Bonhoeffer movie

[Helmut-WK]

I came across over that theme by a news on German TV.

And Wikipedia confirms that there is a movie about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and this movie seems to distort what Bonhoeffer said and did.

While the theological position of Bonhoeffer is complex (see the critical view, which (over-?) emphasizes the differences to evangelicals), his political stance is rather consistent:

• Bonhoeffer was anti-racist - he visited a black church in New York during is stay there. Much of what appeals to evangelicals about him seems to stems from the living faith he experienced there.
• He was concerned for social justice, i.e. in US-politics this would translate as a somewhat left-wing democrat.
• He was a pacifist and anti-militaristic.
• Therefore, he objected to Nazism from the very beginning.
• Only when he realized the amount of violence against Jews (which lead to the Holocaust), Bonhoeffer concluded it necessary to »not simply "bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam a spoke in the wheel itself«, became an assistance to a spy ring, and even advocated the assassination of Hitler (which failed on the 20th of July, 1944).

So if I try to imagine what Bonhoeffer would say today …
… I feel he would refuse to be sorted into the categories of evangelicalism or theological liberalism or Neo-orthodoxy, but would remain the enfant terrible which may be a bridge between them.
… he would certainly oppose to Trump
… but he would definitely not condone an attempt to kill Trump (unless Trump will show, in the future, much more similarities to Hitler as he already does).

When I recall what I heard (on TV) and read about the movie, it looks as if it distorts the character and political conviction of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

 

[Lukaris]

I definitely want to see this movie but the term “assassin” as part of his description seems a problem. His support of the plot against Hitler was surely solid but I believe he agonized over what had to be done all the same. Of his writings I have read: The Cost of Discipleship ( which I randomly noticed on a Salvation Army used book rack years ago having never heard of Pastor Bonhoeffer), Letters and Papers from Prison, Life Together & some collected pieces.

The pretty good biography by Eric Metaxis uses the words, “pastor, martyr, prophet, spy” to describe Dietrich Bonhoeffer. These words seem much more accurate, I think.