Film Essay

Bonhoeffer
"Sermon on the Mount" Man

by Rose Pacatte, FSP

Almost 100 years ago a man was born in Germany whose life would influence Christianity, ecumenism and even popular culture (e.g. his theology woven into an episode of Judging Amy in 2001) profoundly. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He became a Lutheran pastor and in 1945 he was executed by the Nazis for his role in the assassination attempts on Hitler.

Now a new feature-length documentary entitled Bonhoeffer has been produced and is slated to open in the Los Angeles area on October 10. Although other versions of Bonhoeffer's life have been done, this film is certain to inspire audiences to consider again the cost of their own Christian discipleship and what grace means to them in their daily lives.

Theology for Peace

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Germany in 1906, the sixth child of eight, and the youngest son. The family was Lutheran but they only went to church occasionally. When Germany went to war in 1914 to fight the "encircling enemies of Germany and culture," his older brother, Walter signed up and was killed two weeks later. This, as well as the national disillusionment with Germany's churches because they had sided with the choice to make war, had a profound effect on Dietrich. He realized how wrong it was to make pre-emptive war. When it came time to begin university he decided to study theology and pacifism as the ways to solve the problems in society.

Christ in the Community

His doctoral dissertation was about the church as community and he titled it Sanctorum Communio - the communion of saints. Bonhoeffer wrote, "Christ is really only present in the community. The church is the presence of Christ just as Christ is the presence of God." He expressed his faith and understanding about Christ in what we would call today a "theology of communication" because he held that "God expects us to be in relationship to others if we are to be fully human." To Bonhoeffer, a new community meant a new humanity and within this community is the church.

Christianity and Social Consciousness

In 1930, Bonhoeffer went to New York for a year to teach theology at the Union Theological Seminary. There he sometimes worshipped at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. He would listen to Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. preach about the political and social engagement of the church in order that human and civil rights would be a reality especially for American blacks. Bonhoeffer wrote home, "The black Christ is preached with rapturous passion and vision" as compared to the didactic sermons of his own country. He was also influenced by the Protestant cultural theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Bonhoeffer soon came to the conclusion that social consciousness and the Christianity of real, everyday life had to be integrated in order to be "church" in the modern world.

The Sermon on the Mount

Bonhoeffer came to understand Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and 6 and Luke 6) as a call to discipleship characterized by a person's ongoing free response to Christ and social responsibility. The Sermon on the Mount, according to Bonhoeffer, had become an excuse for his co-believers not to act. Why? Because the practice of the Beatitudes equaled perfection and perfection was impossible to attain.

Bonhoeffer saw that this stance created, in practice, a dichotomy between the religious life of the people and political life. To counter this, he consistently taught - and lived - a theology of the incarnation - that the church is the world and the world is the church and that "for the sake of real people the church must be thoroughly worldly.. Real secularity consists in the church being able to renounce all privileges and all property but never Christ's Word and the forgiveness of sins. With Christ and the forgiveness of sins to fall back on, the church is free to give up everything else."

In 1931, Bonhoeffer returned to Germany and took up teaching and writing, became involved in the international ecumenical movement, and helped found the "confessing church" seminary that trained pastors in a new kind of "monasticism" or lived Christianity that was accessible to all. He was also one of the first members of any church to speak out publicly against the Third Reich as early as 1933.

Ethics

The "Jewish question" would come to weigh heavily upon him. Faith and real life in Germany had to be integrated, because, as Bonhoeffer used to say, "it is not only my task to look after the victims of madmen who drive a motorcar down a crowded street, but to do all in my power to stop their driving at all." The believer, therefore, is called to live the Beatitudes in action and in relation to others in order to be blessed. There was no beatitude for a Christian without action in the world. This was the source of his ethics and his morality: to promote human dignity and social justice in solidarity with all people in the name of Christ.

A contemporary parallel to Bonhoeffer would be Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated in 1980 in El Salvador. His understanding of how to live the Beatitudes came later in life than Bonhoeffer, whose social consciousness matured at an earlier age. However, once Romero began to see, listen and live the reality of the government's persecution of the poor, his radical Gospel teaching and leadership led to his martyrdom - a Gospel consequence that Bonhoeffer amply describes in his writings.

Martyrdom

Although Bonhoeffer never preached or taught resistance explicitly, ethical questions about how a Christian ought to act when governments like the Nazi's had changed all the rules were with him always. He lived in continual discernment and when he decided to act, he made his first contacts with members of the Hitler resistance. It was 1938. Because he could travel abroad, he worked as a double agent, especially by passing information. Through his church contacts he endeavored to spur the British and other foreign governments to take action against Hitler - to no avail. Bonhoeffer went further when he became part of the group that planned to assassinate Hitler. On April 5, 1943, the day after the failure of the second attempt to assassinate the Fuehrer, Bonhoeffer was arrested along with other family members who were part of the conspiracy. He led an exemplary life in prison and was executed on April 9, 1945, just days before the liberation.

The Film

Bonhoeffer is a well-crafted and thought-provoking documentary that tells an inspiring story for all seasons. It is an authentic contribution to the study of Christian holiness, history and ecumenism. Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier has taken great care to include historical photographs, footage and interviews. Two of Bonhoeffer's nieces, and some of his students provide an authentic voice to the narration. Also featured is his close friend, Eberhard Bethge (1909 - 2002) who among other works, pieced together Bonhoeffer's writings to publish his Ethics in 1949.

What impressed me the most about the film is its ecumenical spirit and how well it merges Bonhoeffer's biography with his moral development and that of his Lutheran faith with the historical moment in which he lived. The film also makes abundantly clear how the religious temperature and the social situations of Bonhoeffer's times provided a context for the German people, the churches and the nation to identify religion with patriotism - to devastating effect.

Bonhoeffer opens October 10, 2003 at Laemmle's Music Hall 3, 9036 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills and Fallbrook 7, 6731 Fallbrook Avenue in West Hills on Friday, October 10th.

"The life of the Church must be linked with the life of the people." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Also playing

Luther

A new feature film that traces Luther's spiritual and theological odyssey. The film gives a clear dramatic presentation of the personalities and issues that gave rise to the Protestant Reformation in Germany almost 500 years ago. Stars Joseph Fiennes, Sir Peter Ustinov and Alfred Molina.

For further reading:

• The Wisdom and Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer - texts by Bonhoeffer and meditations by Wayne Whitson Floyd, Fortress Press, 2000

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Writings Selected with an Introduction by Robert Coles, Orbis Books, 1998

• The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Touchstone (Simon and Schuster), 1959, 1995

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Testament to Freedom, (the essential writings) Edited by Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson, Harper, 1990, 1995

Available from Pauline Books & Media, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230, 310-397-8676

WHO AM I?

Who am I? They often tell me
I would step from my cell's confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They also tell me
I would talk to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I would bear the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself,
restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,
yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer