passion for “the equal dignity Publications - New & 8 of all people as ethical beings” (Bonhoeffer, Ethics, DBWE 6:374). Forthcoming Her interest in Bonhoeffer had its roots in a political realism that Newsletter Archives 14 she learned from reading Augustine and Luther, and she found its modern voices in Reinhold Niebuhr and Hannah Arendt. This was Obituary 1 Continued on Page 12 President’s Message

Fall 2013

Greetings to all!

These words are written on the eve of the 12th anniversary of 9/11 as the United States plans commemorative services in communities around the nation to remember the events of that day and to reflect on its meaning these many years later. As we think back on those events and the manner in which they altered our lives, I was struck again by the poignancy of Bonhoeffer’s reflections contained in his message to fellow conspirators, “After Ten Years.” He began, “Ten years is a long time in the life of every human being.” As he then goes on to note, those 10 years had been significant not only in defining the past decade but as importantly for how they would shape the future. We might ask ourselves, what have these ten years meant to us? What has transpired during this time? Are we at a better place?

As we continue to grapple with the moral and political forces shaping our world, there is an ongoing need for voices of clarity and conviction, voices that can guide us to a better future. Without much effort, it is easy to discover that there are many looking for that future and often they find Bonhoeffer’s ideas and witness important in that search. A couple of recent examples illustrate this. The first is Christian Wiman’s My Bright Abyss. Wiman is a poet who, though he had grown up in the church, had left the church behind, only to have his faith reawakened and reaffirmed after being diagnosed with cancer. Interestingly, even though he had left the church, he, like many others like him, did not leave their questions about God or concerns about faith behind. One credible conversation partner he discovered along the way was Bonhoeffer

A second example comes from the newly released Breach of Trust by Boston University’s professor of history, Andrew Bacevich. He finds Bonhoeffer’s concept of “cheap grace” useful in illustrating the self-deception of Americans regarding their patriotism and civic responsibility.

These are but two recent examples of varied voices that find relevance to Bonhoeffer’s thought. As we prepare for our meetings in Baltimore, I am reminded once again of the importance of the Bonhoeffer community around the world; through its faithful exploration of Bonhoeffer’s theology, we are discovering new ways that Bonhoeffer’s witness speaks to the current generation, both inside the churches and beyond. The works noted above remind us of the importance of the work of the society in preserving and perpetuating Bonhoeffer’s legacy.

In that vein, we are blessed that credible research continues apace. In this issue, we are introduced to several new books that hold before us the ongoing relevance of Bonhoeffer’s life and witness. Thank you for all your efforts.

Please find within these pages details of meetings, presentations, gatherings, and dinner taking place in Baltimore, as well as many other items that will inform you about the work of the society.

Blessings,

H.Gaylon Barker Ridgefield, Connecticut

2 Request for Nominations

Each year three members must be elected to the Board of Directors of the International Bonhoeffer Society - English Language Section. In order to prepare a slate of nominees for the election at the upcoming meeting of the society in Baltimore, November 23, the Nominating Committee is requesting names of candidates. If anyone knows of a society member who should be considered for election to the board, submit their name, along with their stated willingness to serve to: Anna Mercedes ([email protected]), Reinhold Krauss ([email protected]) or Jennifer McBride ([email protected]). Nominations from the floor will also be accepted at the time of the annual meeting.

Note to Society Members

Please send changes/updates of mailing addresses and e-mail addresses to: Rev. Mark E. Randall, 15917 NE Union Road, Unit #103, Ridgefield WA 98642 (Note: this is a new address). or to: [email protected] Please notify the Editor ([email protected]) if you prefer receiving the Newsletter by e-mail in a PDF format. Future Bonhoeffer Meeting Dates and Sites

November 23-26 2013 Baltimore, Maryland November 22-25 2014 San Diego, California November 21-24 2015 Atlanta, Georgia November 19-22 2016 San Antonio, Texas November 18-21 2017 Boston, Massachusetts

INTERNATIONAL BONHOEFFER SOCIETY ENGLISH LANGUAGE SECTION BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2013

Officers:H. Gaylon Barker (President) Ridgefield CT; Stephen Plant (Vice-President) Cambridge UK; Lori Brandt Hale (Secretary) Maplewood MN; and Mark Randall (Treasurer) Ridgefield WA

Board of Directors: Mark Brocker, Beaverton OR; Michael DeJonge, Tampa FL; Peter Frick, Waterloo Ontario; Stephen Haynes, Memphis TN; Jenny McBride, Waverly IA; Anna Mercedes, Collegeville MN; Jeff Pugh, Elon NC ; and Jens Zimmerman, Langley British Columbia.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works - English Edition:Victoria Barnett (General Editor)(Washington D.C.), Clifford Green (Executive Director)(Boston MA)

Editorial Advisory Board: Lori Brandt Hale (Maplewood MN); John Matthews (Chair) (Apple Valley MN); and Clifford Green (Boston MA)

Newsletter Editor: Dean S. Skelley (San Antonio TX)

Emeriti Board Members: Jim Burtness+, Keith Clements, John Godsey+, Clifford Green, Daniel Har- dy+, Pat Kelley, Geffrey Kelly, Michael Lukens, John Matthews, Burton Nelson+, Bill Peck, Larry Rasmus- sen, Deotis Roberts, Martin Rumscheidt, Charles Sensel, Charles West and Ruth Zerner

3 Book Review  expended will be well rewarded. As a German, a Lutheran, a believer, and a man at the crossroads of A Christian in the Third Reich (orig. Chrześcijanin history, Bonhoeffer can help Poles understand what it w Trzeciej Rzeszy). Anna Morawska. Warsaw: means to be a Christian, a patriot and a human being. Her argument works in reverse; non-Polish readers Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Ein Christ can learn much from Morawska, a woman, a Pole, imSpołeczny Deutschen Instytut Reich Wydawniczy ZNAK, 1970. and Roman-Catholic who, prior to her death in 1975, Anna Morawska, was involved in Polish-German reconciliation and the mit Vorwort von Tadeusz secular Catholic dialogue that bore fruit in the devel- Mazowiecki. Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2011, opment of civil society and the opposition movement ISBN 978-3-402-12931-9 (Winfried Lipscher, to Poland’s socialist regime during the 1970s and 80s. translator).nna Morawska’s 1970 biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Christian in the Third Reich, Morawska approaches Bonhoeffer as she approaches Aremains unsurpassed as the best introduction ecumenism, acknowledging the place of scholarly de- for the Polish reader new to Bonhoeffer, yet the sig- bate but stressing face-to-face encounters, personal nificance of this work reaches far beyond its impact on dialogue, and responsible engagement from below. Polish intellectual life. Published alongside Bonhoef- She argued that in the ecclesiastical and political cir- fer’s Selected Works (Pismo Wybrane; Anna Moraw- cles where he served, “his Christianity no longer fit ska, ed., SIW ZNAK, 1970: Warsaw), it was read by within the narrow bourgeois, nationalistic categories both Catholic and secular intellectuals and activists, of the national interest,” and his final letters “truly go including the leaders of the Polish opposition move- beyond the world of the post-feudal intelligentsia and ment and the Solidarity trade union. Over the past 40 its ideals.” For Poles, reading Bonhoeffer meant navi- years it has influenced the course of ecumenical dia- gating the shoals of 19th and early 20th century Ger- logue, the process of Polish-German reconciliation, man Protestant theology for the first time. Morawska’s and even the geo-political realities of the cold-war discussion of the role that an overly individualized period. For non-Polish readers it provides a unique Lutheran understanding of justification by faith cou- window not only into the life and legacy of Bonhoef- pled with the doctrine of the ‘Two Kingdoms’ played fer, but also his reception in post-WWII Soviet-con- in the large scale failure of the Evangelical Church to trolled Central/Eastern Europe.1 Unfortunately, few resist Hitler is anything but polemical; she displays outside of Poland were aware of or enjoyed access equal zeal in discussing the corresponding failure of to this important work. Although it is out of print in the Roman church. Polish and has not yet been translated into English, its The Reformation wanted to place God so high, and rel- recent translation into German has made it available egate humanity’s dealings with him to such an intimate to a wider audience. zone, that no human perversity, no unworthy intentions could now stain religion or use it for their own interests. Morawska begins by asking what a German Lutheran The Catholic tradition proceeded along a entirely differ- pastor and theologian executed by the Nazis has to ent line in defense of the purity of the Ideal, i.e., through say to Polish, Catholic readers in the 1970s? To help its maximal objectification.[...] In every day practice, her readers gain access to Bonhoeffer’s thought, she what was intended to objectify faith led to its being conceived of in formalistic or even magical terms. And compared Bonhoeffer to pre-WWII Polish intellectu- what was hoped to provide a defense of the transcend- als, who, like him were forced by upheaval, war and ent character of Revelation led instead in the direction radical social changes to rediscover themselves and of its virtual identification with the historical ecclesi- find a way to pass on their humanistic heritage to the astical institution and its doctrines. [...] Unfortunately, next generation. She also suggests that a meeting with an overly institutionally objectified God turned out to Bonhoeffer can show the Poles not only what but how be almost as undemanding of a God, when it came to someone from the Protestant tradition believes, for social testimony, as a God who was overly ‘other’ or such an encounter “is an experience more deeply ecu- else ‘intimate.’ menical and inspiring than great facility in comparing Morawska’s discussion of challenges faced by Ger- pure theories.” mans who opposed Hitler gave her Polish readers valuable insight into their neighbors. To Poles, Although Polish readers studying Bonhoeffer’s life whose resistance to foreign aggression and authori- ‘encounter time and again reactions and ways of un- tarian rule was deeply ingrained through their long derstanding that are very foreign to us, almost un- struggle against Germany and Russia., it seemed that fathomable,’ Morawska assures them that the effort those who supported the Third Reich either shared in 4 its evil or were too dense to recognize it. Even the not the barriers run right through the group of believers “good Germans” who plotted against Hitler appeared and that of unbelievers: namely, separating those who weak, indecisive and incompetent; they acted too late live for others from those who do not, whatever group and accomplished nothing except getting themselves they may belong to? [Anna Morawska, quoted by Eber- killed. Morawska helps her Polish readers understand hard Bethge in Bonhoeffer, Exile and Martyr: Collins, London, 1965, p. 14] why many Germans initially responded with hope and pride to Nazi propaganda, and points out how Morawska interweaves her treatment of Ethics and misleading it is to compare the reaction of Poles and Letters and Papers from Prison with the plot of Bon- Germans. hoeffer’s life. Without diminishing the theological im- From the outset the situation in Poland was clearer portance of the Letters, Morawska suggests the value morally. During the occupation there was no “slippery of an alternate approach: ‘One can look at them...as slope” for us; the chasm was completely unambigu- a record of very specific life experiences and psycho- ous for everyone from the start, all our national inter- logical reactions.’ In them we meet not only Bonhoef- ests argued for such a view of things. In Germany it fer, but also his Christ. was more difficult. But one must be conscious of the Christ appears in this picture as the God-man, in whom enormous consequences for all of Western Christianity there was the fullness of human solidarity. But in our which arose from this, that those churches, in conditions world the fullness of human solidarity could not be that were from the beginning less clear, did not rise to power; it had to be weakness. God, who wanted to take the level of the task, that chauvinism blocked their most this world and, as it was, reconcile it to himself, thus elemental ideals from their view, that they looked above revealed himself in it as a weak, defenseless God, given all to their own goals of self-preservation, or - in the to others without reserve, as a God taking upon himself heroic fraction - only the “purity of the ghetto,” and the entire responsibility for human’s affairs, and accept- considered the central ethical questions of their day to ing - when necessary - stains and guilt. Such a divine belong to the secular realm that did not concern them. presence in the ungodly, penultimate world continues orawska addressed her comments on am- anonymously in a representative manner for all time: biguous conditions, national chauvinism, ‘messianic events’ still take place, for “Christ lives in those who follow Him.” Mself-preservation, and the purity of the ghetto to readers and churches in the People’s Re- Such was the living Christ of Bonhoeffer, the Christ of public of Poland, implying that they faced challenges the ‘non-religious...who asked by his presence incar- under Poland’s Soviet-imposed socialist government nate a hundred times over in countless faces: “Could similar to those encountered by the German people you not watch with me for one hour? Could you not under Hitler. Her question to them was clear: Will we be on my side? On the side of weaker people, of lost rise to the task? causes, of ministries that no one will undertake? On the thankless side of human solidarity, so often rewarded by Morawska relates Bonhoeffer’s theology of the cross the cross? On the side of the defenseless and therefore to the ‘tragic situation of the Dahlemites,’ who, like all-powerful God? On the side of the All-Powerful, for Christ, became a laughingstock, and were ostra- the gospel vision, though continually losing, is after all undying in the world? cized from the temple fellowship to suffer ‘outside the gate.’ Thus, following Christ entails belief “in the Reading Morawska today, we are faced with the powerlessness” and the recognition that Christ is truly same question she posed to her fellow Poles in 1970: present ‘where there is weakness, wrong, powerless- Whose side are we on? The side of the defenseless ness.’ To stand with those who are wronged is a sign and, therefore, all-powerful God? that one has chosen the road of true discipleship. For Morawska and her readers this went beyond dogma; 1 it represented an existential choice. As Morawska de- Interested readers will find more on this subject in “The Polish Reception of Bonhoeffer” (chapter four of Poetry, clared to Eberhard Bethge, Providence and Patriotism, Burnell, Wipf & Stock, 2009) Bonhoeffer is so exciting because he has dared to an- and my article “Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Polish Op- ticipate in thought our problem of how to meet Christ position Movement” (Bonhoeffer and Interpretive Theory, in a religionless world. Who are we, who, in the midst Peter Frick, ed., Peter Lang, 2013. of atheism, do not wish to understand ourselves as ag- nostics, but feel veneration for Christ; how are we to interpret our relation to Jesus? In Bonhoeffer we see Joel Burnell somebody who might be able to help us when we feel Chair of Theology Department that it is simply wrong to see the barriers dividing the Evangelical School of Theology in Wroclaw, Poland so-called believers from the so-called unbelievers. Do 5 Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Music and Visual Arts Report on the annual meeting of the German Speaking Section of the International Bonhoeffer Society.

he annual meeting of the German Speaking Section gathered more than 80 participants in the beautiful late summer ambience of the Wartburg in Eisenach September 5-8, 2013. The interpretation of Bonhoeffer’s theology and life in arts was the thematic Tfocus of this year’s gathering. Artists from the fields of music and visual arts were invited to address the inquisitive question by Bonhoeffer scholars, basically what aspect of Bonhoeffer’s life was of interest to them and how it shaped their expressions in both music and the visual arts.

Matthias Nagel and Dieter Stork, composer and text editor of the Bonhoeffer-Oratorium, presented their thoughts on the “language of music in the Bonhoeffer-Liedoratorium.” The audience was able to appreciate the insight presented in the music by the composers who focused on specific tensions within Bonhoeffer’s life. What genre of music would match with a certain text or phrase by Bonhoeffer? Uwe Appold is a fine artist from Flensburg, who, for many years, has been enthusiastic about the life and witness of Bonhoeffer. He brought with him a number of paintings which interpreted the theologian’s life in modern art using powerful colors, rather than those of a portrait nature. Illuminating discussions followed both presentations. The last main speaker was Prof. Jürgen Henkys, who is famous to German churchgoers for his arranging fine translations of a number of English and Danish Church hymns, interpreted a number of photographs and paintings of Bonhoeffer, including those with his family. As a side note, it was interesting to learn that a number of famous pictures of Bonhoeffer are extracted from group photographs, which contain interesting information of those pictured with the theologian. Thus, an interaction or dialogue between Bonhoeffer and others in these photographs has been minimized or overlooked.

Prof. Christiane Tietz moderated a panel discussion during which pre- and post-doctoral students presented their views on the “Forschungsforum.” The three day conference included a bus tour to the Bach city Arnstadt and concluded with a celebratory service, led by Dr. Gernot Gerlach, at one of the traditional churches in Eisenach.

The members of the German Section of the International Bonhoeffer Society, meeting in Eisenach, agreed in their general assembly to rename their official title to “International Bonhoeffer Society - German Speaking Section,” formerly called the “Sektion Bundesrepublik Deutschland.” By focusing now on ‘language’ rather than ‘territory,’ board members can be elected from Switzerland and Austria. Pictured in the photograph (below) are the board members, elected for five years, (from left to right): Dr. Gernot Gerlach, Christina Vater, Prof. Ralf Wüstenberg, Dr. Christian Löhr, Wilfried Schulz, Prof. Gunter Prüller-Jagenteufel, Dr. Christine Schließer, Prof. Christiane Tietz (Chairperson), Prof. Wolf Krötke and Wolfgang Kohl.

Contributed by Ralf Wüstenberg

6 German Resistance Memorial Center tive conspiracy on the part of key opponents of the regime close to the center of power, and also opposition by The German Resistance Memorial Center is located in the young people and resistance in daily life in wartime. This Bendler Block in Berlin’s Mitte district, at the historic site involved depicting a variety of traditions and schools of of the attempted coup of July 20, 1944. On July 20, 1952, thought as well as the situations and goals which brought upon the initiative of relatives of the resistance fighters forth and shaped resistance betweem 1933 and 1945. The of July 20, 1944, Eva Olbricht, widow of General Frie- result is a multifaceted portrayal of the goals and forms of drich Olbricht, laid the cornersone for a memorial in the resistance to National Socialism. courtyard of the Bendler Block. On July 20, 1953, Berlin’s mayor, Ernst Reuter, unveiled the monument created by he Memorial Center offers free seminars for groups Professor Richard Scheibe, the bronze figure of a young to add greater depth to a visit to its exhibition. The man with his hands bound. On July 20, 1955, the former topics of the seminars include: Resisting on the Ba- Bendlerstrasse was ceremoniously renamed “Stauffen- T sis of Christian Beliefs, Resisting in the Arts and Sciences, bergstrasse.” And on July 20, 1962, Berlin’s mayor, Franz The Kreisau Circle, The White Rose, The “Red Orchestra,” Amrehn, unveiled a plaque in the commemorative court- Youth Opposition, Resistance by Jews, Women in the Re- yard bearing the names of the officers executed there by sistance, Motives for Resistance and Resistance in Daily a firing squad on July 20, 1944. Life During the War.

At the initiative of the circle of resistance fighters of July The permanent exhibition of the second floor will be 20, 1944, the Berlin Senate in 1967 resolved to establish a closed until July 2014 for a major renovations. However, memorial and educational center intended to inform the free guided tours are available upon advanced registra- public about resistance to National Socialism. The perma- tion. nent exhibition, developed under the direction of historian Friedrich Zipfel, was then opened on July 20, 1968. Publications in English available from the Center include: In 1979, the parties in Berlin’s state parliament reached Exhibition: Resistance to National Socialism(5,50€); Claus agreement on the proposal to expand the memorial and Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and the Attempted Coup of educational center. In 1980, the commemorative- court July 20, 1944 (9€); In pursuit of life - Hiding Places of Per- yard was remodeled according to a design by Professor secuted Jews (17€) and the following documents available Erich Reusch. The following inscription was engraved in as pdf downloads: Governmental Declaration by Beck/ the wall of the entrance to the commemorative courtyard: Goerdeler, Draft summer 1944; German Jews in the Resist- ance 1933-1945; Museum Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the “Here in the former Army High Command, Germans Blind; and Berliners Who Helped Us to Survive the Hitler organized the attempt to overthrow the lawless Dictatorship. National Socialist regime on July 20, 1944. For this they sacrificed their lives.” For additional information, contact the German Resist- ance Memorial Center: In 1983, Berlin’s mayor Richard von Weizsäcker commis- sioned historian Professor Peter Steinbach and Stuttgart Stauffenbergstrasse 13 -14, designer Professor Hans Peter Hoch to create a permanent D-10785 Berlin-Mitte, Germany exhibition comprehensively depicting and documenting Phone: +49-30-26 99 50 00 the entire broad and varied spectrum of German resist- Fax: +49-30-26 99 50 10 ance to National Socialism. This exhibition was opened E-mail: [email protected] on July 20, 1989, and more than 5,000 photographs and documents present examples of the motives, actions, and Open Hours: Monday - Wednesday, Friday 9 am - 6 pm goals of individuals, groups, and organizations involved in Thursday 9 am - 8 pm resistance to National Socialism. Saturday, Sunday & Holidays 10 am - 6 pm

The scope of the exhibition goes beyond political resist- Admission: Free ance to National Socialism alone to include the varied forms of resistance on the basis of Christian beliefs, the Website: http://www.gdw-berlin/de coup attempts by the military from 1938 to 1944, the ac-

7 Publications - New and Forthcoming

Led Into Mystery: Faith and Seeking Answers in Life and Death. John de Gruchy, London: SCM Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-334004736-0. paper: $24.70.

John de Gruchy recounts the tragic and accidental death of his son Steve in February 2010 at the age of 48. The book is a sequel to John’s book Being Human: Confessions of a Christian Humanist (published in 2012). In the prologue of the current book, John writes: this book “is not written as an aid to grieving. But it is an attempt to ‘own my grief’ by responding to the questions posed by Steve’s death. Not everyone ‘owns grief’ in the same way; some do so more privately than others, as in the case even in our family and a circle of friends.” De Gruchy writes in his 2012 book: “Despite all we know about the biological processes, birth remains a mat- ter of wonder and hope just as death remains a tragic mystery.”

In the current book de Gruchy writes: “The title derives from Karl Rahner’s comment that theology is about being led back into mystery - the ultimate mystery of God disclosed in the life, death and resurrection of Je- sus and the creative presence of the Spirit in the life of the world. This mystery is an open secret waiting to be explored, expressed and entered into by faith. In doing so, we discern the fragmentary mystery of being human alone and in relationship within the constraints of our time and space. We are rudely encountered by the perplexing mysteries of evil and death, but embraced by the mysteries of goodness and beauty, hope and love. We draw on memory and imagination to develop a language that enables us to explore mystery through the genre of myth, parable, poetry, the novel, music and art. We participate in the mysteries of faith that com- municate grace, forgiveness, and freedom which enable us to be more fully human in the life of the world in the struggle for justice and peace.”

Interpreting Bonhoeffer: Historical Perspectives, Emerging Issues. Clifford J. Green and Guy C. Carter (eds). Fortress Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1-451465419. paper. $29.00

The editors have provided Bonhoeffer scholars a welcomed contribution - arising from the papers presented at the 2011 conference “Bonhoeffer for the Coming Generations” held at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Part 1 is primarily historical in orientation, but at the same time is strongly concerned with ethical and theological issues, while the emphasis of Part 2 is primarily theological and ethical, with a strong historical dimension. As noted in the Preface, “the first chapters begin with examples of how the Bonhoeffer legacy has engaged issues of public life in Germany, Britain and the United States, with extensions to South Africa, Brazil and Japan. Translators have provided informative insight into the challenges encountered by both German and English scholars. “Readers will find the historians regularly puncturing common tendencies to oversimplify, to mythologize, and to heroize Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church in popular biographies - even worse, attempts to paint him as the patron saint of their ideological causes.” The chapters in Part 2 are “devoted to close readings of two of his most influential texts, Discipleship and Ethics, to a detailed reflection on the influence on him of the Harlem Renaissance; and to a comparison of his understanding of the ‘church for others’ with Paul’s critique of empire.” In one of the last chapters, Michael P. DeJonge introduces a key aspect of Bonhoeffer’s methodology to “show how his theological concept of ‘person’ clarified his agreement and disagreement with Karl Barth.” In the final chapter, Green proposes “that Bonhoeffer’s understanding of worldly Christianity, from his dissertation to his prison letters, is a quest for a new Christian paradigm.”

Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Charles Marsh. Knopf, 2014. ISBN 978-0- 30726981-2. 548 pages. $35.00

Charles Marsh, Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies and director of the Project on Lived Theol- ogy at the University of Virginia, has drawn on extensive new research to produce a majestic and definitive biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Using unprecedened archival access, he now offers an intimate and an often startling portrait of the theologian. Author of numerous books, including Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity, Welcoming Justice and Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Promise of His Theology, this comprehensive biography will be welcomed by Bonhoeffer scholars and students. 8 No Ordinary Men: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi: Resisters Against Hitler in Church and State. Elisabeth Sifton and Fritz Stern. New York: New York Review of Books Collection, 2013. ISBN 978-1-59017-681-8. Hardcover. $19.95. [Also published in Germa- ny as Keine Gewöhnlichen Männer: Dietrich Bonhoeffer und Hans von Dohnanyi im Widerstand gegen Hitler. C.H. Beck, 2013]

Much has been published about Dietrich Bonhoeffer - his life and theological writings - in both German and English. The authors of this new book relate interesting background information regarding the Bonhoeffer family, including the disastrous effects of World War I, not only on Europe generally, but on the Bonhoef- fer family, notably Bonhoeffer’s father, Dr. Karl Bonhoeffer, an eminent psychiatrist. And the authors pay special attention to one of Dietrich’s brothers-in-law, his close friend Hans von Dohnanyi. An essay about both men, which appeared in The New York Review of Books (October 25, 2012) as “The Tragedy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi,” was drawn from this book.

They write in the essay, “Hans von Dohnanyi, born in 1902, a son of the Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnanyi, had also grown up in Berlin and had known the Bonhoeffer family since childhood; in 1925, he received his doctorate in law and married Dietrich’s sister Christine.” Known for his “exceptional intellect and integrity” he was “soon appointed to important posts in government and academic institutes.” As assistant to the Minister of Justice by 1933, he became “privy to information about the Nazis’ crimes; by 1934 he was keeping a chronological record of them along with supporting documents,” which he stored in an army safe at a local military base. And by 1937 he was learning “about Hitler’s secret plans to establish a new German- dominated order in Europe.” Both Hans and Dietrich were shaken when synagogues were burned on Novem- ber 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht) and when, as Sifton and Stern write, “the churches remained silent, and “30,000 Jews were herded into concentration camps.”

“...In August 1939, after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which surely doomed Poland, [Admiral Wilhelm] Canaris summoned Dohnanyi to be [Colonel Hans] Oster’s deputy in the Abwehr [Military Coun- terintelligence], a position that exempted him from conscription. Hans did his official intelligence work but mostly helped Oster to organize a coup to remove - in fact to murder - Hitler. ...”

“...With Canaris’s help, Hans managed to claim Dietrich as an Abwehr liaison officer whose extensive ecumenical contacts could be useful for Germany. Thus, Dietrich, too, became ‘indispensable in his present as- signment’ and saved from conscription. While he continued with pastoral and theological work, he now also joined Hans’s band of conspirators in their oppositional strategies, and the friendship with Hans deepened as they faced common dangers, both of them relying on Hans’s wife and Dietrich’s sister, Christine, who was a model of courage and ingenious decency. ...”

“...[By mid-1941, following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union,] as German Jews began to be deported to the East and almost certain extinction there, Dohnanyi embarked on an extraordinary project to use his offices to save at least a few of them, including some to whom he had earlier promised protection. The com- plicated, desperate plan - it became known as Operation 7 - involved having seven people whose names appeared on the deportation lists (the number grew to fourteen) designated as Abwehr agents and sent with the Gestapo’s consent to Switzerland. By September 1942 fourteen Jews had found safe haven, and were further helped by Hans’s insistence that they receive funds to sustain themselves.”

Two years later, on April 5, 1943, Hans, Christine and Dietrich were all arrested on “suspicion of treason as well as ‘currency violations’ and imprisoned. Christine was soon released, but the men were never freed. Over the next two years, Dietrich endured “nightmare” conditions and “harsh and ugly” abuse, while for Hans “incarceration was a time of unspeakable suffering; he now experienced firsthand everything he had abhorred about the regime for ten dreadful years - the Nazis’ boundless criminality, their sadistic determination to destroy a person before killing him.” By midsummer 1943, the charges of high treason against the two men were dropped, but they were re-indicted on lesser charges of currency violations and a new Nazi high crime punishable by death: Wehrkraftzersetzung, “sedition and defeatism.’” As the writers acknowledge, “Dietrich’s famous letters from Tegel poignantly attest to the spiritual travail of incarceration.” “Hans, too was in physical torment, with painful phlebitis.” Nonetheless, during his relentless daily interrogations his astute political cunning never failed, and he continued to insist on his and Dietrich’s innocence of all charges.

In November 1943, during an Allied air raid on Berlin, an incendiary bomb hit Hans’s cell and “he suffered a 9 brain embolism.” His captors transferred him to Berlin’s principal hospital, but in January 1944 SS officers summarily removed him to a military hospital where they had him under their complete control. Hoping to gain time until he might be liberated, along with Dietrich, Hans begged his wife “to obtain a means to infect him with diphtheria. The unflinching Christine did this, poisoning some food she brought for him. ...” “The ghastly ploy worked. Hans was taken to an army hospital for contagious diseases near Potsdam.”

As Sifton and Stern relate the story, although the Nazis lacked the evidence to bring either Hans or Di- etrich to trial, everything changed after July 20, 1944 with the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. Hitler was enraged, and on his orders “as many as six thousand people were rounded up, tried, and most of them executed, including [Dietrich’s uncle] General von Hase.”

On August 22 Hans was “moved yet again, this time “to the sickbay at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he contracted scarlet fever, which together with the lingering diphtheria paralyzed his feet and legs.” Then, in September the “Gestapo found some of the ... documents Hans had collected and hidden and they began to understand his centrality in the anti-Hitler plots.”

In February 1945, the Gestapo transferred Hans to its notorious headquarters in Berlin where his terrible interrogations continued. In April, heavily drugged, he was returned to Sachsenhausen and executed by hanging on April 9. Meanwhile Dietrich too had been moved to the Gestapo’s gruesome headquarters – and then taken away, none of his family knew to where. On April 5, in the slave labour camp at Flossenbürg, Dietrich, along with Canaris and Oster, was murdered by hanging.

Sifton and Stern tell this remarkable story not only about Hans and Dietrich, but about their families and co- conspirators. Sifton, a well known publisher and editor, is the author of the book The Serenity Prayer, which describes the background to the famous prayer of the same name written by her father, Reinhold Niebuhr. Stern, an eminent historian (and Sifton’s husband), was born in 1926 into a noted Jewish family in Silesia; the family emigrated to the U.S. in 1938. He taught at Columbia University for many decades and twice served as its provost. He is the author of many books, including Einstein’s German World (1999) and Five Germanys I Have Known (2008).

[The Editor acknowledges permission of Elisabeth Sifton to reproduce the material quoted in this report.]

Letters to London. Stephen J. Plant and Toni Burrowes-Cromwell. London: Society for Promot- ing Christian Knowledge, 2013. ISBN 978-0-28-06669-8. xv +107 pages. $10.72.

In 1934 Philipp Cromwell, a secularized German Jew who had served as a volunteer soldier in the First World War and now a prominent lawyer, emigrated to London with his family. “Rumours began to be repeated in hushed tones about friends who had been taken from their beds at dawn, maltreated and beaten.” Their son, Ernst, was born on March 20, 1921 in Nuremberg. His mother, Lotte, a convinced Lutheran Christian, like Bonhoeffer’s own family, did not regularly attend church, but she did have Ernst baptized as an infant. In late 1934 Mrs. Cromwell “fixed upon the German-speaking church at Sydenham as the right place and on Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the right person for Ernst’s confirmation.” Ernst became a fully naturalized Englishman in 1941, anglicizing his first name to Ernest. He served in the military with the Allied forces and was active in Germany after the war, working in a series of interesting positions, but eventually returning to England where he graduated from Oxford University.

“In the autumn of 2010, during a house refurbishment, Ernest’s son Andrew rediscovered a number of letters written to his father by Bonhoeffer in 1935 and 1936. The letters had been kept carefully and deliberately, interweaved in a number of books. Now approaching his ninetieth birthday, Ernest Cromwell asked Toni Burrowes-Cromwell (his daughter-in-law) to assume responsibility for them due to the keen interest she had had in Bonhoeffer since her teenage years.” These letters were brought to the attention of Stephen Plant, who, with the assistance of fellow Bonhoeffer Society scholars (Clifford Green, Victoria Barnett) and others helped in this publishing of these newly discovered letters.

In one such letter written by Bonhoeffer to Ernst in 1936, he states: “In the past year I have lost many people who were important in my life, but in the struggle of the churches I have also found a community again, one which is unbreakable from a human viewpoint. Its shape is becoming ever clearer, even now. The only concern is to know, before night comes, who is a friend and who is not. In this regard, it’s good to know that over 10 there in London are people of whom one can be certain, which side they are on. I can tell you one thing: more important than any insight, than anything to do with your fundamental beliefs, is to have people in your life with whom you know that you share convictions.”

[The Editor acknowledges permission to use the material quoted above]

Ecumenical Dynamic: Living in More than One Place at Once. Keith Clements. World Council of Churches, 2013. ISBN 978-2-8254-1596-2. $20.00

Keith’s new book probes the meaning and history of the open-hearted Christian commitment we call ecumenism. In his Preface Clements claims that “there is need...to restore the word ‘ecumenical’ to proper and posi- tive use....The story, past and to the present, needs to be told...” At a May 28 presentation at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, he asserted that “we are in danger of losing what the ecumenical spirit is all about...and that churches need to rediscover the essential ‘ecumenical dynamic’ at the heart of the movement.” Rev. D. Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary, World Council of Churches states: “Deeply insightful and filled with fascinating and perceptive glimpses into the persons, movements, and achievements of recent Christianity, Ecumeni- cal Dynamic is also a cry for Christian commitment that looks beyond the merely individualistic, therapeutic, and narrow temptations in contemporary Christianity to a new and engaged future.”

Clements argues that “one’s Christian identity is not a fixed thing, encapsulated by one’s tradition. Instead, identity is a quest” and “you discover your identity as you relate to others. Fundamental to the ecumenical movement has been the human impulse, central also to biblical spiritualiy, to cross boundaries and understand each other through an exchange of life and experience that leads to mutuality and common witness and service.” Clements’s book “illustrates its central thesis by rereading ecumenical history in that light, including events leading to Edinburgh 1910, the Life and Work movement, the Barmen Declaration and European churches at the end of the Soviet era.” “In the end,” he asserts “ecumenism attempts to help us identify with the worldwide church, a sign and embodiment of the body of Christ in today’s world.”

Clements was born in China of missionary parents and has been engaged in pastoral ministry, theological teaching and ecumenical work for more than 45 years, including serving as general secretary of the Confer- ence of European Churches from 1997 to 2005. His previous publications have explored major aspects of modern Christian life and thought, particularly ecumenism and the role of the church in society, with special interests in Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the ecumenical pioneer J.H. Oldham. Clements served as editor of DBWE, vol.13: London, 1933-1935 and authored A Patriotism for Today: Love of Country in Dialogue with the Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as well as The SPCK Introduction to Bonhoeffer.

Truth, Grace, and Security. Bruno Corduan (Translated into English by Wolfgang Corduan). Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock Pub., 2013. ISBN 978-1-61097-700-5. 216 pages. $19.20

The author shares his story of growing up in Germany during the Nazi era and eventually his years as a dip- lomat for the Federal Republic in the U.S. and Europe. He came to trust Christ at an early age and carried no illusions about the Nazis or their opposition to biblical Christianity and those who practiced it. While performing his official duties, he remained actively engaged in promoting the work of the Lord. He poured his life into this calling as much as into his professional vocation, serving as pastor, teacher, leader and even church founder. He was born in Pomerania (now Poland) in 1926 and served the German ministry of Defense. At age 85, he lives in a Christian community in Germany, and continues to preach and lead Bible studies.

Correction

The obituary for Ernst Feil (Issue #105) states that he was “the first president of the International Bonhoeffer Society.” Actually Ernst was the first president of theGerman Section of the International Bonhoeffer Society.

11 Elshtain (Continued from Page 1) realism, above all, about human nature—about people who are given to illusions about themselves and their communities, who estimate their powers and their achievements too highly, and who are always less free and less self-sufficient than modern men and women take themselves to be. But realism about human nature does not need to be reductive or cynical, and in Jean Bethke Elshtain’s work, it was always courageous, sympathetic, and empowering.

Her students and colleagues benefited from that realism, as did her friends and family. In recent years, she continued her commitments to teaching, writing, and speaking, and her intellectual energy remained undiminished. As her health declined, however, she needed more assistance on her travels, and her husband Errol and other members of the family often joined her, as they did at Sigtuna. Her academic community thus got to know her personal world better, but for Jean, in practice as in theory, these were never separate worlds. Her life, like her thought, had a unity that bore all of us along with her. We will continue to travel with her, hearing her questions and imagining her responses to our own, for many years to come. Robin W. Lovin Director of Research Center of Theological Inquiry (Photograph on page 1 courtesy of The University of Chicago) Princeton, New Jersey

Book Review  fondly the times spent with the Bonhoeffer family. He A Post-War Half Century. Christmas Letters also remembers being at St. Leonards-on-Sea in July 1962-2011. Durham, UK: The Memoir Club (Email: 1939 where the Wedells were briefly joined by Diet- [email protected]), 2012, xvi + 214 pgs. ISBN rich who was on his fateful journey back to Germany 978-1-84104-545-0. £20.00. from the USA. After the war Eberhard graduated from the London School of Economics and embarked on a n 1934, while he was pastor in London, Dietrich career of remarkable breadth in academia and public Bonhoeffer was urgently visited by a lawyer from responsibility. He worked for the Student Christian IDüsseldorf, Hans Wedell. Son of a Jewish rabbi Movement and the Church of England Board for So- and so classed as “non-Aryan”, he was a Protestant cial Responsibility; became Professor of Adult Edu- Christian by faith and was serving as legal adviser cation at Manchester University and later Professor to the Confessing Church in the Rhineland. While of Communication Policy. He then became Director his own situation was to become increasingly of the Independent Television Authority and Direc- precarious, his main concern was to solicit help tor of the Brussels-based Institute for the Media. He for all “non-Aryan” Christian youth in Germany. undertook a host of high-level international assign- He was also anxious to meet Bishop George Bell. ments for institutions such as the British Council and Bonhoeffer had no hesitation in commending him UNESCO. to Bell who by now was labouring mightily to help those fleeing to Britain from Nazi oppression. There His personal link to Germany was re-sealed in 1948 was, however, already a very human bond between with his marriage to Rosemarie Winckler. Daughter the two Germans. Hans Wedell’s wife Gertrude was of a Westphalian pastor, she had been sent by her fa- the daughter of Dietrich’s uncle Otto Bonhoeffer and, ther to England for the duration of the war and be- therefore, she and Dietrich were cousins. In 1938 the came deeply involved in post-war reconstruction and Wedells and their children were themselves able to reconciliation in Germany. Eberhard and Rosemarie leave Germany successfully and settle in England. with their four children, like the Bonhoeffers them- Hans went on to the USA for the duration of the war selves, have carried on a tradition of close-knit yet to study theology and became ordained to the ministry diverse family life. Each Christmas from 1962 they of the Congregational Church. He was reunited with produced a letter for relatives and friends narrating his family in England in 1946. their activities and experiences during the year. This book contains (with short introductory comments) Among the Wedell children was their son Eberhard nearly all these letters down to 2011, the year fol- (also known as George), born in 1927, who recalls lowing Rosemarie’s death at the age of 90. It makes 12 for a fascinating and at times moving record of how tian traditions in the second half of the 19th century members of one family, inheriting a rich tradition of “serves as a case study of the extent to which the faith, cultural achievement and sense of civic respon- socio-cultural and political circumstances during this sibility, instead of just preserving it for admiration. It period converged. “ also portrays how the family put that consciousness to good and creative use in facing the challenges of their The second chapter “demonstrates Hans’ personal own day, and how in turn the next generation of We- identification with the Pauline experience of Christ as dells are acting in a similar manner. Here one reads the fulfillment of the law, and, to him, the self-evident of engagement with theological debate, ecumenical move of the faithful Jew into the Christian communi- issues, social ethics, and politics at local, national and ty.” In his later years Hans “was able to use his expe- international levels. There is also a discussion of the rience in exile to identify new methods of pointing the problems of the growing European Union, interna- way for the Christian witness in the modern world.” tional development (particularly India, China and Af- rica), inter-religious education and dialogue (a special Contained in this book is an account of the early Bon- concern of Rosemarie), as well as theater, music . . . hoeffer family. “The van den Bӧnhoffs were farmers and much else. A memorable feature was their most from near Nijmegen in the Netherlands, first docu- hospitable and open table both in Manchester as well mented at the Bonhoff in the early 15th century. As as their second home in France. Protestants they had to flee for their lives during the Counter Reformation and settled in the Free Imperial berhard Wedell, as a number of Bonhoeffer City of Schwäbisch Hall in Württemberg. Society members will recall, showed his con- Etinuing commitment to the Bonhoeffer heri- Over the generations they became part of the “Stad- tage by attending the conference “Bonhoeffer for the tadel” there. In 1740 they much improved their house Coming Generations” at Union Seminary, New York, at Klosterstrasse 7, put the family coat of arms over in November 2011. However, there is not in fact a the front door and arranged for Livio Retti, a fashion- great deal explicitly about Dietrich Bonhoeffer in this able Italian painter, to decorate the ceiling of the main book. Events commemorating the July 20 1944 plot salon on the first floor. They also installed a splendid and Dietrich’s death are noted, for example, as well as Kachelon which is illustrated in the volume on Die a visit to Flossenbürg. But one feels that Eberhard’s Kunst und Altertums-Denkmale im Kӧnigreich Würt- mother’s cousin remains a close and influential pres- temberg. On page 715 of the same volume the portrait ence throughout these records of public engagement of Die Schӧne Bonhӧfferin is reproduced. She was in addition to the intellectual exploration, progress Magdalene von Jengumer Kloster, geb. Bonhӧffer, and disappointments, determination and risk-taking, and the oil painting is attributed to the painter von joys and sorrows, insights and challenging new ques- Ketsch in 1794. It hangs today on the north wall of tions. In his essay “After Ten Years” written shortly the choir in the splendid church of St. Micahel, which before his imprisonment, Bonhoeffer wrote that “civil also contains a series of elaborately carved memori- courage can grow only from the free responsibility als to seven Bonhӧffers who died between 1670 and of the free man.” Furthermore, “to think and act with 1783. an eye on the coming generation and to be ready to move on without fear or worry – that is the course When Schwäbisch Hall was incorporated into the that has, in practice, been forced upon us. To hold it kingdom of Württemberg after the Napoleonic Wars courageously is not easy, but it is necessary.” That is the new King offered the Members of the Stadtadel a spirit that continues to breathe through these pages. baronies in compensation for the loss of their civic recognition. The Bonhӧffers rejected these as “nicht Keith Clements mehr zeitgemass” (no longer appropriate to the times) Bristol, UK and became loyal citizens, first of the kingdom of Württemberg, and then of the German Empire. They Ed. Note: Readers may also find of interest the publi- served Church and State as pastors and lawyers, with cation “A Memoir of Troubled Times” by Hans and the occasional diversion into politics.” Gertrude Wedell, New European Publications, ISBN 978-1-872410-69-2, 2008. The first chapter contains a description of the two families from which they originate. The convergence of the Jewish and Chris-

13 Newsletter Archives Readers may find of interest the following reviews of Issues #27 - 30 of the Society’s Newsletters. A copy of all four of these issues, in addition to Issues #1-26 is available to current members and will be sent by e-mail upon request submitted to the Editor. The review and availability of additional past issues of the Newsletter will be announced in forthcoming issues. (Issues #27 - #30 edited by J. P. Kelley). No. 27 February 1984 Clifford Green (President) announces that Union Seminary will church today.” Appearing in this newsletter is a copy of Green’s present Union Medal to Eberhard Bethge in April. Dr. Bethge response (in The Christian Century) to Stanley Rosenbaum’s false will lecture: showings of “DB: Memories and Perspectives.” claim regarding DB’s father (Karl) and Freud. Bethge will also attend Seattle Symposium commemorating “Half Century after Barmen.” (See archive notes for Issue #25, No. 29 January 1985 in Newsletter #105). Elected to Board are Ruth Zerner, Jim Burt- 40th anniversary of DB’s martyrdom. [Memorial service set at ness, Robin Lovin and Charles West. Delegates to Fourth Int’l Kaiserwerth on April 9.] Noted amongst new publications are Bonhoeffer Congress in Germany include Jim & Dolores Burt- first volume of a new edition of DB’s sermons, exegeses and ness, Guy Carter, Clarke Chapman, Rufus & Frances Cornelsen, meditations (ed. Otto Dudzus). Special collection of recent piec- John Giles, J.P. Kelley, Michael Lukens, John Matthews, Eleanor es by Bethge published on his 75th birthday. Bethge comments Neel, Burton Nelson, Joan & Emalee Godsey, Clifford & Audley on Keith Clement’s new book (A Patriotism for Today) include: Green, Bill Peck, Mark Randall and Charles Scott. Also attending “I wholly commend the sensitive selection of facts and writings will be John (see below #28) and Isabel de Gruchy, Keith Cle- which in my view have received far too little attention in the ecu- ments, Wilfred Harrison and Edwin Robertson. Tours during menical contemporary issue of national identity. Clements ar- symposium will include visits to Berlin, Leipzig, Weimar, sites gues that Britain urgently needs a new form of loyalty, different associated with Luther, Bach, Mozart and Rome Recent deaths from the ‘Rule, Britannia!’ perspective. Bonhoeffer’s example in noted: Ursula Schleicher (DB’s older sister and mother of Re- the Hitler years is drawn upon with skill to show not an ideal- nate Bethge); Jean Lasserre (French pastor and DB’s friend from ized image of traditional patriotism, but a concrete love for one’s Union days); and Leonore Gordon (friend of DB in the 1930s). country as it really is, recognizing and accepting its guilt as well Documentary film on DB available from Trinity Films. Eberhard as its merit.” Newsletter contains Third annual DB bibliography. Bethge announces project to raise funds for restoration of Berlin Society is co-sponsor of Bonhoeffer Conference “The Legacy of Marienbuergerallee Bonhoeffer House. Bonhoeffer: Forty Years After” to be held in April at Northwest- ern College (Iowa), with James Burtness, Nancy Lukens, Burton No. 28 November 1984 Nelson, Clifford Green and Bain Boehlke lecturing. Annual meeting in Chicago (December) will include papers presented by Rolf Ahlers and Steven Schroeder. At the 4th Int’l No. 30 October 1985 Bonhoeffer Congress (see above #27) John de Gruchy compared Annual meeting, set for Anaheim CA November, will feature similarities of situations confronted by church in South Africa papers by Clifford Green (Hartford Seminary) and Tom Cun- and the German Confessing Church. At the exact time of this ningham (Rhodes Univ.). John Matthews and Robin Lovin presentation, de Gruchy’s son was being sentenced for disurb- will respond to Green’s “Bonhoeffer’s ‘Non-Religious Inter- ing the peace in presenting a public play dramatizing the special pretation’ as Public Theology and James Burtness and Wil- conflicts of conscience imposed in South Africa there by apart- liam Peck will respond to Cunningham’s “Bonhoeffer under heid. The impact of social circumstances upon church witness the Shadow of Apartheid: Pastoral Ministry in Dialogue with was central to papers presented by Clifford Green and Keith Cle- Bonhoeffer.” German Int’l Bonhoeffer Comm. and Christian ments. Guy Cater summarized his research of the contributions Kaiser Verlag preparing new, critical edition of DB’s works in of DB in the ‘Bethel Confession.’ [Appearing in the newsletter is a German. Peck presently completing edition of studies of DB’s detailed report of Carter’s 1983 paper regarding the preparation Ethics. 16th ‘Scholars’ Conference on Church Struggle set for of the draft confession.] Wm. Peck summarized the status of his March 1986 with presentations by Eberhard and Renate Bethge. investigation of DB’s use of Hegel, based on his more detailed Notice of recent death of Herbert Jehle, one of DB’s early stu- student notes of the Seminar on Hegel in Berlin in 1932. Burton dents and long-term member of Society. F. Burton Nelson at- Nelson explored the impact of Laserre’s friendship upon DB’s tended Conference of British and Dutch members of society pacifism and J.P. Kelley traced the biased abuse of the Bonhoef- at DB Church Study Centre in Sydenham, England, in August. fer’s autobiographical reference in his letter of April 22, 1944 to Edwin Robertson (Chairman of British Section) welcomed his one major change from “phraseology to reality.” Schlingen- group with paper on “Bonhoeffer and the Bishop of Chichester, siepen evoked parallels in the personalities of Teresa of Avila and with presentations also by Sharrfenorth, Vrijhof, Peter Wood, DB, Henkys presented a poetic and hymnic look at DB’s experi- Harold Lockley, Willem Verkade, Burton Nelson and G.T. ments with writing poetry in prison, Wiersinga analyzed details Rothuizen. Formal exchanges explored with Protestant Acad- of DB’s doctrine of sin and Glenthoj described the influence of emies of Germany. Chaplain Burckhardt Scheffler and members Luther and Lutheran Confessions upon DB’s struggle with oath of Protestant Student Community of the Technical University of personal allegiance to Hitler required of pastors in 1938. De and Institute of the Arts in West Berlin are undertaking a thor- Gruchy reviewed Geff Kelly’s Liberation Faith: Bonhoeffer’s Mes- ough reconstruction of the Bonhoeffer house in Berlin. Scheffler sage for Today. De Gruchy states that “Kelly has a profound grasp brought 15 members of his student parish to U.S. in September of the range and depth of Bonhoeffer’s theology and spirituality for a 30 day study tour on the “reality of the United States today.” and is fully conversant with the issues which engaged Bonhoeffer Tour arranged with help of Barbara Green, J.P. Kelley, Manfred and the historical contexts within which this took place.” “Kelly Hoffman and Glenn Stassen, among others. is able to present an interpretation which is not only faithful to Bonhoeffer but also shows his relation to the life and task of the 14 2013 BONHOEFFER SOCIETY MEETINGS American Academy of Religion November 22 - 26, 2013 Baltimore, Maryland

Meetings and Program Sessions of Interest

Friday, November 22 DBWE Board Meeting 1:00 - 3:30 pm IBS Board Meeting 3:30 - 6:00 pm Sheraton Inner Harbor - Chesapeake III

Saturday, November 23 Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Group 1:00-3:30 pm A23-216 Hilton Baltimore-Key 5 Theme: New and Constructive Readings of the Emergent Bonhoeffer, 1930-1937 Nicola Wilkes, University of Cambridge, Presiding

This session will deal with new material in the recently-published Volume 11 of the DBWE and offer fresh perspectives on concrete action in social and political life. Specific themes include Bonhoeffer’s turn to the real through evidence of letters exchanged between Bonhoeffer and Erwin Sutz, Bonhoeffer’s notion of the free act in conversation with virtue ethics, a consideration of Bonhoeffer and the social imaginary of the ‘New Black Ecclesiology’, and an analysis of anthropological variances between Bonhoeffer and Heidegger with recourse to Luther. Michael B. Lukens, Bonhoeffer’s Turn to the Real: Reflections from the Sutz Letters Saint Norbert College

In a now well-known letter to Bethge on April 22, 1944 from Tegel, Bonhoeffer wrote of a dramatic shift in theological and self-perspective from his time at Union Seminary in New York and the next two years, as “...a turning from the phraseological to the real...,” which Bethge later characterized as Bonhoeffer’s transition from theologian to Christian, a permanent and enormously significant change in the character of his life and work. An abbreviated way to test the nature and credibility of a true turn can be found in Bonhoeffer’s correspondence with Erwin Sutz in 1931-32. Here, he reflects upon his altered views in theology and ethics, ecumenical critique, his responses to the challenges of pastoral work amidst deep social crisis, certain personal anxieties, and the confrontation with the Deutsche-Christen. Here is a crucible for testing the character of such a “turn.”

Nathaniel Lee, The N ew B lack E cclesiology: A B onhoefferian E xamination o f t he S ocial Baylor University Imagination in the Collective Work of J. Kameron Carter and Willie J. Jennings In this paper, I examine the way that two leading figures in what has been called the “New Black Theology” - namely, J. Kameron Carter and Willie J. Jennings - utilize the theology and ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the construction of their social imagination. This connection is explored with respect to one basic question: given the “New Black Theology” critique of Gnostic, docetic, and adoptionist social imaginaries - because of their propensity to get lost in immaterial abstraction - how does their project offer an alternative to immate- rialist abstraction? What, in other words, would their re-imagined sociality look like on the ground? Dallas Gingles, The Free Act Bound Southern Methodist University Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “venture of responsibility” famously includes an act that is “free,” that is, one that does not participate in the normal processes of moral justification or vindication. The act is undertaken freely before God, and awaits God’s judgment. As it is usually interpreted, this act can only function as a kind of limit case when used to construct larger systems of ethics. I propose that Bonhoeffer’s free act can be made more broadly intelligible when interpreted as a form of virtue ethics. While free from normal systems or processes 15 of justification, the act is not an act of an unbound agent. The dialectic of freedom and bondage of agent and act offers a plausible restatement of the terms of virtur ethics vis-à-vis Bonhoeffer himself, and offers a possible way forward in addressing contemporary moral problems of political action in the broader field of political theology.

Nik Byle, Heidegger’s Simul versus Bonhoeffer’s New Creation and University of South Florida the Possibility of Philosophy’s Interaction with Theology

The anthropologies of both Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Heidegger have common roots in Luther’s Law- Gospel distinction, yet both come to divergent positions on the relation between philosophy and theology. The particular difference that instigates this disagreement originates in their different interpretations of- Lu ther concerning what happens to sin in faith when transitioning from Law to Gospel. Heidegger emphasizes Luther’s simul peccator et justus whereby sin, the theological interpretation of being-in-the-world, continues to exist in faith. This allows Heidegger to provide a nuanced account of how phenomenology may aid theology. Bonhoeffer, in contract, emphasizes Luther’s new creation where the person in sin dies and is reborn in faith. By combining this with Heidegger’s own existential analytic of Dasein, Bonhoeffer argues that being in sin is fundamentally altered once in faith. Phenomenology can then say nothing to theology; rather theology becomes the proper guide of phenomenology.

Sunday, November 24 Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Group 9:00 - 11:30 am A24-121 and Christian Spirituality Group and Religion Convention Center-310 and Humanism Group and Science, Technology, and Religion Group

Theme: Bonhoeffer, Eschatology, and Neuroscience: A Conversation: with John de Gruchy about his book Led into Mystery (SCM,2013) Jennifer McBride, Wartburg College, Presiding

Based on his newly released book, Led into Mystery (SCM: London, 2013) and on his work as editor of Diet- etrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 8, Letters and Papers from Prison, John de Gruchy, responds to his son’s tragic death three years ago by exploring Bonhoeffer’s prison theology and placing it in dialogue with contemporary debates on the human self or “soul” at the interface of theology and neuroscience. In particular, Bonhoeffer’s reference in prison to Irenaeus’ docrine of recapitulation will be placed not only within the wider context of Bonhoeffer’s understanding of the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the body, and the promise of new creation but also within the wider context of themes and issues integral to the relationsip between science and faith, the God-debate, and Christian humanism.

Panelist: John W. de Gruchy, University of Cape Town

Responding: Susan B. Thistlewaite, Chicago Theological Seminary William T. Cavanaugh, DePaul University George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary

16 Sunday, November 24 Religion and Politics Section 3:00 - 4:30 pm A24-266 Convention Center-336

Theme: Political Theology and Individual Activism Vincent Biondo, California State University, Fresno, Presiding

Matthew Tuininga, Christ or Fuhrer: Luther, Bonhoeffer, and the Two Kingdoms Under Hitler Emory University

Many scholars believe Luther’s two kingdoms doctrine was partly to blame for Lutheran passivity under Hitler’s Nazi regime in 1933-1945. But the two kingdoms theology that was so influential among early 20th Century Lutherans was different from that of Luther, having had been revised under the influence of the volkisch movement, antisemitism, and the failure of German democracy. By no means monolithic, two kingdoms theology was invoked to justify a wide range of responses to the Nazi regime, including fervent support, reluctant cooperation, passive resistance, and even violent resistance. Although Karl Barth blamed two kingdoms doctrine for the church’s failures, Dietrich Bonhoeffer found in the recovery of Luther’s two kingdoms doctrine a Christological justification for resistance to Hitler. In his theology of responsible presence in the world, under the cross, and in faithfulness to Christ, Bonhoeffer faithfully expressed the ongoing value of two kingdoms theology for the church.

Derek Alan Woodard-Lehman, Hearts Aflame, Tongues of Fire: Vision, Virtue, and Viscera in Princeton Theological Seminary Vietnam Era Self-Immolation

This paper revisits and reinterprets self-immolation in protest of the Vietnam conflict. It focuses on two examples: Quang Duc - the well-known Buddhist monk whose 1963 self-immolation is immortalized in a Pultitzer Prize-winning photograph, and Norman Morrison - an almost unknown Quaker whose 1965 self-immolation outside the Pentagon is all but forgotten. While often viewed as instances of religious and/ or political fanaticism, their actions are far less aberrant than they appear. Duc and Morrison were but two of some seventy immolators from 1963-1975. And self-immolation remains widespread, even today. Moreover, self-immolation belongs to long-established Buddhist and Christian martyrologcal traditions. By situating self-immolation within these spiritual, moral, and political traditions, this paper explicates the mechanics which generate its coherence and potency. And it draws implications about the role of bodily consecration and desecration in contemporary expressions of religious obedience and moral conscience.

Joel Hodge, TheTotalitarian State, Sacred Violence and Christian Resistance: Australian Catholic University Martyrdom and Solidarity in East Timor during Indonesian Occupation (1975-1999)

This paper explores the theo-political nature of the totalitarian state and responses of Christian non-violent resistance, particularly in martyrdom. It is based on original research undertaken in East Timor (Timor- Leste) during the Indonesian occupation of that nation (1975-1999). The paper analyses the pretence to religious-like omnipotence that the totalitarian nation-state cultivates through state-sanctioned violence, similar to what French philosopher René Girard calls ‘sacred violence.’ The paper examines Christian resistance to this sacred violence through three important aspects of martrydom. Firstly, the deaths of the martyrs were identified by the Timorese community with Jesus Christ’s own innocent and self-giving death, particularly sharing in Christ’s victory over death Secondly, the lens of martyrdom allowed the Timorese to resist the regime by seeing how death and violence are overcome. Finally, solidarity around the victims was built that undermined sacred violence and made it possible to appeal internationally for the protection of human rights.

17 Monday, November 25 Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Group 9:00 -11:30 am A25-118 Hilton Baltimore-Key 10

Theme: Contextualizing Bonhoeffer as Preacher John Matthews, International Bonhoeffer Society, Presiding

Given new interest in Bonhoeffer’s sermons, prompted by Isabel Best’s newly published The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Fortress Press, 2012), this session examines the sermons as well as Bonhoeffer’s identity as preacher. Papers in turn connect specific sermons to the early stages of the Church Struggle and to the post-World War I German intellectual and literary tradition, as well as connect his practice of preaching to his prison theology. The papers also investigate certain themes that emerge from the sermons including Bon- hoeffer’s attention to darkness and suffering in human experience, the relationship between understanding and love, and the relationship between the gospel proclamation and the concrete historical moment.

Jacob Phillips, The Unceasing: Investigating Bonhoeffer’s 1932 Sermons on Colossians 3:1-4 King’s College, London

This paper takes as its point of departure two sermons on Colossians 3:1-4 from 1932. I will seek to use some of the references in these sermons to investigate Bonhoeffer’s reception of certain ideas associated with a 1918 text by Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West. This text is a locus classicus of a rather dark and brooding side to the German intellectual tradition, which appears in the 1931 sermons, through Bon- hoeffer’s application of images from a poem by Gottfried Benn. These sermons provide a highly effective way to outline some unique aspects to Bonhoeffer’s thinking. Combining the Benn reference with some points in Bonhoeffer’sEthics where he leans heavily on Spengler’s work, I will seek to locate and describe the way in which Bonhoeffer’s unique theology makes room for darkness and suffering in human experience.

Jean-Pierre Fortin, Understanding as Love: Dierich Bonhoeffer’s Pastoral Theology University of St. Michael’s College

In this paper, I argue that Bonhoeffer’s ministerial activity and preaching are not reducible to subsidiary adjuncts to his theology, but in fact embody the latter at its most mature stage. Bonhoeffer’s practice and relation to theology so evolved that, from an almost purely intellectual endeavor, his theology progressively turned into a form of radical witnessing to Christ expressed in and through liturgical and pastoral ministry and culminating in self-sacrifice to and for Christ. By means of a careul study of the content of Bonhoeffer’s sermons in correlation with that of his correspondence during his imprisonment, I wish to establish that Bonhoeffer’s practice and theology of preaching undergird and lie at the heart of his last theology as developed, preached and witnessed to in the final years of his life.

Joseph McGarry, Christ for Us Now and Here: Preaching the Gospel University of Aberdeen with Dietich Bonhoeffer

This paper explores the possibilities within Bonhoeffer’s work by illuminating how his located gospel proclamation spoke to a specific people in a tumultuous time without sacrificing gospel proclamation for -po litical-social relevance. To achieve this end, this paper will specifically look at sermons from Bonhoeffer’s 1933-1935 London pastorate and note the timely sermons he preached during the early stages of the Church Struggle. It will link his sermons in their broader historical context and illustrate precisely how they addressed the political and social climate of his ex-pat German congregations whilst retaining the centrality of proclaiming God’s work for humanity in Jesus Christ. This paper will highlight precisely how Bonhoeffer preached Christ now and here - in London at the commencement of the Church Struggle - without diminishing the force of the “gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross, sin and forgiveness, death and life.”

18 INTERNATIONAL BONHOEFFER SOCIETY ENGLISH LANGUAGE SECTION

2013 ANNUAL DINNER

Saturday, Novmber 23, 2013 7:30 pm (gathering at 6:30 pm) - 9:00 pm

“What the Bonhoeffer Society has Meant to Me” Keith Clements

“Bonhoeffer Interpretation for the 21st Century” Guy Carter

Dinner Zion Church of the City of Baltimore www.zionbaltimore.org 400 East Lexington treet Baltimore, Maryland (about 1 mile from Convention Center)

The dinner will feature fine German food Cost of Dinner: $35 per person. For dinner reservation, send check (payable to IBS) to: H. Gaylon Barker, 169 Branchville Rd., Ridgefield CT 06877-5114 (e-mail: [email protected]) Deadline for Reservation: November 11, 2013

For other information (ncluding transportation) contact Alice Bond at [email protected] (phone: 434-369-4140)

19 Member Services

Please copy this page and return to: Mark E. Randall, 15917 NE Union, Unit #103 NOTE: New Address: Ridgefield WA 98642 e-mail: [email protected]

_____ My dues for 2014 ($30) or 2015($30) or 2014 - 2015 ($60) are enclosed _____ My back dues for the following years (_____, _____, _____) are enclosed _____ My dues are paid, but I am missing the following newsletters: ______Please send me information about supporting the DBW English Edition Project _____ I am interested in receiving an electronic version of this Newsletter. e-mail address: ______

Please enter my NEW address on the mailing list: ______e-mail: ______

Submissions for the Fall 2013 issue are due by March 2, 2014 and should be sent to: Dean S. Skelley, Editor, Newsletter, IBS-ELS, P.O. Box 160879, San Antonio TX 78280 or by e-mail to: [email protected]

International Bonhoeffer Society English Language Section Information

The society’s website is: www.dietrichbonhoeffer.org NOT www.dbonhoeffer.org

The society is concerned with the rising cost of publishing the Newsletter, including the postage required for mailing. We would like to make this Newsletter available to as many members as possible by electronic dis- tribution.

Please provide us your e-mail address and inform us if an electronic version (pdf format) would be acceptable.

Name ______

E-mail Address ______

Send to: Mark E. Randall ([email protected]) or the Newsletter Editor Dean S. Skelley ([email protected]).