Bonhoeffer, and Christian Nationalism

[Stephen3141]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/13/us/dietrich-bonhoeffer-white-christian-nationalism-debate-cec/index.html

"There will likely be more movies and books about Bonhoeffer. He is honored with a statue in London’s Westminster Abbey, where his likeness stands alongside other Christian martyrs such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. His life is a magnet that draws people from all sorts of religious and political backgrounds.

But there could be a dark twist to his story in the years ahead.

If Bonhoeffer’s example is used to justify more far-right Christian violence in America, that would be another tragedy — and a cruel irony that would stain the legacy of a man who gave up everything to confront a tyrant."

The article makes the good point that the Nazis fully embraced
"Christian Nationalism", yet Bonhoeffer rejected this dysfuntional
understanding of Christianity.

Christian Nationalism, is NOT what Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached.

 

[FireDragon76]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/13/us/dietrich-bonhoeffer-white-christian-nationalism-debate-cec/index.html

"There will likely be more movies and books about Bonhoeffer. He is honored with a statue in London’s Westminster Abbey, where his likeness stands alongside other Christian martyrs such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. His life is a magnet that draws people from all sorts of religious and political backgrounds.

But there could be a dark twist to his story in the years ahead.

If Bonhoeffer’s example is used to justify more far-right Christian violence in America, that would be another tragedy — and a cruel irony that would stain the legacy of a man who gave up everything to confront a tyrant."

The article makes the good point that the Nazis fully embraced
"Christian Nationalism", yet Bonhoeffer rejected this dysfuntional
understanding of Christianity.

Christian Nationalism, is NOT what Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached.

No, indeed it isn't.

Most American Evangelicals are ignorant of Bonhoeffer's theology or ethics. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran neo-orthodox pastor and theologian. Lutheranism has a deep and rich intellectual tradition that is frankly beyond the anti-intellectualism of most American Evangelicals. Lutherans aren't Baptists or Presbyterians with strange hymns and kneelers.

Bonhoeffer was also a theological modernist and Christian humanist, and took principled stands on issues related to social justice in general, owing to his theological emphasis upon God's hidden presence in the world of the oppressed and the marginalized. He was also anti-racist and had a generous spirit towards all people of goodwill, not just Christians, but also atheists and non-Christians. If he had lived, he planned to go to India and study at Gandhi's ashram.

He also had positive attitudes toward secularism, believing it represented the truth of the Theology of the Cross breaking into the world in a more profound way, that humanity had 'come of age', and must relate to God in new ways: for Bonhoeffer, like all Lutherans, life itself is sacramental, an opportunity for holy service, no matter how unreligious that life might be. He didn't want Christians to be afraid of secularism, but to see it as a radical call to discipleship without the childish comforts of pietism or religious platituteds, and onward to a maturity that embraces doubt, mystery, and the complexity of the human condition. He would be very much against any kind of "Christian nationalism", indeed, he would see it in very negative terms and would be very disappointed in anybody associating him with that movement.