Number 110  Spring 2015

The Searchable Bonhoeffer: A Review of DBWE in Accordance and Logos

Last fall Fortress Press published the final volume (17) of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition (DBWE): Index and Supplementary Materials which provides a handy reference for readers and interpreters of Bonhoeffer who seek to better utilize and understand the first 16 volumes of DBWE.

Fortress Press published the first volume of DBWE (Volume 5: Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible) some 20 years ago. Since then significant advances in technology have permitted access to and interaction with texts in a way that few likely envisioned at the time. In the first half of 2014, three Bible software platforms - Accordance, Logos, and Olive Tree - each released 16 volumes of DBWE, available individually or as a collection in each of the three platforms.

The following review assesses Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition, as the Works appear in Accordance, version 11, and Logos, version 6. First, there is a description and analysis of DBWE in Accordance; then a similar evaluation of DBWE in Logos. This review also includes some comparison of the two platforms, with emphasis on how each has produced the 16 volumes. In concluding remarks, there is information about how to access Accordance11 and Logos 6 software programs.

DBWE in Accordance 11 Inside This Issue Any Accordance resource is automatically integrated with other Accordance re- sources a user may already own or could purchase. It is easy and nearly instan- * * * * * * * taneous to select and look up a word from a text (e.g., DBWE) in another module (e.g., the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary). One could in this way research concepts New Software 1 and passages from Bonhoeffer in other biblical studies reference material. Research Grants 4 News from Germany 20 Accordance is unique among Bible software Bonhoeffer Portal 21 in that its multiple search fields allow a user to Commemoration 12 hone a search in to just section headings, just text, just Scripture references, or even Greek and Hebrew content, among other search fields. 12th Int’l Congress 18 For example, one can quickly get to Greek and 18th DB Lectures 15 Hebrew content in Creation and Fall (DBWE 3) using “Greek Content” or “Transliteration” Annual Bibliography 8 search fields, respectively.

The many Scripture references and footnotes in Book Review 16 DBWE are hyperlinked in Accordance. The user can hover over or click on hyperlinks to reveal Essay/Review 23 their content. A user can open this information in The Ordeal Society News 2,3 (see page 14) Continued on Page 5 President’s Message

Greetings to all,

With this edition of the newsletter we mark the 70th anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s death. The events of April 9, 1945 silenced the voice of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and because his voice was silenced too early, preventing him to speak for himself, it has been left to others to keep his memory alive. That has been one of the duties of the International Bonhoeffer Society, established 44 years ago.

In a letter to his fellow-conspirators, written in December 1942, Bonhoeffer said “Ten years is a long time in the life of every human being” (DBWE 8:37). To paraphrase him, 70 years is a long time, and since the world we now live in is a world unknown by Bonhoeffer, a world that he could not have imagined, the changes between 1945 and the present beg the question that he went on to ask the conspirators, “Are we still of any use?” (DBWE 8:52).

A version of that question crops up from time-to-time, as some wonder if it isn’t time to move on, to look to the future rather than the past? One way to answer that concern is to remember that the work of the society has not been only to look back as a way to keep his memory alive, but also to explore ways in which his theological concerns continue to intersect with events shaping our world today.

Guided by both concerns, the work of the society continues in a number of significant ways. While we work to maintain the Bonhoeffer archives and constantly update the Bonhoeffer bibliography, we are now pleased to be able to announce a new Bonhoeffer Research Grant to support research adding new knowledge about the theology, life, and legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. At the same time that we announce this, I can say that it was with a bit of surprise but also joy that I was contacted, not once, but two times this year, by middle school and high school students, from the east coast and the Midwest, for information on Bonhoeffer. In both cases, they were doing a project on Bonhoeffer for National History month. It still seems there is something in Bonhoeffer’s life and witness that, no matter how many years have passed, continue to spark interest.

So as we note this 70th anniversary, we can remember the past but also celebrate the present and future, as the voice and witness of Bonhoeffer continue to be felt around the globe. The reach of Bonhoeffer’s witness is being extended by the new portal launched as a joint project by the German-speaking section and Gütersloher Verlaghaus and the soon to be launched new English language site. We also witness the extent to which Bonhoeffer’s influence extends with the announcement of the Bonhoeffer Lectures in Public Ethics, taking place later this year at the University of Flensburg, Germany, and the 12th International Bonhoeffer Congress being held in Basel Switzerland, in July, 2016.

Information is available in this newsletter on all these events and we encourage your participation in them. We also hope that you will find other information, such as book reviews and other announcements, that will engage you and extend the conversation a bit further.

Blessings,

H.Gaylon Barker Ridgefield, Connecticut Request for Nominations

Each year three members must be elected to the Board of Directors of the International Bonhoeffer Society - English Lan- guage Section. In order to prepare a slate of nominees for the election at the upcoming meeting of the society in Atlanta, November 22, 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: John Matthews ([email protected]), or Mark Randall ([email protected]) with any nominations before No- vember 15. Note to Society Members The Newsletter is available to society members and libraries and is now being distributed by electronic mail. Please provide your e-mail address to the Editor, Dean S. Skelley, P.O. Box 160879, San Antonio TX 78280 ([email protected]). Please notify the Editor if there is an alternate e-mail address which should be used. Members unable to receive an electronic version and wish to continue receiving the Newsletter by regular mail are asked to notify the Editor. Society memberships may be obtained or renewed by contacting: Rev. Mark E. Randall, 15917 NE Union Road, Unit #103, Ridgefield WA 98642 ([email protected]). Future Bonhoeffer Meeting Dates and Sites

November 21-24 2015 Atlanta, Georgia November 19-22 2016 San Antonio, Texas November 18-21 2017 Boston, Massachusetts November 17-20 2018 Denver, Colorado

NOTE: The 16 volume Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works hardcover set is now available at $865. The English translation is ideal for a special gift, or for church and other libraries. Contact Fortress Press at fortresspress.com or (800) 328-4648. The volumes Ethics, Discipleship and Life Together are now available at $21 each and Letters and Papers from Prison at $64. Contact the Editor for electronic copies of a brochure.

INTERNATIONAL BONHOEFFER SOCIETY ENGLISH LANGUAGE SECTION BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2015 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; Christopher Holmes, Dunedin New Zealand; David Krause, Dallas TX; Jenny McBride, Waverly IA; and Philip Ziegler, Aberdeen UK.

Editorial Advisory Board: John Matthews (Chair), Apple Valley MN; and Michael Lukens, Oneida WI.

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 Rasmussen, Deotis Roberts, Martin Rumscheidt, Charles Sensel and Charles West

3 Bonhoeffer Research Grants Available

Application Guidelines

Bonhoeffer Research Grants are supported by a fund based on the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition and its royalties. Grants are made by a committee of the International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section, chaired by Professor Barry Harvey, Baylor University. The committee expects to award 3-4 grants annually totaling about $10,000.

Application

A proposal of 2-3 pages should explain in detail the research proposed, and its significance in adding new knowledge about the theology, life and legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Include in the proposal a timeline for completion, publication plan, and the names of two persons you have requested to provide references attesting to the value of the proposed research and your qualifications for completing it successfully. Please attach a project budget, indicating the sources of funds available to you and the grant requested.

Proposals should indicate the expected outcome of the research, the hypothesis, anticipated findings being tested, the new knowledge being sought, and the secondary literature relevant to the project. Proposals should be thoroughly conversant with DBW/DBWE and the research they contain.

Applications should be received by June 15 (for decision September 1). All applications and references should be submitted electronically to: [email protected].

Research Guidelines

The basic principle of a research proposal is that it should really add to our knowledge and understanding of Bonhoeffer, his writings, life and contribution.

The following are simply suggestions of the diverse sorts of projects that would, or would not, fulfill the aims of Bonhoeffer Research Grants.

Examples of What Fits

* Research internal to Bonhoeffer’s texts (e.g., the relation of Ethics to Discipleship; the relation between the Synoptic Jesus of Discipleship and the Christology lectures). * Archival research that illuminates Bonhoeffer’s texts (e.g., the editorial practices of the journal that published “The Church and the Jewish Question” with respect to the Luther quotations.) *Research necessitated by newly-discovered Bonhoeffer texts and the editing necessary to publish them. (This could apply to extant material, e.g., the untranscribed notes from Bonhoeffer’s 1930-31 Union Seminary courses with Niebuhr and others). *The Significance for understanding Bonhoeffer’s life, theology, and ethics of literature he cites (Bernanos, Stifter, Santayana, et al.). *Research into Bonhoeffer’s contexts – intellectual, historical, political – must really illuminate Bonhoeffer directly and provide new understanding of his thought and action. Research on Bonhoeffer in his own context and writings addresses the question: what more does this research add to our knowledge and understanding of Bonhoeffer? *Research on Bonhoeffer in relation to contexts or issues other than his own (presuming a thorough and sound knowledge of Bonhoeffer) answers the question: what does Bonhoeffer bring to this context, debate, or conflict that is not already there? What creative contribution does Bonhoeffer make to this different context?

What Does Not Fit

* Conference Attendance * Dissertations in general, unless they are explicitly devoted to projects in categories similar to those described above. * “Applied Bonhoeffer” (“Bonhoeffer and …”, i.e., a text or idea of Bonhoeffer applied to, or compared with another author.

4 Search Engine Software (Continued from Page 1) a new window, view it as a pop-up, or see it appear in the “Instant Details” panel. Though the DBWE series uses the NRSV, an Accordance user could set any other Bible version to display by default when selecting Scripture hyperlinks. Accordance allows the user to set up and save a “Workspace,” so that one’s layout of resources is accessible for later use. There is even the option to save a “Session,” which is a collection of individual Workspaces. Figure 1 (page 6) is one pos- sible way of configuring a DBWE Workspace in Accordance.

DBWE in Logos 6

As with Accordance, Scripture references and footnotes throughout DBWE in Logos are hyperlinked. The user can hover over a verse reference to have the text of that verse come up in the user’s version of choice. Or a user can hover over a footnote to make its content appear. One can also keep open Logos’s Information panel, which automatically displays both Scripture and footnote hyperlinks as the user works through the text.

In addition to 16 volumes of DBWE, Logos has produced additional works in the field of Bonhoeffer studies, with even more in pre-production stages. For example, Logos plans to release Eberhard Bethge’s biography in the future, as part of a 7-book “Bonhoeffer Studies Collection.” Users of Logos can already purchase a 3-book “T&T Clark Studies on Bonhoeffer” collection, which includes Ferdinand Schlingensiepen’s biography of Bonhoeffer.

Logos permits the user to set up and save a “Layout,” which one can later access easily. Whether the user wants to view multiple volumes of DBWE at once, and/or have them open alongside other works about Bonhoeffer, Logos has flexible customization options available. See, for example, Figure 2 (page 7). The hyperlinking in Logos is extensive. A footnote in Logos’s DBWE that itself has an additional footnote or Scripture reference has that nested reference also hyperlinked, so that one can stay within the same, initial pop-up window to see the content of a second footnote that appears in an initial footnote.

Brief Comparison and Concluding Remarks

The DBWE texts in Logos - especially in volumes 1-8, which were the focus of this reviewer’s testing - were intiially more accurate to the printed page than the ones in Accordance. However, Accordance updates since initial release now give it DBWE texts as clean as those of Logos.

Logos offers its basic software engine-free. Those interested in Accordance have to buy a reasonably-priced collection to get the engine, which is required to be able to buy and use DBWE. Logos is a fully cross-platform system and automatically syncs and highlights across any device. Its Android and iOS apps are also free. The Accordance iOS is free and can be used to access DBWE, whether or not one owns the desktop version. Notes, highlights, and bookmarks can sync with the desktop version via Dropbox.

One’s choice to purchase DBWE, electronically or not, could depend, in part, on whether one is already tied to a particular software program. Accordance runs significantly faster on all platforms and uses less CPU than does Logos. Existing users will surely already have their own preferences, but it is this user’s consistent experience that Accordance performs more reliably in general.

Download and purchase information for Accordance is at www.accordancebible.com. The Website for Logos is www.logos. com.

Having the English edition of the Bonhoeffer Works in searchable, electronic format is a welcome addition to Bonhoeffer studies. Both in Accordance and Logos, for example, one can easily set up a search query that returns results for all the times Bonhoeffer uses the phrase “kingdom of God” or “To Eberhard Bethge.” Being able to almost instanteously call up all of Bonhoeffer’s letters to Bethge across all the DBWE volumes - among many other possible searches - is nothing short of astounding.

Abram Kielsmeier-Jones Union Congregational Church Magnolia, MA, USA [email protected] www.abramkj.com 5 Figure 1: DBWE Workplace in Accordance

(a colored rendition of this figure is available in the electronic version of this newsletter)

6 Figure 2: DBWE Workplace in Logos

(a colored rendition of this figure is available in the electronic version of this newsletter)

7 BONHOEFFER BIBLIOGRAPHY UPDATE 2015

Stephen Haynes

This is the twenty-third annual update to the Bonhoeffer Bibliography: Primary Sources and Secondary Literature in English (Evanston: American Theological Library Association, 1992). The Bonhoeffer Bibliography at Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary, cumulates the updates to 2005: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/img/assets/5435/ SecondarySourcesBib.pdf. The International Bibliography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Gütersloh, 1998) is cumulated in the occasional volumes of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Yearbook (Gütersloh, 2003 - ); volume 6 is forthcoming.

Primary Source

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Indexes and Supplementary Material, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 17. Victoria J. Barnett and Barbara Wojhoski (Eds), Mark S. Brocker (Asst), Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.

Secondary Literature

Barnett, Victoria, “Bonhoeffer’s Place in the Resistance and Pacifist Circles of His Times.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Chapman, G. Clarke. Universal Health Care as a Human Right. The Argument of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2014. Clements, Keith. “Bonhoeffer and New Ecumenical Initiatives.” Paper delivered at Volmoed Colloquium, Hermanus, South Africa, August 31- September 2, 2014. Clements, Keith. “The Bonhoeffer Society as Mentor.” The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian J Bonhoeffer Studies 2/1:75-82, 2014. De Graaff, Guido. Politics in Friendship. A Theological Account [on Bell and Bonhoeffer]. London: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2014. Dean, Robert John. “For the Life of the World: Jesus Christ and the Church in the Theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Stanley Hauerwas.” Doctor of Theology dissertation, Wycliffe College and Toronto School of Theology, 2014. DeJonge, Michael. “After the Crisis of Scientific Theology: Bonhoeffer and the Barth-Harnack-Debate.” Paper delivered at Sixth Int’l Bonhoeffer Colloquium, Univ Zurich Faculty Theology, October 30-November 1, 2014. DeJonge, Michael. “How to Read Bonhoeffer’s Peace Statements: Or, Bonhoeffer Was a Lutheran and Not an Antibaptist.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Dodson, Chris. “A Risky Business: Conflict, Conspiracy, and the Commandment of God.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Duff, Nancy J. “Stages on the Road to Freedom”: A Brief Introduction to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” Theology Today 71(1):7-11, 2014. Edwards, Aaron. “Thus Saith the Word!: Examining the Theological Relationship between Biblical Exposition and Prophetic Utterance in Preaching.” Expository Times 125(11):521-530, 2014. Fletcher, Wendy. “Wordless Proselytization: Ethics of a New Missiology After Residential Schools.” Lecture presented at the Seventeenth Bonhoeffer Lectures in Public Ethics, Regent College & Vancouver School Theology, Vancouver, May 1-3, 2014. Gingles, Dallas. “Binding Sovereignties. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Virtues.” The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian J Bonhoeffer Studies 2/1:32-44,2014. Goa, David. “Kyrie eleison and the Path to Holiness.” Lecture presented at Seventeenth Bonhoeffer Lectures in Public Ethics, Regent College & Vancouver School Theology, Vancouver, May 1-3, 2014. Green, Chris E. W. “‘Not I, But Christ’: Holiness and the (Im)possibility of Community.” In A Future for Holiness: Pentecostal Ex- plorations, Lee Roy Martin (Ed), 127-144. Cleveland TN: CPT Press, 2013. Green, Clifford J. “The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition: A Retrospective.” In Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Indexes and Supplementary Material, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Victoria J. Barnett and Barbara Wojhoski (Eds), Mark S. Brocker (Asst), Vol 17:9-16. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Green, Clifford J., “Theology and Autobiography: The Interaction of Psychology and Theology in Theological Anthropology and Soteriology. Paper delivered at Sixth Int’l Bonhoeffer Colloquium, Univ Zurich Faculty Theology, October 30-November 1, 2014. Green, Clifford. “Bonhoeffer’s Contribution to a New Christian Paradigm.” Paper presented at Volmoed Colloquium, Hermanus, South Africa, August 31- September 2, 2014. Green, Clifford. “Bonhoeffer’s Worldly Christianity versus crypto-gnostic Christianity.” Seminar paper, Faculty Theology, Univ Aberdeen, July 10, 2014. Greggs, Tom. “Ecclesial Priestly Mediation in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” Theology Today 71(1): 81-91, 2014. Gregory, Brad S. “Christian Discipleship, the Virtues, and Consumerism.” Lecture presented at Seventeenth Bonhoeffer Lectures in 8 Public Ethics, Regent College & Vancouver School Theology, Vancouver, May 1-3, 2014. Guth, Karen Vernice. “What Would Bonhoeffer Do? The Misuse of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Questions of Violence.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Guth, Karen. “To See from Below: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Mandates and Feminist Ethics.” J Society Christian Ethics 33(2):131-150, 2013. Harasta, Eva. “The Responsibility of Doctrine: Bonhoeffer’s Ecclesiological Hermeneutics of Dogmatic Theology.” Theology Today. 71(1)14-27, 2014. Harvey, Barry. “The Ironic Myth of ‘a world come of age’.” Lecture presented at Seventeenth Bonhoeffer Lectures in Public Ethics, Regent College & Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, May 1-3, 2014. Hauerwas, Stanley. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Howard Yoder.” In The Sermon on the Mount through the Centuries, Jeffrey P. Greenman, Timothy Larsen and Stephen R. Spencer (Eds), 207-222. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2007. Holmes, Christopher R. J. “Resurrection and Reality in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian J Bonhoeffer Studies 2/1:1-12, 2014. Holmes, Christopher R.J. “Bonhoeffer and Reformed Christology: Towards a Trinitarian Supplement.” Theology Today 71(1):28-42, 2014. Holmes, Christopher. “’The Subject of Contemporization’: The Holy Spirit and the Task of Theological Education.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Huber, Wolfgang. “Bonhoeffer’s Question. How a Coming Generation is to Go On Living.” Paper presented at Conference: “Theology on the Edge: Honouring John de Gruchy,” Stellenbosch University, South Africa, September 3-5, 2014. Huber, Wolfgang. “The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke: Afterword to the German Edition.” In Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Indexes and Supplementary Material, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works Victoria J. Barnett and Barbara Wojhoski (Eds), Mark S Brocker (Asst), Vol 17:17-26. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Hunziker, Andreas. “Bonhoeffer’s Alternative to the Understanding of Theology as ‘Kulturwissenschaft‘.” Paper presented at Sixth Int’l Bonhoeffer Colloquium, Univ Zurich Faculty Theology, October 30-November 1, 2014. Jones, L. Gregory. “The Cost of Forgiveness: Grace, Christian Community, and the Politics of Worldly Discipleship.” Union Seminary Quart. Rev. 46:149-169, 1992. Kirkpatrick, Matthew D. “But What Does the Church of England Have to Offer the Next Generation?” Occasional paper, December, 2014. https://www.academia.edu/11075724/_But_What_Does_The_Church_of_England_Have_to_Offer_the_Next_ Generation_ Klink, Aaron. “Formed by Christ through One Another: What American Theological Education Can Learn from Finkenwalde.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group) Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Koopman, Nico. “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Public Theology in South Africa.” Paper presented at the Conference “Theology on the Edge: Honouring John de Gruchy,” Stellenbosch University, South Africa, September 3-5, 2014. Kunz, Ralph, “Life Together instead of Lonesome Study? On the Relationship between Practicing Faith and Study in Bonhoeffer’s Theology.” Paper presented at Sixth Int’l Bonhoeffer Colloquium, Univ Zurich Faculty Theology, October 30-November 1, 2014. Lakies, Chad. “Appropriating Bonhoeffer’s Innovations in Theological Education: Community for Resistance in a world of Cultural Captivity.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Lakies, Chad. “The Politics and Possibilities of Forgiveness.” Paper presented at Int’l Academic Forum, Brighton, United Kingdom, July, 2014. Lakies, Chad. “Appropriating Bonhoeffer’s Innovations in Theological Education: Community for Resistance in a World of Cultural Captivity.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Lam, Jason, “Sino-Christian Theology as a Test Case of Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity.” Paper presented at Sixth Int’l Bonhoeffer Colloquium, Univ Zurich Faculty Theology, October 30 – November 1, 2014. Loewen, Jordan Brady. “On Being Made Stupid: Developing a Religious Ethic of Anti-Propaganda.” FASPE [Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics and the Museum of Jewish Heritage] Journal, Jan, 2014. Marsh, Charles. Strange Glory. A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. New York: Knopf, 2014. Marvin, Michelle. “A Study of Prayer in the Imprisonment of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” Paper presented at American Academy Religion New England Maritimes Regional Meeting, Boston, March, 2014. Mathewes, Charles T. “The Future of Political Theology for a Worldly Christianity.” Lecture presented at Seventeenth Bonhoeffer- Lectures in Public Ethics, Regent College & Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, May 1-3, 2014. Matthews, John W. Review of “Bonhoeffer’s Theological Formation: Berlin, Barth & Protestant Theology” by Michael P. DeJonge. Lutheran Quarterly 28(3), 2014. Matthews, John W. The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition. Word and World 34(4), 2014. 9 Mawson, Michael, “How God Suffers: Bonhoeffer, Moltmann and Theological Language.” Paper presented at Sixth Int’l Bonhoeffer Colloquium, Univ Zurich Faculty Theology, October 30-November 1, 2014. Mawson, Michael. “Theology and Social Theory—Reevaluating Bonhoeffer’s Approach.” Theology Today 71(1): 69-80, 2014. McBride, Jennifer M. “Christ Existing as Concrete Community Today.” Theology Today 71(1): 92-105, 2014. McGarry, Joseph. “Bridging the Gap. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Early Theology and its Influence onDiscipleship .” The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian J Bonhoeffer Studies 2(1):13-31, 2014. McGarry, Joseph. “Formed While Following: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Asymmetrical View of Agency in Christian Formation.” Theology Today 71(1):106-120, 2014. McGarry, Joseph. “The Church for Others: The Being of the Church and Advocacy for the Marginalized in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Metaxas, Eric. Bonhoeffer Abridged. Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2014. Metaxas, Eric, with Christine M. Anderson. Bonhoeffer Study Guide: The Life and Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2014. Miller, Kevin. “Reframing the Faith-Learning Relationship: Bonhoeffer and an Incarnational Alternative to the Integration Model.” Christian Scholars Rev. 43:(2):31-38, 2014. Myers, Benjamin. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” In Great Spiritual Leaders: Studies in Leadership for a Pluralist Society, Seferosa Carroll and William W. Emilson (Eds), 73-82. Barton, Australia: Barton Books, 2014. Myers, Benjamin. “The Cloister and the Barracks: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Formation of Christian Community.” Australian Army Chaplaincy J: 43-50, 2014. Nation, Mark Thiessen. “Eberhard Bethge and ‘the Myth’ of Bonhoeffer the Assassin.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Palmisano, Trey. “A Theological Examination on the Criteria of Inclusion into the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ at Yad Vashem: A Case Study on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” Paper presented at Transnational Holocaust Memory Conference, Univ Leeds, England, January 26-27, 2015. Palmisano, Trey. “Homosexual Union as Responsible Marriage in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” Paper presented at American Academy Religion Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting, Mount St. Mary College, Newburgh NY, March 7-9, 2014. Parsons, Preston, “Church Discipline and Theological Education: Finkenwalde and the Riddle of Freedom.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper presented at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Peach, Elizabeth Clare. “Bonhoeffer Here: An Introduction to Hanfried Mueller’s Interpretation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Prison Letters.” MA thesis. Christchurch, New Zealand: Univ Canterbury, 1980. Phillips, Jacob. “’No Conditional Clauses in Christ’: Interpreting the Finkenwalde Experiment with Dilthey’s Concrete Universality.” (“Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis” Group). Paper delivered at American Academy Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego CA, November, 2014. Phillips, Jacob. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship and German Expressionism.” In Modernism, Christianity, and Apocalypse (Stud- ies in Religion and the Arts), Erik Tonning, Matthew Feldman and David Addyman (Eds), Boston: Brill Academic Pubs, 2014. Phillips, Jacob. “From Reflex to Reflection in Wilhelm Dilthey and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” Paper delivered at Society for Study of Theology Annual Meeting, Durham, UK, April, 2014. Phillips, Jacob. “Reclaiming the Stolen Words of True Community: Theology and Translation in the Third Reich.” Paper presented to Cambridge Society Chartered Institute Linguists, May, 2014. Puffer, Matthew. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Theology of Karl Barth.” In Karl Barth in Conversation, W. Travis McMaken and David W. Congdon (Eds), 46-62. Portland ME: Pickwick, 2014. Rasmussen, Larry L. Earth Honoring Faith. Religious Ethics in a New Age. New York: Oxford Univ Press, 2013. Rasmussen, Larry. “Bonhoeffer and Earth Faith.” Paper presented at Volmoed Colloquium, Hermanus, South Africa, August 31-September 2, 2014. Rayson, Dianne, and Terence Lovat. “’Lord of the (Warming) World’: Bonhoeffer’s Eco-theological Ethics and the Gandhi Factor.” The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian J Bonhoeffer Studies (1):57-74, 2014. Robbins, Jeffrey W. “The Path of Theology. A Study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” In Between Faith and Thought. An Essay on the Ontotheological Condition , Jeffrey W. Robbins, 44-66. Charlottesville and London: Univ Virginia Press, 2003. Robinson, David. “Peccatorum Communio: Intercession in Bonhoeffer’s Use of Hegel.” Studies Christian Ethics 2(1):86-100, 2015. Robinson, Marilynne. “Challenges We Face Now.” Lecture presented at Seventeenth Bonhoeffer Lectures in Public Ethics, Regent College & Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, May 1-3, 2014. Rowe, Terra S. “A Better Worldliness.” Presentation at Ways of Knowing Graduate Conference on Religion, Harvard Divinity School, October 25, 2014. Schild, Maurice. “Hermann Sasse and Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Churchmen on the Brink.” The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian J Bonhoeffer Studies 2(1):45-56, 2014. Shimada, Yuki. “Truth and Truth-telling in Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Reconsidered after 3.11 and ‘Fukushima’.” Theology Today 71(1):121-131, 2014. Tatari, Muna, “Developing Islamic Theology in a Western Context: Fruitful Possibilities and Potential Obstacles of the Reception of Bonhoeffer’s Theology within this Process.” Paper presented at the Sixth Int’l Bonhoeffer Colloquium, Univ Zurich Faculty Theology, October 30-November 1, 2014. 10 Tietz, Christiane, “Theology as a Function of the Church?” Paper delivered at Sixth Int’l Bonhoeffer Colloquium, Univ Zurich Faculty Theology, October 30-November 1, 2014. Wilkes, Nicola. “Life and Health: Bonhoeffer’s Normative and Divergent Accounts of Private Confession of Sin.” Theology Today 71(1):58-68, 2014. Williams, Reggie. “ Developing a Theologia Crucis: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Harlem Renaissance.” Theology Today 71(1):43–57, 2014. Wüstenberg, Ralf. “Religionless Christianity and Social Ethics in ‘a world come of age’.” Lecture presented at Seventeenth Bonhoeffer Lectures in Public Ethics, Regent College & Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, May 1-3, 2014. Zimmermann, Jens. “Bonhoeffer’s Christian Humanism and ‘a world come of age’.” Lecture presented at Seventeenth Bonhoeffer Lectures in Public Ethics, Regent College & Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, May 1-3, 2014.

The following book reviews appear in Theology Today, vol. 71(1) April 2014

VJ Barnett - Bonhoeffer the Assasin? Challenging the Myth, Recovering His Call to Peacemaking (Nation, Siegrist & Umbel) NL Erskine - Bonhoeffer, Religion and Politics (Tietz & Zimmerman) J Zimmerman - Bonhoeffer, Christ and Culture (Johnson & Larson) L Powery - The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Best, ed.) L Thelander - Ecumenical, Academic and Pastoral Work: 1931-1932, DBWE (vol 11) RK Wüstenberg - Bonhoeffer’s Theological Formation: Berlin, Barth & Protestant Theology (DeJonge) M Rae - Attacks on Christendom in a World Come of Age: Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and the Question of “Religionless Christianity” (Kirkpatrick) MR Lindsay - Martin Luther’s Anti-Semitism: Against His better Judgment (Gritsch) MR Lindsay - Martin Luther, the Bible and the Jewish People: A Reader (Schramm & Stjerna, eds) K Clements - The Church and Humanity: The Life and Work of George Bell, 1883-1958 (Chandler)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ecumenical Quest Keith Clements

BOOK AVAILABLE “No one has a better grasp of Bonhoeffer’s legacy and knowledge of the ecumenical movement than Keith Clements. This is a publishing milestone for those interested in both” -JohnW. de Gruchy, University of Cape Town

New from WCC Publications - ISBN 978-2-8254-1656-3. Price $20.00 / £12.00 / €12.00. Brill Academic Pubs, 2014. Distributed in North America by ISBS (www.isbs.com) and in Europe & UK Alban Books (www.albanbooks.com). Go to http://publications.oikoumene.org. 344 pages, March 2015.

On March 5, Bonhoeffer’s life and works were revisited by three historians in a panel held by the World Council of Churches. Keith Clements, whose book was launched at the event, noted that the message of Bonhoeffer for the church was to become part of the world, embracing its strug- gles and perplexities - and not just that it was ‘“called to be a church.”

Victoria J. Barnett, Director for Programs on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, said that such an in-depth study, such as Clement’s, of Bonhoeffer’s role in the ecumincal movement was long overdue. “Keith’s book gives us a vivid portrait not just of Bonhoeffer, but of the remarkable ecumenical leaders of that era and the larger issues that were at stake,” she said.

Stephen G. Brown, Program Director, Global Theological Library, noted that Bonhoeffer envisioned a church “not dominating but helping and serving” in which its word “gains weight and power not through concepts but by example.” He shared how Bonhoeffer’s words resonate with the call for a “pilgrimage of justice and peace” issued by the WCC 10th Asembly in Busan. “A pilgrimage is not about uttering the authoritative word that the world cannot ignore. Instead it is a path, walking with others, listening for the word of God,” Brown said.

To listen to the presentations by Keith Clements (Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ecumenical Quest), Victoria Barnett (The Ecumenical and Interfaith Landscape in Bonhoeffer’s Time) and Stephen Brown (Bonhoeffer’s Continuing Challenge to the Ecumenical Movement), go to https://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/news/panel Publications - 150 route de Ferney, PO Box 2100 CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland Tel: +41-22-791-61-11 Fax +41-22-798-1346 11 GERMANY’S COMMEMORATION - 1945 TO 2015

dam Carr writes in “Germany’s Culture of Commemoration” (http://www.axishistory.com/) that he has vis- Aited most of the main sites of commemoration of the Third Reich and World War II periods in various coun- tries (Germany and Austria, as well as Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.) His particular interest has been how modern Germany has chosen to commemorate the events which occurred in various concentration and/or extermination camps. He writes: “no country - except possibly Russia - carries such a burden of recent history as does Germany, and no country has, in my opinion, been more honest and thorough in documenting the crimes committed by its government and citizens, within living memory, against both domestic minorities and against its neighbors - certainly far more than either Russia or Japan.

A particularly interesting question is how far Germany is permitted to commeorate its own war dead, both civilian and military. The largest memorials in Berlin are those commemorating Soviet war dead and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Berlin has no memorial explicitly commemorating either the 5.5 million German mili- tary dead or to the 1.6 million civilian dead (including 600,000 killed in Allied air raids). More than 60 years after the war, it is striking that the Germans still feel inhibited about mourning their dead in the way all other countries are able to do.”

Interested readers may wish to view the entire document (published in 2010 and updated in 2012) which contains 42 photographs and text in 20 pages.

Flossenburg Concentration Camp

Konzentrationslager Flossenburg was a Nazi concentration built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel (SS) in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria, near the border with Czechoslovakia. Before World War II, it served as a men’s camp primarily for “antisocial” or “criminal” prisoners. When the SS turned it into a concentration camp, inmates continued to be used as slave labor to quarry the granite found in the nearby hills. During the war, most of the inmates sent to Flossenburg, or to one of its 100 sub-camps, came from German-occupied eastern territories. Inmates were housed in 16 huge wooden barracks and a crematorium was built in a valley straight outside the camp.

In 1941-1942, the SS executed about a third of the about 1,500 Polish prisoners, mainly resistance fighters, who were sent there. Many Soviet prisoners were also executed during the war years. In early 1943, there were over 4,000 prisoners (mainly Soviet, Czech, Dutch and German) in the main camp, with more than half being sent there for political reasons.

During the war, the main camp and sub-camps expanded to accommodate the increase in forced labor needed to work in the armaments industries in southern Germany and western Czechoslovakia. The sub-camps were staffed mainly by women matrons.

By 1945 there were almost 40,000 inmates held in the whole Flossenburg camp system, including 11,000 women. Underfeeding, sickness and overwork in the quarry and in making armaments was common, and with harshness of the guards, thousands died. In the last 12 months of the war, more than 1,500 death sentences were carried out there.

On August 1, 2007 a memorial was unveiled at the camp to the memory of the seven members of the German resistance who had conspired to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, and who were executed on April 9, 1945. In addition to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the group included the highly decorated Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (head of 12 the Abwehr (military intelligence service) 1935-1944), Army General Hans Oster (deputy head of the Abwehr under Canaris), Dr. Karl Sack, Ludwig Gehre, General Friedrich von Rabenau, and Dr. Theodore Strünck. Simone Michel-Levy, a French Resistance worker, was also executed with this same group.

Other notable inmates during the war years included: Prince Philipp (Landgrave of Hesse, German aristocrat, great-grandson of Frederick III, German Emperor and great-grandson of Queen Victoria), Kurt Schumacher (German social democratic politician and future head of SPD), Bertram James (British officer, RAF, survivor of the Great Escape) and Marian P. Opala (fighter in the Polish underground, later Polish-American lawyer and Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court).

Stolperstein

Stolperstein (from the German, “stumbling block”) is a monument created by Gunter Demnig, which comme- orates a victim of the Holocaust. Stolpersteine are small, cobblestone-size memorials for individuals who were victims or survivors of Nazism. These were people who were consigned by the Nazis to prisons, euthanasia fa- cilities, sterilization clinics, concentration camps, and extermination camps, as well as those who responded to persecution by emigrating or committing suicide.

While the vast majority of these stones commemorate Jewish victims of the Holocaust, others have been placed for Sinti and Romani people (gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, black people, Christians opposed to the Nazis, members of the Communist party and the Resistance, military deserters, and the physicaly and mentally disabled.

The first stolperstein was laid in front of Cologne’s Historic Town Hall. It was Demnig’s intention to thus engage in the debate underway about granting Roma from former Yugoslavia the right to reside in Germany. Later he had the idea to commemorate all victims of Nazi persecution by placing stones in front of their last chosen place of residence.

Each stone is a four inch square and has inscribed on it “Hier wohnte” (“here lived”), followed by the person’s name, year of birth and date of deportation and death, if known. As of October 2007, Demnig had mounted more than 13,000 stolpersteine in more than 280 cities. He expanded his project beyond the borders of Germany to Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary. In 2013 the 40,000th stolperstein was installed in Drieborg, and it was one of the ten in memory of Dutch communists who were executed by the German occupation forces after they were betrayed by countrymen for hiding Jews and Roma.

A typical Stolperstein, this one placed in Bonn:

HERE LIVED IDA ARENSBERG, BORN BENJAMIN. 1870 DEPORTED 1942 MURDERED 18.9.1942 THERESIENSTADT

13 Prüfung (“The Ordeal”)

Edith Breckwoldt’s bronze statue, Prüfung (“The Ordeal”) is located in the ruins of the Nikolaikirche in Hamburg which was bombed out in the British air-raid of July 1943. The church is preserved as a memorial to “victims of war and persecu- tion,” not specifically to the victims of the bombing.

The sculptor (1937-2013) was from Northern Germany and was known for her large- and small-scale works in the Ham- burg area,. Her works revolve around the themes of peace, community and symbiosis.

This sculpture is dedicated to the memory of the 50,000 people who died in Sandbostel, a large prison camp, located in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, near Hamburg.The base of this sculpture consists of the original bricks of the prisoner’s barracks which Sandbostel students had collected. The title ‘The Ordeal’ reflects the way in which affected -indi viduals coped with this extreme situation.

The artist chose a text - located near the base of the statue - from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

‘No man in the whole world can change the truth. One can only look for the truth, find it and serve it. The truth is in all places

(photo reproduced with permission from Alamy) 14 XVIII. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lectures July 10-12, 2015 Flensburg, Germany

The 18th Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lectures will be held at Europa-Universität, Flensburg, Germany, July 10-12, 2015. On occasion of the 70th anniversary marking the end of World War II, the lectures this year will focus on the subject “Understanding and Reconciliation: Contributions of Church, Religion and Politics.” The program organizers are Ralf Wüstenberg and Jelena Beljin (Flensburg).

Keynote speakers include Wolfgang Huber (Berlin), Victoria Barnett (Holocaust Museum, Washington D.C.), Konrad Raiser (Berlin), Klaus von Stosche (Padeborn), Çefli Ademi (Münster), Christiane Tietz (Zürich), Tim Lorentzen (Munich) and Karsten Lehmkühler (Strasbourg). The lectures will be delivered in German.

PROGRAM

Friday, July 10, 2015 3 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Religious Plurality as a Challenge for Social Communication Today

Ralf Wüstenberg Introductory Remarks Klaus von Stosch Religious Plurality as a Task of Reconciliation: The example of the Christian-Islamic Dialog Çefli Ademi Reconciled Diversity? Plurality in Islamic (legal) Tradition Christiane Tietz Dialog with the Other: Possibilities and Limits of Interreligious Understanding Wolfgang Huber Peace of Religion and the dispute over the Truth

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Reconciliation as the Official Service of the Churches and Mission of the International Policy after 1945

Konrad Raiser The Ecumenical Council of Churches as a Contributor to International Peace Victoria Barnett One Notices a Difference between American Super-Idealism and European Realism: North American Church Engagement for Reconciliation in Postwar Germany Tim Lorentzen Germany and its Eastern Neighbors: Guilt and Reconciliation Karsten Lehmkuhler Theological Reflections on the German-French Reconciliation

Registration is free. Accommodations : 70-90 Euros per night. For further information, contact Ms. Jelena Beljin ([email protected]) or Professor Ralf Wüstenberg (ralf.wuestenberg@ uni-flensburg.de. See for detailed program www.uni-flensburg.de/theologie/aktuelles. 15 Book Review  it, which is where Wüstenberg’s analysis is both right on target and most helpful. Christology: How Do We Talk about Christ Today? Ralf K.Wüstenberg, Trans. Martin Rumscheidt with Responding to these challenges, he develops his argument Christine Schliesser and Randi H. Lundell. Eugene OR: by addressing each of the objections in turn, dedicating Cascade Books, 2014. ISBN 13-978-1-61097-170-6 x a chapter to each. Each chapter is organized in a similar + 130 pgs/ $17.00 fashion. In each, he begins by identifying and describing the challenge that each perspective of modern thought brings, he then continues by identifying the core questions necessary wo recently published volumes on Christology, one by a for developing a credible Christology. After his description TGerman Protestant (Michael Welker, God the Revealed: of the problem, each chapter offers a “possible solution,” Christology [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013]) and the other which draws on the historical and dogmatic traditions of by an American Catholic (James Carroll, Christ Actually: the church, particularly the trinitarian and christological the Son of God for the Secular Age [New York: Viking, affirmations growing out of the controversies of the early 2014]) begin with Bonhoeffer’s question: “Who is Christ church, the teachings of the Reformation period, especially actually for us today?” Each uses Bonhoeffer’s question Martin Luther, and among modern thinkers of whom Dietrich to frame their discussion of Christology and, in so doing, Bonhoeffer features prominently. they demonstrate the significant place Bonhoeffer holds in contemporary Christian thought, finding in his question n the course of his work, Wüstenberg responds to the the framework from which to explore the contours of a Ifollowing questions and objections: to the objections contemporary Christology. of religious pluralism that the Christian claims, especially about Jesus, are “absolutist” or “exclusivistic,” he points to Ralf Wüstenberg, a university professor at the University some encouraging possibilities in Christian theology. To of Flensburg (Germany) and a known Bonhoeffer scholar, the scientific objection that the Christian faith “does not in his recently translated Christology: How Do We Talk stand the test of historical examination” (22), Wüstenberg about Jesus Today? begins with a different question: “Is a provides a perspective from which to evaluate the scholarly Christology at all possible?” This question grows out of his understanding of history. To spirituality’s desire to have own hesitant attempts to explain to fellow students why he a meaningful experience of Jesus, “to know finally who studied theology rather than religious studies when he was this Jesus was himself and not what the creed, the church, at the university, as well as his more recent conversations or tradition ‘claimed’ about him” (41), those who see the with university students, for whom the Christian claims are church’s dogmatic tradition as something “cold” and incredibly difficult to accept. Addressing the millennial “outdated,” Wüstenberg reframes the church’s language by generation (and others who might question the validity saying that “Jesus Christ is utterly beyond conceptualization” of Christian claims and church doctrine), for whom (50), finding value in the church’s dogma not in what it says being spiritual but not religious seems to be the norm, but in what it rejects. To the objections arising from the Wüstenberg uses this question as the framework for laying realm of humanism and human rights, which question the out a contemporary Christology that is true to the dogmatic nature of a God who allows or insists that “a sinless person tradition of the church, while at the same time is responsive die on the cross in such a horrifying way so that people can to the changed perceptions of today’s world. be in a right relationship with God again” (65), he offers an analysis of Luther’s theologia crucis and its communicatio Based on his own experiences he knows the difficulties of idiomatum, which lies at the center of Luther’s Christology, talking about the specific Christian claims, especially Jesus giving it its essential character. It is in this theological Christ, in today’s world. What has changed? Wüstenberg tradition that Wüstenberg finds Bonhoeffer’s ability to locates the challenges in the influences of modern thought, of “speak responsibly of the reconciling activity of God in which he identifies five:religious pluralism, the scientific and Christ” (81). A theological stance such as is found in Luther historical sciences communities, the rise of spirituality, and and Bonhoeffer enables theology to affirm the atonement, the perspectives of humanism and feminism. Taken together, because it is not an inhumane God who allows an innocent these objections challenge the validity and credibility of any person to suffer, but rather it is a God who suffers in order Christology in today’s world, so rather than skirting the to reconcile the world to himself. To feminism’s objections questions and objections or belittling their significance, he of a male savior, Wüstenberg offers a reworking of some of tackles them head-on, making these contemporary challenges its basic assumptions by placing them in dialogue with some the context for spelling out the meaning of Jesus Christ for us of the very ideas it seeks to challenge. In this chapter he today. This he does not by giving up the traditional Christian includes an excursus on the key concepts of the penultimate confession of Jesus as the Christ, but rather by re-engaging and ultimate from Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, finding in this 16 distinction the framework for a “new” political ethic. history, because faith-claims offer a truth valid in their own right. At the same time, Christian dogma, rather than being So rather than giving up and abandoning Christology as some a hurdle to the identity of Jesus, “guards the mystery of the of his contemporaries have done, Wüstenberg’s argument person of Jesus.” Also, rather than avoiding suffering that finally takes us to the critical questions of the Christian many find offensive in the cross, he finds that a suffering faith—and eventually to Bonhoeffer’s question, “Who is God, a God revealed in the cross of Jesus Christ, can help. Christ actually for us today?” In so doing, he identifies the And, finally, a Christology constructed in the terms laid out challenges in attempting to talk about Jesus or in developing is the foundation for both liberation and hope. a comprehensive Christology; but more importantly he helps us understand what it means to have faith in God in this In a context in which recent surveys now indicate that while secular world, a world in which “the Christian discussion the majority of Americans acknowledge that they believe about God does not belong in our world anymore” but is in Jesus, the Jesus at the center of their faith is more often viewed as something exotic or foreign. than not viewed as a good human being and not God (in this regard, America is probably not unique).Wüstenberg’s book After his wide-ranging review of the questions and objections, provides a necessary corrective, serves as a handbook that he arrives in the final chapter and the question, “Is it worth provides the basic outline of the church’s confession of Jesus all the trouble to think about Jesus of Nazareth?” Clearly, his as the Christ, and can be used as a handy tool to either reflect answer is yes. Drawing on the church’s rich christological on or respond to the voices of the modern world to whom the tradition, particularly as it is expressed in the hands of Luther church bears testimony. and Bonhoeffer, whom he sees working in direct line with Luther, Wüstenberg concludes that Christology need not be divisive. Nor does faith need to give in to the objections of H.Gaylon Barker

Death Row Inmate Finds Common Ground With ‘We came to her and taught theology through the bars of her cell,’ Theologians McBride said. McBride had “one-on-one teaching sessions with her for about two hours, every Friday, for six months.” (from the NY Times Feb 28, 2015) She was moved by the work of Professor Jürgen Moltmann, who is A Georgia mother was sentenced to die for her role in the 1998 88 and lives in Germany. When she learned that Ms. McBride, her murder of her husband. teacher, knew him, Ms. Gissendaner decided to reach out.

“In 2010 Kelly Renee Gissendaner enrolled in a theology studies Jennifer McBride facilitated the two of them to discuss “theological program for prisoners, run by a consortium of Atlanta-area divin- and faith questions.” When Professor Moltmann came to Atlanta to ity schools, including the one at Emory University.” During her lecture at Emory, McBride arranged a visit with all three. years of study, she became a passionate student of Christian think- ers like Dietrich Bonhoeffer as well as as Rowan Williams, the for- “Professor Moltmann, who has written of his own remorse at hav- mer archbishop of Canterbury. ing fought in the German Army, offered his own idea of what waits his friend. ‘If the State of Georgia has no mercy,’ he said, ‘she has When Ms. Gissendaner was not allowed to attend classes outside received already the mercy of Heaven.’” prison walls, her teachers, including Jennifer McBride came to her to continue her studies. Ms. McBride played an active role in convincing the State of Geor- gia to commute the execution of Ms Gissendaner.

There are so many experiences and disappointments which make a way for nihilism and resignation for sensitive people. So it is good to learn early enough that suffering and God is not a contradiction but rather a necessary unity; for me the idea that God himself is suffering has always been one of the most convincing teachings of Christianity. I think God is nearer to suffering than to happiness and to find God in this way gives peace and rest and a strong and courageous heart.

Bonhoeffer to the Leibholz family, May 21, 1942, DBWE 16:284)

17 XII. INTERNATIONAL BONHOEFFER CONGRESS BASEL JULY 6-10, 2016

Engaging Bonhoeffer in a Global Era: Christian Belief, Witness, Service A Joint Venture of International Bonhoeffer Gesellschaft Mission 21 Institute for Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion The conference will explore how Bonhoeffer’s theology was shaped by international experiences and ecumenical contacts, but was not developed in a global world in the current sense of the word. Our era is qualified by worldwide travelling, fast electronic communication, the World Wide Web, and the interconnectedness of most political and economic developments. Can Bonhoeffer’s theology still be helpful here? And how?

The three working days of the conference will have main speakers in the morning and seminar sessions in the afternoon. The three working days will have the following topics:

Wednesday, July 6: Opening Lecture - Bonhoeffer and Basel (Christoph Ramstein)

Thursday, July 7: Christian Belief in a Global Era Main Lectures: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth (Michael de Jonge) Christian Faith and Inculturation in a Secular Culture (Rowan Williams) subthemes: Bonhoeffer’s Contribution to Decisive Doctrinal Issues of Christian Faith Today Bonhoeffer’s Christ-centeredness and Interreligious Dialogue Bonhoeffer’s Critique of Religion and current Atheism Bonhoeffer’s Orientation to the Word and New Media Bonhoeffer’s Ecumenical Theology and its Relevance for the Ecumenical Situation Today Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth Bonhoeffer and Switzerland

Friday, July 8: Christian Witness in a Global Era Main Lectures: Being a Christian in a Pluralistic Content (Ulrich Körtner) Learning from the Global Church (Puleng Lenkabula) subthemes: Bonhoeffer’s Religionless Christianity and current A-Religiosity Bonhoeffer’s Worldly Christianity vs. Secularism What Bonhoeffer Learned from Christians Worldwide Bonhoeffer’s Contribution to Public Theology The Witnessing Church Bonhoeffer’s Contribution to Christian Education Today

Saturday, July 9: Christian Service in a Global Era Main Lectures: Christian Ethics - Common Ethics (Esther Reed) Reconciliation (Pascal Bataringaya) subthemes: Bonhoeffer’s Peace Ethics and Current Challenges to Peace Bonhoeffer’s Concept of the Natural as Contribution to Modern Eco-ethics Bonhoeffer’s Confession of the Guilt of the Church and Processes of Reconciliation Bonhoeffer’s Ethics as Contribution to Social Justice Is Bonhoeffer’s Theology Helpful for addressing current Gender Issues? Is Bonhoeffer’s Christological Ethics in Dialogue with Different Concepts of Ethics? Does Bonhoeffer’s Theology Encourage an Interreligious Service to the World?

Sunday, July 10 Worship Service

18 XII. INTERNATIONAL BONHOEFFER CONGRESS BASEL JULY 6-10, 2016 Continued

Call for Papers The Congress organizers invite proposals that address the subthemes or related subthemes. Papers may also address to what extent Bonhoeffer’s theology is not helpful or limited in a global era. Proposals to topics not named are also welcome. Young scholars, including doctoral students, are encouraged to propose papers.

The proposal, which should explain the topic, its main arguments and the conclusion of the papers, should be no more than 500 words in length. It can be written either in German or English. The conference languages will be in both German and English.

The proposals must be submitted by May 1, 2015, to [email protected], whom one can also contact for further questions. The decision made by a small committee, as to which proposals are accepted, will be communicated by July 31, 2015 by email. Registration

Registration will open during the last quarter of 2015 and will close on March 31, 2016. Rooms will be available in the “Hotel Bildungszentrum 21” with private hosts in Basel. The price of registration is planned to be similar to that of the 2012 Congress in Sigtuna.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Christiane Tietz Prof. Dr. Christoph Ramstein Universität Zürich Geschäftsführer/CEO Institut für Hermeneutic und Religionsphilosophie Evangelische Stadtmission Base; (Basel City Mission) Kirchgasse 9 Vogesenstrasse 28 CH-8001 Zürich CH-4056 Basel phone: +41-44-6344750 phone: +41-61-3830334 [email protected] [email protected]

Additional Links

General Information: www.bonhoeffer2016.ch The Congress Hotel: http://bonhoeffer2016.ch/the-congress-hotel The Call for Papers: https://timonramsteinblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/call-for-papers1.pdf Keynote Speakers and Themes: http://bonhoeffer2016.ch/program The History: http://bonhoeffer2016.ch/the-history Registration: http://bonhoeffer2016.ch.the-registration Mission21: http://www.mission-21.org/en/index/ Institut fur Hermeneutik und Religionsphilosophie: http://www.hermes.uzh.ch/personen/tietz.html Internationale Bonhoeffer Gesellschaft: http://www.dietrich-bonhoeffer.net/ibg/ueber-uns/

19 News from Germany

NEWS FROM BONHOEFFER HAUS

Gottfried Brezger, Chair of the Administrative Board of the Bonhoeffer Haus - Place of Remembrance and En- counter, located at 43 Marienburger Allee, 14055 Berlin, and known to many of our members, is currently active with the board to project a new program there in light of the retirement of its long-term director, Burckhard Schef- fler.

Current circumstances are still in transition, but anyone interested in visiting the house where Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived with his parents when he was in Berlin after 1935, will find it accessible by prior appointment. Contact can be made by e-mail ([email protected]) or telephone (011-49-30-301-9490). Please allow as much time as possible to plan to accomodate a visit, especially, but not only for groups, since for the present time all guides to the exhibition and house are volunteers.

The idea of using the House as a memorial and meeting place was developed from discussions involving a par- ticipatory, intergenerational and interdisciplinary process and a variety of persons and institutions (churches, universities and ecumenical leaders). The initiative for the establishment of the Bonhoeffer House was carried forward by the President of the Synod of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-West), Prof. Helmut Reihlen, Prof. Eberhard and Renate Bethge as well as Bishop Albreht Schönherr, Rev. Burckhard Scheffler, Claus P. Wagener, and James Parick Kelley and Michael Lukens from the English Language Section. Other contribu- tions came from Dr. Rhein, Dr. Berend Wellmann, Rev. Manfred Fischer, Klaus Peter Jörns, Hans-Joachim Curth, Karl-Heinz Horn, Thomas Koch and Matthias Frach.

When the House was organized in 1988, the following objectives were cited: 1) Aside from remembering the Person, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the Bonhoeffer family, the highest value is to be placed upon Bonhoeffer’s Christian witness, his theological work, as well as his ecumenical and political engagement; and 2) The House is open to individual guests and groups who wish, in light of the objectives of the house, to consider the life, work and significance of Bonhoeffer in both the past and present as it relates to their own situation.

April 9, the seventieth anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s death, was an occasion where several sponsoring groups from Berlin held a 6-7 hour reading of passages from his work. During the event, music was provided at the Matthias Kirche.

The Bonhoeffer Haus also sponsored on April 22 a special discussion on the life and work of Bishop George Bell, with particular attention being paid to his important and close relationship with Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The Board plans to celebrate Scheffler’s long service as Resident Director of the place he conceived while serv- ing as pastor to Students at the Technical University. He saw the House as something more than a small residence for students. With support from a variety of sources, the building was renewed and converted to serve a varied program of events, especially, but not only, including visits by school and church groups. Through the years Mi- chael Lukens and James Patrick Kelley have served as liaison representatives from the English Language Section. President Gaylon Barker has recently appointed a committe to continue this active relationship for the future. Members include Gary Blount, James Patrick Kelley, Michael Lukens and John Matthews.

We will keep readers informed of new programs projected at the House.

James Patrick Kelley 20 Bonhoeffer Portal Now Here All Reliable Information about Dietrich Bonhoeffer Available at a Web Address and Website

The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Portal, found at www.dietrich-bonhoeffer.net, was opened in November 2014 as a partnership between the German Section of the International Bonhoeffer Society and Gütersloher Verlagshaus. The German speaking section (ibg or Internationale Bonhoeffer-Gesellschaft Deutschsprachige Sektion e.V.), promotes studies on the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and currently has almost 500 individual members. It publishes a newsletter three times a year with each issue containing about 70 pages.

The ibg has close relationships with the International Bonhoeffer Society-English Language Section, as well as sections in the Netherlands, Poland, Japan, Korea and Brazil. It actively participates in the formation and presentation of quadrennial international congresses (see pages 18-19 for news about the 2016 Congress planned for Basel, Switzerland. It also has links to the Bonhoeffer Archives (comprised of primary and secondary texts) located at Union Theological Seminary in New York as well as the Bonhoeffer estate in the Berlin State Library. The searchable bibliographic database of nearly 6,000 titles brings a large selection of non-English works to the attention of English speaking students and scholars.

Gütersloher Verlagshaus is a long-time publisher of Bonhoeffer works, including the 17 volumes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (DBW). Gütersloher has also published Eberhard Bethge’s monumental biography of Bonhoeffer, as well as the pictorial biography. The new website design and layout has been developed by a group from Hamburg, Germany.

The portal has several important links:

• BIOGRAPHY • QUOTE SEARCH DATABASE • BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA BASE – 6000 titles (many non-English works); texts from 16 languages, including all relevant texts, all accessible texts from journals, books and chapters in books • PUBLICATIONS – includes historical critical edition of DBW (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works – 17 volumes and index volume); related documents, letters, diary entries and sermons (about 2000 records) • PICTURES - Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Bonhoeffer Family • CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES • LIFE AND WORK – • BONHOEFFER QUOTE OF THE DAY • DISSERTATIONS – Ongoing or completed • RELATIONSHIPS – Short biographies of persons who influenced the life and works of Bonhoeffer • BONHOEFFER MEMORIALS & SCHOOLS • MEETINGS – Annual Meeting (German Section to meet in Eisenach, September 10, 2015) 18th Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lectures (see page 15) XII International Congress, Basel Switzerland (see pages 18-19) • IBG BOARD OF DIRECTORS (see following page)

21 German Section (ibg) Board of Directors

Chairman – Honorary - Christine Tietz (Zürich) Renate Bethge (Bremen) Deputy Chairman – Wolf Krötke (Berlin) Christian Löhr (Brandenburg) Gunter Prüller Jagenteufel(Vienna) Managing Director – Christine Schliesser (Zürich) Germot Gerlach (Wolfhagen) Wilfried Schulz (Berlin) Treasurer – Christine Vater (Mühlhausen) Wolfgang Kohl (Burgdorf) Ralf Wüstenberg (Flensberg)

Front Row (l-r): Christina Vater, Pfr. Christian Lohr, Prof. Dr. Christiane Tietz Middle Row (l-r): Dipl. Phys. Wilfried Schulz, Dr. Christine Schliesser, Wolfgang Kohl Back Row (l-r): Dr. Gernot Gerlach, Prof. Dr. Ralf Wüstenberg, Prof. Dr. Gunter Prüller- Jagenteufel, Prof. Dr. Wolf Krötke

Who am I?

Really? Is that me? Who am I? They like to say Who am I? the one? the other? Or am I just what I know myself to be? I step forth from my cell, This one now and tomorrow yet a third? Restless, homesick, ill, a bird in a cage serene and cheerful and solid, Both at once? A hypocrite to your face gasping for breath, that someone has by like a lord from his castle. but in private a despicable crybaby? the throat,

starving for colors, flowers, birdsong, Who am I? They like to say Or is my inner turmoil a whipped platoon thirsting for good talk, for human I chat with my guards turning in disarray from a hill already won? intimacy, in a free and friendly and clear way trembling with rage over tyranny’s tiniest as though I were in charge. Who am I? Introspection teases me for fun. insults, Whatever I am, You know me. I am Yours, compulsively waiting for great things, Who am I? You’ll even hear o Holy One! wringing my hands about friends beyond I endure my days of misfortune my horizon, with smiling and proud tranquility, Dietrich Bonhoeffer tired and empty when praying, thinking, like someone accustomed to coming out (translated Peter Meister writing, on top. The University of Alabama in Huntsville) spent and ready to tell it all good-bye.

22 nor the name Durer, and least of all does it mention a joke. Unfortunately ESSAY REVIEW this is not the only example of Marsh’ laissez-faire treatment of his sources. MAKING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT DIETRICH Marsh could have gone to look at Altdorfer’s painting around the corner How Bonhoeffer was Made Fit for America from Humboldt University. He spent enough time in Germany to know that FERDINAND SCHLINGENSIEPEN Bayreuth is not in the Bavarian Alps. Dachau lies to the Northwest, not to the Northeast of Munich, and the ‘river he status of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Bonhoeffer’s time in prison – came Eisenach’, which Marsh has flowing at Tthe United States is almost that of a from his students who obviously the foot of the Wartburg, does not exist. national hero. When a new biography misinterpreted him. He manages to was published in New York in 2010, turn Bonhoeffer into a courageous and Any German editor will find and 300,000 copies sold within four weeks. benign fundamentalist. By giving him correct those types of mistakes. In As it happens, the book had been a mighty push to the right he makes order to detect the greater number aggressively marketed by Fox News him, politically speaking, something of Marsh’s mistakes, though, one and the Wall Street Journal; its title like a friendly great uncle of the tea- will need a thorough knowledge of ‘Bonhoeffer - Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, party movement. This explains the Bonhoeffer’s life and writings. Most Spy’, its author Eric Metaxas. Turning enthusiasm of Fox News and the of Marsh’s readers will readily believe Bonhoeffer into a spy was an invention Wall Street Journal. At the time of that Professor Karl Bonhoeffer did of Metaxas. His book is a biographical publication some papers showed a not attend church on Sundays, but left novel written by a talented author. picture of Metaxas standing between this to his wife and children. An editor George W. and Laura Bush, both of might also be taken in, but Marsh is In 2014, Professor Charles Marsh, a them holding a copy of the book. wrong: the entire Bonhoeffer family theologian from Virginia, wrote another stayed at home on Sundays and did not American biography about Bonhoeffer Unlike Metaxas, Charles Marsh does even go to church at Christmas. Instead with the title ‘Strange Glory, A Life know some German. He has read Bonhoeffer’s mother instructed her of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’. This is now Bonhoeffer’s writings in the original children in the Bible at home, and there being promoted by a very different and has carried out research in Germany. were Christmas rituals, beautifully section of the media. The United States He served briefly as a ‘Bonhoeffer guest described by Bonhoeffer’s twin sister of America is a deeply divided country. professor’ at Humboldt University in Sabine. This mistake seems a minor These divisions have now resulted Berlin. Even so, his manuscript needed one, until we consider that it attributes in the production of two portraits of more substantial corrections than that to Bonhoeffer the kind of socialization Bonhoeffer, one for the right and one of Metaxas before being published in the church that the future pastor did for the left, both bearing a passing in Germany. The following example not have. resemblance to the German Protestant shows how bizarre some of his mistakes pastor by the same name. are. Marsh writes, ‘At the Altdorfer The content of Marsh’s biography will department store Bonhoeffer purchased have to change in the German version, Eric Metaxas’ manuscript had to be a hundred Christmas cards with a but in the United States it will remain cleared of a multitude of larger and reproduction of Durer’s Holy Night as it is, except for small corrections. smaller errors before being published - one of their favorite woodcuts - to American readers are presented with a in German. To start with, the American send to each of his former seminarians. warped picture of Dietrich Bonhoeffer original was full of German spelling Bonhoeffer joked to Bethge that this by this book, as they are by that of mistakes as neither Metaxas nor his year he and his friend might inscribe Metaxas. The authors have received editors knew any German. Much of their card ‘Christmas amid the ruins’ much praise from their respective Bonhoeffer’s reputation is based on (p. 296). The cards that Bonhoeffer admirers. Both of them write extremely his writings. Metaxas, who was unable found in Munich depicted Albrecht well. In Germany only those readers to read these in the original, dedicates Altdorfer’s Mary and infant in front of a who can compare the German version as little as 12½ pages out of his 600 to ruined 15th century stable. Bonhoeffer’s of the biography with the American them. He does not know Bonhoeffer’s letter to Bethge dated 29.11.1940, used version will be able to see the pictures early theological thoughts and his by Marsh as a source here, mentions these two Americans are painting of claims about the later ones - from neither the Altdorfer department store Bonhoeffer. Both authors are said to 23 have included new research. Whereas of the historical facts. Otherwise, the would surely have been interested. For Metaxas actually presents very consequences of Hitler’s Germany on example, Bishop Bell and Bonhoeffer little that is new in this respect, new Bonhoeffer’s life will be distorted and achieved the immediate dismissal, findings are restricted to the chapter on the positions he took misinterpreted. by Hitler, of August Jaeger, a vicious Bonhoeffer’s first visit to the United This is what has happened in both of Nazi, who had been given a post in States in Marsh’s book. these American books, as different as Reichbishop Mueller’s office. Jaeger’s they are from each other. further path shows what he was capable Whoever wants to explain why both of. He left the church and was hanged books are so very problematical, will ietrich Bonhoeffer is made into in Poland after the war for his role in have to admit that a significant hurdle Da direct opponent of Hitler and major war crimes. Neither Jaeger, exists for any Bonhoeffer biographer, represented as fighting a lone battle nor Mueller`s theological ‘watchdog’ whatever his or her persuasion. Of against Hitler’s anti-Jewish policies Heinrich Oberheid, are mentioned in the four periods of Bonhoeffer’s life in particular. Metaxas and Marsh both Marsh’s book. This omission attributes childhood (1), studies and periods see in Bonhoeffer the only Protestant to Reichsbishop Mueller a greater power abroad (2) as well as the final phase Christian fighting for the Jews. This is than he really had. In the earlier part from his decision to join the resistance seen as the most significant aspect of of the church struggle jokes were still until his early death (4) are relatively Bonhoeffer’s role as an opponent of making the rounds in the Confessing easy to describe. One only has to follow Hitler. If this had been so, Bonhoeffer Church. Later on, churchmen had Eberhard Bethge’s great biography. would have disappeared inside a nothing left to laugh about. This joke Metaxas has followed this more closely concentration camp much earlier on. was being told in 1933: Mueller asks than Marsh, which is why he is more However, Bonhoeffer had comrades. Goebbels for advice about a title for reliable in the corresponding chapters. Gertrud Staewen gets mentioned by his memoirs, upon which Goebbels both authors, but other courageous suggests, ‘From Dim Light to Church The real hurdle presents itself in women like Katharina Staritz or men Candelabra’. Interestingly, the joke dealing with the third phase, when like Propst Grueber do not appear, reflects Goebbel’s very low opinion Bonhoeffer worked as a pastor and a even though they did much more than of the Reichsbishop. Mueller only teacher of theology from 1931 until Bonhoeffer in this respect. remained in office because Hitler could his ‘Reich-wide ban from speaking in not be seen to have appointed to a high public’ in 1940. Any biographer will It is right that Bonhoeffer was one of office someone who was incompetent. have to acquire a thorough knowledge the first to speak up publically for the of the German Protestant church during Jews in Germany after Hitler’s rise Bell and Bonhoeffer cooperated closely this time; otherwise a description of to power. His decision to go to the a second time, when Bell was preparing this time in Bonhoeffer’s life will fail. United Kingdom, where he spent a for the ecumenical conference in Fanø, From 1933 the federation of 28 member year and a half as pastor to two German Denmark. Bonhoeffer was advocating churches was embroiled in a church congregations in London, was born out for international protest against the struggle that was most confusing and of frustration; in his view, church groups suppressing tactics by the Reich therefore quite difficult to describe. in opposition did not protest strongly Church, with its Nazi allegiance, enough against the introduction of the against the Confessing Church. Bell The fate of the ‘German Protestant ‘Aryan paragraph’, Hitler’s anti-Jewish sent a circular protest letter to all Church’ in Hitler’s Germany will legislation. Later on, others were able member churches. As the letter was on interest very few people in Germany to do more for German Jews and were the agenda this resulted in a discussion today. Outside of Germany the punished severely for it. During this about the church struggle in Germany at complexities will be comprehensible time Bonhoeffer was concentrating the international forum at Fanø, which only to specialists. From 1933 until the on his duties as head of a remote was just what Bonhoeffer had wanted. outbreak of war Bonhoeffer’s life was theological seminary and remaining Bishop Heckel, as representative of so caught up in the church struggle that untroubled by the Nazi regime until the the Reich Church, had been keen to half of Eberhard Bethge’s biography of beginning of the war. prevent this from happening. Marsh 1080 pages is a history of the German refers to Bonhoeffer’s speech on peace. Protestant church from 1933 to 1940. Marsh ignores the close cooperation He mentions a senior church official Five hundred pages of his book between Anglican Bishop Bell and from Berlin by the name of Birnbaum, are dedicated to this third phase in Bonhoeffer in their fight for the who made a fool of himself, but does Bonhoeffer’s life. Anyone who wants Confessing Church during Bonhoeffer’s not mention Bishop Bell in connection to make abbreviations or change the time in London. This is difficult to with Fanø. emphasis will have to be in command comprehend, as American readers 24 During Bonhoeffer’s time in London Such pastors might sometimes be leading many of the Confessing Church the Confessing Church had been called ‘Dahlemites’, after the posh pastors to feel that one could leave the formed in Germany. In 1934, a synod Berlin suburb of Dahlem. Moreover, struggle behind and subject oneself in Barmen made up of the oppositional Martin Niemoeller’s parish, where to this committee and its regional groups in all the federal churches, a coterie of dissenting ministers had sub-committees. Those who refused had ratified a theological declaration. defied the Reich Church, proclaimed to do so were called ‘Dahlemites’, It states the creed of the Protestant the Confessing Church as the one because they clung to the resolutions Church and rejects the false teachings true Lutheran church in Germany”(p. of the Dahlem synod. In two polemical of the German Christians. In October 234f.). articles, Bonhoeffer himself provided of 1934 the Confessing Church created the strongest rationale for why one its own leadership at a second synod in Not only did an Old Prussian Union should not subject oneself to these Dahlem, and thus it became separate Council never exist, there is not much committees. The first was directed at the from the Reich Church, which had else that is true in any of these sentences. Geneva head office of the ecumenical become heretical. From then on there The crucial mistake is that they appear movement. This office continued were two church bodies - the German where Marsh ought to write about to cooperate with the Reich Church Christian church structures, recognized the synod of Dahlem. What was to allied to Hitler, and did not recognize by the state, and the councils of the Bonhoeffer the most important synod the Confessing Church; instead it Confessing Church within each federal of the Confessing Church he described should have come out in support of church. According to the law at the time with the derogatory term ‘coterie’. One the Confessing Church, and broken off pastors with a parish could not simply could call this a group of schemers. contact with the Reich Church. be dismissed. This led to the situation If Dahlem had been such a group of where, in the same towns and cities, schemers, Bonhoeffer would have to he second paper was directed against German Christian pastors would work be called its head schemer for no one Tall the pastors and church elders in with the official church leadership else defended the Dahlem resolutions Germany who did not acknowledge while pastors who had joined the as energetically as did he. As the synod the resolutions of Dahlem and who Confessing Church would refuse to do took place when Bonhoeffer was still in had subjected themselves to being so. Where German Christian were in the England, there is an additional problem governed by the committees. In this majority, as in Elberfeld, for example, with where Marsh locates this in time. paper Bonhoeffer writes -- following Confessing Church congregations were The Confessing Church had elected its the Latin ‘extra ecclesiam nulla salus’ locked out of their churches. They were own leadership in October 1934 and - ‘Those who separate themselves forced to use public houses instead. called on all German Protestants to knowingly from the Confessing Church However. in neighboring Barmen, the recognize only these leaders as the true separate themselves from salvation’. Confessing Church was in the majority. leaders of the Protestant Church. This sentence would still cause an uproar, years later after the war, among Bonhoeffer later called the synods of When Bonhoeffer returned to pastors and church leaders, who had Barmen and Dahlem ‘beacons on the Germany, Hitler had just sidelined decided differently. path of the church’. The resolutions the Reichsbishop and implemented of the Dahlem synod gave him the a ‘Reichskirchenministerium’ -- a This was precisely the kind of confidence to return to a church Ministry of Church Affairs. At its dispute that played a significant part office within Germany. Marsh makes head was Hans Kerrl, one of Hitler’s in Bonhoeffer’s professional life. In a statement in connection with this, ‘old comrades’. He was given the Marsh’s biography of Bonhoeffer this which casts doubts on his understanding task of putting an immediate end to aspect is not covered. Just as the names of Bonhoeffer’s theology. Marsh the struggle within the Protestant of Overheid and Jaeger are missing, writes: “Only two months after classes Church. Kerrl created a committee to the name Zoellner is also missing began, the Old Prussian Union Council lead the Protestant Church - with sub- from Marsh’s text. Kerrl is mentioned decided that the Confessing Church committees in the individual states once, only in a context outside of the might call itself a ‘confessional - where all church groups, German timeframe when he was trying to unify movement’ or ‘confessional front’, but Christians, Confessing Church and the disparate Protestant church under it did not have the legitimate status of ‘the neutrals’ (who either could not the leadership of the committees. a Kirche (church). Thus, study with or did not want to take sides) were Zoellner soon became disillusioned Bonhoeffer became a badge of dissent, supposed to work together. Kerrl called and gave up in 1937. A lawyer by the and in the eyes of the church authorities the highly esteemed Lutheran General name of Dr Friedrich Werner then took it was to mark oneself out as ‘radical Superintendant Wilhelm Zoellner out over the leadership of the German fanatic’ and as a disloyal German. of retirement to chair the committee, Protestant Church. He saw it as his 25 job to liquidate the Confessing Church Olympic Village and it was then decided of National Socialism until the end. and to meet (or even go beyond) all not to. You can read this in Bethge’s Bonhoeffer’s superior in the leadership requests of the NSDAP in relation to biography. Marsh’s bibliography lists of the Confessing Church, Wilhelm matters concerning the church. As the American, English and German sources Niesel, was imprisoned nine times. historical context alluded to above is where all this is described correctly. That this type of dogged resistance missing from both books, the author was not enough in the face of the of this review could not gain a sense arsh’s statement that the atrocities that were being committed of Bonhoeffer’s life and his positioning MConfessing Church had a across Europe, is another issue. But it is during this period in his life. membership of 6,000 (p. 206) must wrong to separate Bonhoeffer from his be based on a misunderstanding. To friends and comrades, to put him on a Marsh even manages to place put this into perspective, the town of pedestal and make him ‘fit for America’ Bonhoeffer in the wrong camp, Siegen with its 60,000 inhabitants, in that way. Bonhoeffer was not “alone when he says: “The Reich Church’s to name just one German town as to preserve the convictions of the old withdrawal of Bonhoeffer’s authority an example, had more than 10,000 Confessing Church.” He was the only to teach . . . included Finkenwalde, members who carried the famous pastor who had the prerequisites to since the seminary remained under the membership card of the Confessing join the military resistance, and he was general auspices of the state church. Church. In 1938 a pastor was elected only able to do so because Hans von It was at this point that Bonhoeffer’s there, because he was a member of the Dohnanyi was his brother-in-law. supervision of training there became Confessing Church and not a German an illegal activity” (p. 252). The Reich Christian. There must half been more In the wide discussions prompted by Church never had anything to do with than a million members across the the publication of Marsh’s book in Finkenwalde, the seminary for training whole of Germany. Marsh says that the States, he is credited with having clergy, a seminary which had been all of these 6,000 members defected in carried out ‘extensive research’. founded by the Confessing Church. the end. “Bonhoeffer was left virtually Perhaps this is true for the chapter on Nor could any church withdraw alone to preserve the convictions of the Bonhoeffer’s nine months in America, Bonhoeffer’s ‘venia legendi’, his old Confessing Church” (p. 292). This but only there. The American reviews authority to teach. Only the Prussian statement is as unfounded as Marsh’s make only passing reference to the Minister for Culture could do that, as statements about the institution of findings of the research. Most of the an act of state. It was he who withdrew Bethel near Bielefeld. Marsh writes, space in the reviews is given over to Bonhoeffer’s venia legendi in 1936, “By the end of the decade the grounds, Marsh’s argument that Bonhoeffer was when the Minister for the Reich Church gardens and spacious interiors of the gay. The account seems a little strange had already declared all seminaries of Bethel Clinic had become an extension (p. 299f.). Bonhoeffer and his friend the Confessing Church illegal a year of Hitler’s T4 euthanasia program” (p. Eberhard Bethge slept in one room earlier. This was done in 1935, at the 433). On the contrary: Bethel was the in Marienburger Allee, Bonhoeffer’s insistence of the SS. only institution of its kind that did not parental home, and at other times by become part of this programme. Not a camp fire. They had a joint bank There is further confusion in connection one of its patients was murdered. account, etc. Bonhoeffer’s parents with the Olympiad. Marsh writes: “As noticed this, but ‘chose to ignore it’. part of a campaign to project an image Hundreds of pastors were imprisoned Marsh describes it in such a way that of openness and toleration, the Reich long before Bonhoeffer, some of a real relationship must be assumed. Church invited Bonhoeffer to preach them for a short time, others for Later on, he says that Bonhoeffer had in an enormous tent erected near the longer. Some of them were sent to hoped for more from Bethge than Olympic stadium and to give a half concentration camps. The majority of Bethge could or was prepared to give. hour lecture on the ‘inner life of the them are not mentioned by Marsh or The most interesting statements in this German Protestant Church since the Metaxas. There is a ghostly emptiness context are, firstly, that Bonhoeffer Reformation” (p. 250). No ‘Dahlemite’ around Bonhoeffer and Bethge in ‘died a virgin’, i.e., he was unable would have preached or given a lecture both biographies; there were actually to ever express his sexuality. The following an invitation of the Reich a large number of men and women second comes with the account of his Church. Bonhoeffer would certainly in the Confessing Church until the engagement to Maria von Wedemeyer, not have done so. On this occasion end of the Hitler era, who fought as which again contains mistakes. Marsh he spoke at an event organized by courageously or maybe even more writes, ‘Observing his son’s happiness the Confessing Church. Apparently it courageously than did Bonhoeffer, who with Eberhard for the previous seven had been considered within the Reich was hardly a household name then. years made it even more difficult to Church to invite him to a service in the They remained principled opponents comprehend, that this girl had become

26 the object of his son’s romantic that his book surpasses that of Bethge assumption that Bethge knew attachment’ (p. 335). One is keen to look in terms of writerly skill, but is has of Bonhoeffer’s secret passion. up the reference that will back up this become ‘A Life of Bonhoeffer’ that Marsh does not seem to know that statement, but it is not there. It is a case never existed in this form. A number of homosexuals in Germany were being of ‘assumptions about Karl’ being piled mistakes found in Marsh’s book have sent to concentration camps. The upon ‘assumptions about Dietrich’. The been referred to above. There are more, Gestapo would have taken great account of ‘Wedemeyer’s grandmother’ but I have deliberately concentrated on pleasure in incarcerating a man like is totally grotesque. (Marsh refers those that do most to distort the picture Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer would have to Bonhoeffer’s fiancée by surname of Bonhoeffer. been under constant strain, if this had only and deals with her almost as an been his sexual orientation. Bethge irritation). Ruth von Kleist-Retzow, s far as the hypothesis that is would have sensed something. There the grandmother, supposedly ‘could Acreating the most discussion in was never any suggestion of such not hide her displeasure. Had the the United States is concerned, we will tensions when Bethge talked about his flamboyant abbot of Finkenwalde . . . have to stay with Bethge’s accounts. time with Bonhoeffer. If even Bethge really asked for the hand of her teenage Bethge writes, ’During a large student did not know anything about those granddaughter in marriage?’ (p. 335) conference in snowy New Hampshire homosexual tendencies, then Marsh’s This grandmother, who had long been 1957/58, i.e., when the first edition of hypothesis is completely unfounded. an enthusiastic follower of Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison did not It does not contribute anything to the had been hoping for an attachment and yet reveal the names of those involved, theological or political debate about had done what she could to promote I was asked if anybody knew who the Bonhoeffer in any way. it. The expression ‘flamboyant abbot’ recipient of the letters was. It was felt is one example of the many instances that the correspondence must have Ferdinand Schlingensiepen is the author of of Marsh presenting Bonhoeffer as a been between homosexuals. Otherwise Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945 ‘dandy’. such an intensive correspondence was hardly imaginable. No, we were all Marsh and Metaxas have dragged quite ordinary. We know today that Bonhoeffer into cultural and political no same-sex friendship is without disputes that belong in a U.S. context. varying degrees of homoeroticism. The issues did not present themselves What happened with us was, simply, in the same way in Germany in that our friendship deepened early on, Bonhoeffer’s time, and the way they because Dietrich shared with me the are debated in Germany today differs pain it caused him to end a long-term greatly from that in the States. Metaxas relationship with a woman. I had come has focused on the fight between to the bitter end of an engagement right and left in the United States and myself at the time and confided in him. has made Bonhoeffer into a likeable Towards the end of our friendship we arch-conservative without theological both formed attachments to partners Editor Note: The photographs and figures insights and convictions of his own; who were both extremely lively. We in this issue are available in color in the Marsh concentrates on the conflict talked to each other throughout the electronic version of the newsletter. between the Conservatives and the gay war years about these developing rights’ movement. Both approaches are relationships and the accompanying equally misguided and are used to make trouble as men do, before anybody else Bonhoeffer interesting and relevant to knew about them. . . . Our love stories American society. Bonhoeffer does not were normal and full of all conceivable need this and it certainly distorts the intensity even though their expression facts. would seem prudish from today’s point of view. However, even then we already Years ago Charles Marsh described his had an understanding of the Song of Bonhoeffer biography project. This Solomon, which has been in the Bible reviewer remembers a passage about for 2000 years. (Christian Gremmels, him wanting to approach the topic in a Wolfgang Huber, ed., Theologie und more ‘writerly’ way than Bethge, using Freundschaft, 1994, p. 15f.) a talent for storytelling for which the Southern States are famous. It is true Marsh’s argument rests on the 27 Member Services (copy this page as needed) Membership ______I enclose my dues for 2015 ($30) or 2016 ($30) or 2015-2016 ($50) Send memberships dues to Rev. Mark E. Randall, 15917 NE Union Road, Unit #103, Ridgefield WA 98642

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