letters and papers from prison, 3
look, the question is: does true spirituality consist of what we do -- externally acting in the name of the christ, or does it consist in what we think -- internally relating to the christ?
this is not a new question. is faith to be done or thought?
for the most part, my tradition comes down on the side of thinking. we are very much a "people of the book," which means we prize knowledge as the primary mark of spirituality, as in "wow, she really knows the bible!"
i am coming to the conclusion that this may be wrong-headed, and that in fact this part of our dna may have contributed to our current inaction and failure of nerve in the face of the post-modern/post-christian context.
bonhoeffer leaves little doubt where he comes down on this question, especially in his latter writings such as the letters and papers from prison. for him, religion asks, "how can I find a gracious god," but christians in a world come of age ask, "lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" (martin marty about bonhoeffer), or take what Heinz Zahmt wrote in a tribute ten years after Bonhoeffer's death in Flossenbürgy: "there have been martyrs who called the world to the church...bonhoeffer is a martyr who called the church to the world."
bonhoeffer himself said:
"she [the church] must tell men, whatever their calling, what it means to live in christ, to exist for others." (lpfp)
"The Christian, unlike the devotees of the salvation myths, does not need a last refuge in the eternal from earthly tasks and difficulties. But like Christ himself ("My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?") he must drink the earthly cup to the lees, and only in his doing that is the crucified and risen Lord with him, and he crucified and risen with Christ. This world must not be prematurely written off. In this the Old and New Testaments are at one. Myths of salvation arise from human experiences of the boundary situation. Christ takes hold of a man in the center of his life." (lpfp)
"In what way are we in a religionless and secular sense Christians, in what way are we the Ekklesia, "Those who are called forth," not conceiving of ourselves religiously as specially favoured, but as wholly belonging to the world? Then Christ is no longer an object of religion, but something quite different, in deed and in truth the Lord of the world." (lpfp)
"Is it not true to say that individualistic concern for personal salvation has almost completely left us all? Are we not really under the impression that there are more important things than bothering about such a matter? . . . Is there any concern in the Old Testament about saving one's soul at all? . . . It is not with the next world that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved and set subject to laws and atoned for and made new. What is above the world is, in the Gospel, intended to exist for this world. . . . "(lpfp)
letters and papers from prison #2
ok. so, let's continue thinking-through some of the ideas found in bonhoeffer's letters and papers from prison (LPFP), by quoting a seminal passage from a letter he wrote to his friend eberhard bethge on 16, july, 1944.
[i know it may be a temptation to skip this extended quote; please don't do so.]
"and we cannot be honest unless we recognize that we have to live in a world etsi deus non daretur [as if there is not god]. and this is just what we do recognize -- before god! god himself compels us to recognize it. so our coming of age leads us to a true recognition of the situation before god. god would have us know that we must live as men who manage our lives without him. the god who is with us is the god who forsakes us (mark 15:34). the god who lets us live in the world without a working hypothesis of god, is the god before whom we stand continually. before god and with god we live without god. god lets himself be pushed out of the world on to a cross. he is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us. Matt. 8:17 makes it quite clear thatchrist helps us, not by virtue of omnipotence, but by virtue of his weakness and suffering ." (LPFP, page 360-361)
there is much here. the language is dense and thick, and bonhoeffer's shortened life only gives us a weak and irregular pulse on his full thought.
having said that, let's unpack some ideas that flow from this paragraph:
* people in the world come of age get along quite well without the god-hypothesis...
* the god-hypothesis basically means that god is in control of the world, that god is the answer in morals, politics, or science. bonhoeffer thinks this must be discarded by
christians because it already has been discarded in the world come of age...
* since people have chosen to push the god-hypothesis out of the world, and god has allowed this to occur, people must now take full responsibility for the world. thecavalry is
not on the way...
* christians must now see that the way to god is the way of the cross -- the way of weakness and humility...
more on these ideas to come...
letters and papers from prison
receiving this letter reminded me of books containing letters written by famous people, several of which have had a deep influence on me. there's rainer maria rilke's letters to a young poet, christopher hitchens' letters to a young contrarian, and karl barth's, letters '61-'68.
but, by far the most influential book of letters has been letters and papers from prison, by dietrich bonhoeffer.
as biographical background: bonhoeffer was a lutheran
pastor and theologian during world war two. his
conscience led him to participate in the july 20,
1944 plot to assassinate adolf hitler. he was
subsequently arrested for this and was hanged on
april 9, 1945.
what is incredible is just how much influence he
continues to wield over portions of christianity in
the west, especially when we consider how his life
and thought was cut short. so, what i thought i would
do is lead us into an ongoing but occasional
conversation with and about bonhoeffer.
i begin with the account of bonhoeffer's death as
told by h. fischer-hullstrung:
"on
the morning of that day between five and six o'clock
the prisoners...were taken from their cells, and the
verdicts of the court martial read out to them.
through the half open door in one room of the huts i
saw pastor bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison
grab, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his
god. i was most deeply moved by the way this lovable
man prayed, so devout and so certain that god heard
his prayer. at the place of execution, he again said
a short prayer and then climbed the steps to the
gallows, brave and composed. his death ensued after a
few seconds. in the almost fifty years that I worked
as a doctor, i have hardly ever seen a man die so
entirely submissive to the will of
god."
(quote take from:
i knew dietrich bonhoeffer,
pg. 232)