jonathan foster

In the new episode of The Rise of Bonhoeffer, we explore how Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrestled with the Nazificiation of the church and its accommodation to a rising Christian nationalism. One of the most provocative moments in his story was in February of 1934, when the German Church Foreign Office sent Bishop Theodor Heckel to London, England, to reign in his resistance. Bonhoeffer walked out of the meeting and was then labeled an enemy of the state and prohibited from saying anything short of unconditional support for the Nazi regime. A few weeks later, he responded robustly when reflecting on Paul’s admonition that "strength is made perfect in weakness." "Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its apologia for the weak – I feel that Christianity is rather doing too little in showing these points than doing too much. Christianity has adjusted itself much too easily to the worship of power. It should give much more offense, more shock to the world, than it is doing. Christianity should take a much more definite stand for the weak than consider the potential moral right of the strong.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer trippfuller.com/2024/11/11/s…