Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor who was martyred for his anti-Nazi stance and helped found the Confessing Church in the early 1930s. One of his most famous works is his book: 'The Cost of Discipleship' where in part 1 where he contrasts cheap and costly grace. Whilst the church of today may be slighly confused at these terms, the Lutheran church of his day defined such graces to be diametrically opposed to each other. To put it simply these were grace that could be demanded but yielded little to no fruit and the sort which Christ paid on the cross to provide and yielded much fruit. In the light of Nazi occupation of Germany and the Lutheran church of the day, this was one of the major issues facing the church and Dietrich was …show more content…
right to bring this to bear. In the following essay, events in the minster's life, Lutheran church teachings and the historical context will be brought to light to find out what prompted him to write such an edifying piece of Christian literature. To understand why Bonhoeffer opposed the then Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler from his rise in 1933 to his death in 1945 the teaching of the two kingdoms as taught by the reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin must be brought to light.
Essentially the doctrine of the two kingdoms teaches that on one hand God governs the world and the church whilst spreading the word of the gospel via means of preaching and evangelism. However, this does not conflict with the rule of the civil government who, despite not being men of God in many cases, are appointed by God to be in positions of civil leadership. The most famous passage quoted to support this doctrine can be found in the gospel of Luke: "Render to Caesar the …show more content…
things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's"[Luke 20:25] thereby establishing a discrete authority with Christ at one hand and human leaders on the other. Despite the strong Roman presence in first century Judea & Samara, Jesus made it clear that the Roman government, despite their ungodliness are appointed by God. What demonstrated to Bonhoeffer that he needed to act in opposition to Adolf Hitler from the very beginning was a recount where he stumbled on one of Luther's writings: Martin Luther nicknamed the Antichrist "Beowulf." When the Beowulf enters a village, he said, the peasants have the obligation to slay him; should they fail to do so, they will incur guilt. This is why Bonhoeffer participated in a plot to kill Hitler. ...But right now, reason dictates that we must do this, and then of course we still have to turn to God for forgiveness in Christ." Bonhoeffer added...'Sin boldly but even more boldly believe and rejoice in Christ.'" [1] In his understanding of the Lutheran understanding of the two kingdoms, Bonhoeffer believed that the earthly kingdom was unredeemed and that man could find the means to create their own world and then turn to Christ for forgiveness and guidance. In this case, Bonhoeffer saw Hitler as an enemy of the state from the very beginning mostly because of his anti-Semitism and even persecution of true Christians who sided with Bonhoeffer in opposition to the 'Deutches Christen'(German Christians), who supported Adolf Hitler and made a concerted effort to remove all Jewish foundations from the Christian faith. For example, the Gestapo(German secret police) banned Bonhoeffer from publishing after he published his work on the Psalms. It was Bonhoeffer's Lutheran upbringing that led him to see through the Nazi propaganda and forced him to act in opposition to the growing but steady German belief that Hitler possessed God-like abilities which legitimized his succession to Kaiser Wilhelm I who abdicated in favor of a democracy lacking in leadership and power. This led him to eventually write 'The Cost of Discipleship' in response to the contagious hypocrisy amongst those who bestowed on themselves the title of 'Christian'. One of the main issues which Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced was the issue of rising hypocrisy within the German people and their lack of fruit bearing from their supposed conversion to Christ. The following is a quote from Bonhoeffer himself regarding the nature of cheap grace as opposed to the Biblical teaching was: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.. grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”[2] Being a trained Lutheran minister, Bonhoeffer was quick to point out that such a view of grace rendered the sacraments meaningless and to be very direct, a Christless Christianity without the cross. In Stephen Plant's treatise of the exert, he offers his review on the matter:”costly grace is the gospel that costs everything. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace, because it justifies the sinner above all.”[3]This too is a very accurate view of the 'church' of Bonhoeffer's time which leaned towards what the world(state) called it to be in opposition to the two kingdoms doctrine described briefly thereby overlapping the responsibilities and ideologies of church and state. Furthermore, Bonhoeffer applied texts to the church of his own time such as Matthew 7:21-23 to point to fruit bearing as criteria he can use to judge a teacher and in saying so reflects: “By bearing fruit, the disciples show themselves ready to face God's final judgment.” Echoes of the second chapter of the letter chapter of James also appealed strongly to Bonhoeffer's convictions in his assessment of church leaders and what they have done for the church. During the establishment of the Confessing Church, the German Christian denomination was also established siding with the Nazis which inspired the publication of 'The Cost of Discipleship'. Another Bonhoeffer quote: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”[1] helps explain the context of the German Christian church not only because of their allegiance to Hitler but because of many of the church leaders' reluctance to take action against ' the manifestation of evil'. This leads back to the two kingdoms doctrine which is explicit in teaching that Christians should take action in the civil kingdom whenever the civil leaders hold too much power to the extent that the church is no longer allowed to be the church in calling and in example. Bonhoeffer's 'The Cost of Discipleship' was in a way prophetic in that he had long seen that the commands of Christ were being molded into the needs of the Third Reich instead of to the will of God. To add to Bonhoeffer's teaching of grace, John W.
De Gruchy also makes the following observation:”Costly grace is necessary because cheap grace endangers slavation. The church too often (as with some German Christians) yielded to …...ease the way of outsiders into the church while excluding them from discipleship.”[2]This is very true of the Germany of the 1930s as the German Christian denomination had departed the law of faith for an antinomian approach similar to the Lordship Salvation controversy faced in today's church. Bonhoeffer made it very explicit that there were hypocrites who were confessing faith but had lmiited to no fruit bearing as seen in James 2. Not only that, but those who are truly Christians were to opposed the movement publicly as Dietrich had done early in his ministry in rebuking Hitler on national radio or secretly as part of the Abwehr, but silence was a clear sign of a false Christian because that 'Christian' was not ready to carry out Christ's work and die for his sake. Bonhoeffer too rebuked the other extreme from discovering that: “Luther's discovery of costly grace involved a rejection of faith by works”[3] due to the works-righteousness system which revolved around a 'treadmill' involving baptism, penance, the eucharist and indulgences. At this point Bonhoeffer had narrowed down the doctrine of grace, the costly grace, to a gift from God to be accepted by faith alone which radically changed a believer's disposition to Christ and his gospel,
resulting in fruit bearing and a readiness to die for God's truth. This was to be his backbone from his youth to his doctorate on the church beyond ethnic boundaries to his execution weeks before the end of World War II. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer's works and some commentaries have been consulted, it can be concluded that after his visit to the United States and during his experiences in Germany, Lutheran beliefs such as in the two kingdoms doctrine or classic Protestant doctrines such as sola gratia contributed to the backbone in his argument for costly and an abandonment of cheap grace that seemed to be demanded by most but produced no change. The costly grace however was one which came from God, very expensive because Christ paid for it on the cross but was sufficient to save and for the believer to perservere through trials such as the Nazi takeover over Germany and Europe at one point.
In Martin Luther’s Freedom of a Christian Man, Luther describes what he believes should be the relationship between faith and good works in the life of Christian people. His beliefs became integral to the Protestant and Lutheran ideologies. The basis of Luther’s pamphlet was “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” (31) This central thought provides readers dialogue on what is truly a selfless, act and if these acts do in fact have an effect on one’s
N.T. Wright: During my first semester at Northwestern College, I was assigned the book, “The Challenge of Jesus” by N.T. Wright for one of my Biblical Studies courses. This book and every other book Tom Wright has written has dramatically impacted my Christian faith. Dr. Wright has not only defended the basic tenants of the Christian faith, but also has shown how an academically-minded pastor ought to love and care for his or her congregants. N.T. Wright was previously the Bishop of Durham and pastored some of the poorest in the United Kingdom. His pastoral ministry has helped shape his understanding of God’s kingdom-vision which he is diagramming within his magnum opus “Christian Origins and the Question of God”. This series has instructed myself and countless other pastors to be for God’s kingdom as we eagerly await Christ’s return. Additionally, I have had the privilege of meeting with N.T. Wright one-on-one on numerous occasions to discuss faith, the Church, and his research. I firmly believe Tom Wright is the greatest New Testament scholar of our generation and he is the primary reason why I feel called into ministry.
“Theology is not superior to the gospel. It exists to aid the preaching of salvation. Its business is to make the essential facts and principles of Christianity so simple and clear…that all who preach or teach the gospel…can draw on its stores and deliver a complete and unclouded Christian message. When the progress of humanity creates new tasks…or new problems…theology must connect these old fundamentals of our faith and make them Christian tasks and problems.” (WR 6)
It isn't as simple as saying that the church and state were connected or they weren't. For example, Henry VIII and Calvinism both utilized a strong church state connection, but Henry VIII used the church to empower the state, while Calvinism did the opposite. Some used the church and state relationship for gain of power and control, while for others it was truly what they believed was right. Church and state relationships are complex and deep. Each one was unique and added to the individual religion in its own
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4th 1906, as a son of a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Berlin. Throughout his early life he was an outstanding student, and when he finally reached the age of 25 he became a lecturer in systematic theology at the University Berlin. Something that is very striking is that when Hitler came to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer became a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis. He organized and for a shot amount of time he led the underground seminary of the Confessing Church. His book Life Together describes the life of the Christian community in that seminary, and his book The Cost Of Discipleship attacks what he calls "cheap grace," meaning that grace used as an excuse for moral laxity.
I sincerely hope my intentions in writing this message will not be misunderstood. Jesus was not a political figure, and I am not attempting to present Him in that manner. Nonetheless, the Bible does tell us that civil government is to be an instrument of God in bringing order to society (see Romans 13), and in order for it to accomplish this, it is important that it be modeled after the message and example of Jesus.
Martin Luther’s view on indulgences appears in many of his writings including Luther’s 95 Theses and The Statement of Grievances. Martin Luther believes that the Papacy should not have a role in collecting taxes, indulgences, or any ways of drawing income from the German nation. On number twenty-three in the Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Luther states “The brotherhoods, and for that matter, indulgences, letters of indulgences, and everything of that kind, should be snuffed out and brought to an end”. Martin Luther wants the German nation to get rid of indulgences since the indulgence sellings can harm the integrity of the church. Indulgences were not new to the German nation during the 16th century. Indulgences have been around for three centuries prior to 1520 even before Martin Luther’s Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation was published. With indulgences, the German nation pays for their sins to be forgiven. The church makes most of its profits from the public by selling these indulgences. In Carter Lindberg’s The European Reformation, Carter Lindberg states “An indulgence, then, drew on the treasure of the church to pay off the debt of the penitent sinner who would otherwise be obligated to pay off the penance by works of satisfaction either in life or in purgatory”. For example, in
...m what they lacked in the Catholic Church, the knowledge of what made them Christians. Just as the Word of God is a guide to mankind, Luther guided 16th century Germans to the true Christian path with his many revolutionary reforms.
To construct Saint Peters Basilica, Archbishop Albert borrowed money from the Fuggers (wealthy banking family). To pay for this loan Pope Leo X gave permission to Archbishop Albert to sell indulgences in Germany. An indulgence is a way to reconcile with God, by confessing your sins to a priest and perform a penance. By the later Middle Ages people believed that indulgence removed all their sins and ensured entry to heaven. The selling of indulgence troubled Luther, he thought people were ignorant to believe that they didn’t have to repent after they bought an indulgence.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a very great man. He did so much to help a race of people that he knew little about and that did nothing for him. He just did it because he knew it was the right thing. Also he did his best to over throw Hitler’s reign by joining different anti activist groups. Even though he did all this he still was a very educated man. He went to high-school and later went on to college. Later in his life he went back to that college to be a teacher there. He also did many other things like travel to the United States of America and become a Pasteur at a church in New York City.
Theocracy is a control with no separation between religion and state. Divine law regulates all aspects of individual relationships (Perry, 206). Under correct circumstances, theocracy could be the most superior form of government. However, in a world filled with sin, this form quickly collapses under man’s control. Only when God truly rules is a theocracy tolerable (Rev. 21:3).
Church and State were one of the same. They considered the gods to be the everyday rulers of their daily lives and depended on their priests and rulers to ensure that the gods were appeased and didn 't destroy the earth or extinguish the essential life sustaining Sun.
This idea of individual guilt was also present early on in Bonhoeffer’s career, which can be seen clearly in Discipleship where he writes, “Jesus’ call to discipleship makes the disciple into a single individual. Whether disciples want to or not, they have to make a decision; each has to decide alone. Each must follow alone.” It is in Ethics, however, that Bonhoeffer articulates the idea of the corporate guilt of the church for failing to embody Christ:
The Kingdom of God defined by the Israelites as a physical place here on earth. The Kingdom of God is also called the “Kingdom of Heaven.” It means God’s rule in the lives of His chosen people and His Creation. In the Old Testament, the people in God’s kingdom were the Israelites. In the New Testament and now, the people in God’s kingdom are those who believe in and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus comes again, then God’s kingdom will become visible to all people. The term “Kingdom” according to (Kingdom of God,2011) means the rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king; royal authority; sovereign power; rule; dominion; monarchy. It can also be used in the context of a divine kingdom, the term Kingdom appears 13 times in Matthews, 7 times in Luke and 2 times in John.
Luther com-posed his “95 thesis” when he went to the university lecturer in Wittenberg. He was able to translate the bible to German because he wanted the people to really understand what was inside of it. The way they would understand it is if they would read it for themselves. Luther makes two claims, the first one is that we should rely on scripture alone. The second is our salvation depends not at all on our works but on our faith alone, Luther is saying that we depend on the grace given to us by god. With this it has changed the way some of the people has practiced their faith. Luther was a formidable writer. The Lu-theran Church had to take on many forms, and their loving mercy of the Divine Being. What Luther is saying could give the congregations a new way to practice their faith. In one of the many thesis Martin Luther states, one sticks out to me the most. Thesis 62 Luther states “The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God”. This is very true to what he believed. That we are saved by grace and that is a key factor in the church. By the end of the Reformation, Lutheran-ism had become the state religion throughout much of