Posts Tagged Metaxas

A Bonhoeffer moment – Bill Leonard* – Baptistnewsglobal.com

Bill LeonardIs this “a Bonhoeffer moment” in American political, cultural and spiritual life? A lot of people, across the theological spectrum, seem to think as much, or at least find the question worth pursuing. A cursory Google search reveals varying views and contradictory interpretations linking Bonhoeffer’s courageous dissent against the Nazis with events and ideas fostered by, but not exclusive to, the Trump Kulturkampf.

German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a major force in the Confessing Church that offered resistance to National Socialism; he led in founding an alternative seminary; and worked diligently to protect and rescue Jews. Accused of plotting against Hitler, he was imprisoned in 1943, and executed two years later. In works such as The Cost of Discipleship and Ethics, his powerful ideas have impacted generations inside and beyond the church.

Liberals have long claimed Bonhoeffer, particularly his reflections on “religionless Christianity.” Harvard’s Harvey Cox opens the final chapter of his classic work, The Secular City (1965)by citing Bonhoeffer’s prison-essayed assertion that, “We are proceeding toward a time of no religion at all”; and his question: “How do we speak in a secular fashion of God?” Conservatives long interpreted Bonhoeffer’s denunciation of “cheap grace” as a rebuke of liberalism’s accommodation to culture at the expense of orthodoxy. (Not that conservatives haven’t pedaled a little cheap grace here and there.)

Recent references to “a Bonhoeffer moment” appeared with evangelical resistance to government legalization of same-sex marriage. Conservative commentator Larry Tomczak wrote in 2015: “And with what’s happening in America, we must get ready to take risks in standing for truth, especially as it relates to marriage. We are facing a ‘Dietrich Bonhoeffer Moment.’ You recall that he chose civil disobedience and disobeyed Nazi law that stated that protecting Jewish people was against the law. He was hung for his stand. He also said prior to his death, ‘Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.’”

In response, Rhodes College professor and Bonhoeffer specialist Stephen Haynes cautioned against pressing the Bonhoeffer model too far, implicitly advocating violence in a society where, unlike Hitler’s Germany, “free speech and open debate” remain intact. Haynes noted that while “advocates of traditional marriage” had freedom to express their opposition to the court ruling, their use of “hyperbolic slogans” should not suggest that the U.S. government was comparable to the one Bonhoeffer worked to destroy.

Last year’s presidential campaign and election results revived the question of a Bonhoeffer moment as dramatized in Eric Metaxas’ book, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (2010). The bestseller again brought Bonhoeffer into the evangelical sphere, made even more controversial by Metaxas’ strong endorsement of Donald Trump for president. He called the election “A Bonhoeffer Moment” for Americans, and urged defeat of “Hitlery Clinton.”

In a Huffington Post response, Professor Haynes observed that most Bonhoeffer scholars “do not respect Metaxas as an interpreter of Bonhoeffer and view his invocation of Bonhoeffer in support of Trump as an egregious misappropriation of the theologian’s legacy.” He concluded: “We have to make a careful case that thinking with Bonhoeffer during this fraught time in our political history means embracing our responsibility to those under threat, those who, like the Jewish victims of Nazism Bonhoeffer alluded to in Ethics, are the ‘weakest and most defenseless brothers of Jesus Christ.’”

To speak of a Bonhoeffer moment does not mean that the U.S. is in the midst of a Hitlerian assault on democracy. Nonetheless:

  • when mass murders occur in elementary schools, houses of worship, music festivals, night clubs, shopping malls, and parking lots;
  • when Neo-Nazis surround a church chanting “blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us”;
  • when courts find that voting law revisions have racist overtones;
  • and Christian leaders respond with contradictory visions of gospel, church and state;

then a Bonhoeffer moment may be at hand.

Bonhoeffer’s insights are worth revisiting when we feel “no ground under our feet,” a situation he describes in an essay written early in his imprisonment, now the first chapter of his Letters and Papers from Prison. In it, Bonhoeffer lists certain noble qualities by which religious people respond to evil, qualities that may become ineffectual when confronting wickedness masquerading as “light, charity, historical necessity, or social justice.”

  • Reasonable people” fail because “in their lack of vision they want to do justice to all sides, and so the conflicting forces wear them down with nothing achieved.”
  • Representatives of “moral fanaticism” (intensity) fail because they get “entangled in non-essentials” and fall “into the trap set by cleverer people.”
  • People of “conscience” fail because evil overwhelms them “in so many respectable and seductive disguises” that conscience becomes “nervous and vacillating.” They lie to themselves “in order to avoid despair.”
  • Those who “flee from public altercation into the sanctuary of private virtuousness” become numb or blind “to the injustice” around them.
  • At certain times, even these noble traits must be sacrificed, transcended by those who make their entire lives “an answer to the question and call of God.”

But it is Bonhoeffer’s description of “folly” as “a more dangerous enemy to good than evil” that seems eerily pertinent to our own historical moment. He writes: “Evil always carries the seeds of its own destruction, as it makes people, at the least, uncomfortable. Against folly we have no defense. Neither protests nor force can touch it; reasoning is no use; facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied; in fact he can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make him aggressive. A fool must therefore be treated more cautiously than a scoundrel; we shall never again try to convince a fool by reason, for it is both useless and dangerous.”

Before we send that message to the White House, we’d best email a copy to ourselves. It’s too long, and too true, to tweet. Gott segne.

*Both Dr. Bill Leonard and Eric Metaxas were speakers at the John A. Hamrick Lectures in Charleston, SC at First Baptist Church.

 

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Eric Metaxas Issues Challenge at Hamrick Lectures

Eric Metaxas Issues Challenge at Hamrick Lectureship

“Young people today need heroes, especially young men,” according to Eric Metaxas. The best selling biographer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce and the keynote speaker for the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast, said at the 18th Annual John A. Hamrick Lectureship at First Baptist Church of Charleston on January 27 and 28.. “These men changed the world of their day.”

“The importance of their lives to us today is what we can learn from them. William Wilberforce was born into a world of unbelievable debauchery. He took Christian principles which were celebrated by only those on the fringes of the society of his day and brought them into the center of society. His life was so changed by his acceptance of Jesus that he wanted to somehow give back. He truly believed that he was no better than any other person. He believed that whatever gifts God had given us were for us to help others. We are blessed so that we can bless others.”

“We who are Christian have not done a good job of telling our story. We have allowed the secular world to forget where the great principles of justice, liberty, charity and responsibility come from. These are Christian values. If we have been saved by Jesus, we are responsible for taking the message to the marketplace and we have not done it. Wilberforce believed that God called him to end the slave trade. We need to find out what God has called each of us to do and to get busy doing it. Each of us has a unique role to fill.” Dr. Patricia Williams Lessane, Executive Director of the Avery Research Center, introduced Metaxas on Sunday night and Dr. Malcolm Clark, retired history professor at the College of Charleston, introduced him on Monday. The Joy Club provided a Soup and Cornbread lunch for all attendees.

Both lectures were followed by question and answer sessions moderated by Rev. Joel Smith.. David Templeton was the soloist and Suzanne Jeter was the organist.

The lectures are a memorial to the life and work of Dr. John A. Hamrick, pastor of the church for 29 years, founder of First Baptist School and the founding president of what is now Charleston Southern University.

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Bret Lott to Introduce Bonhoeffer Author

            Bret Lott, the prize-winning novelist will introduce Eric Metaxas at both sessions of the Hamrick Lectureship. Eric Metaxas is the featured speaker at First Baptist Church of Charleston at 5p.m. on Sunday, January 15 and Monday morning January 16, at 10a.m. Both of his lectures followed by questions and answers will center on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The program will be in the church sanctuary and the public is encouraged to attend. There is no admission fee. Parking is at 48 Meeting Street across from the Richard Russell House. The author’s books will be available for purchase.

            “As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a pastor and author.  Eric Metaxas implores us to remember, “A man determined to do the will of God radically, courageously and joyfully – even to the point of death.”

             Metaxas is the author of two New York Times bestselling biographies, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace:  William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. This book became a movie.   Bonhoeffer has been named as the best Christian book of the year by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Metaxas received the Canterbury Medal, the Becket Fund’s highest honor in recognition of courage in defense of religious liberty.  

            The lectures celebrate the life and work of the late Dr. John A. Hamrick long time pastor of First Baptist Church and the founding president of what is now Charleston Southern University. Special music will be presented by David Templeton, minister of music and worship and Beverly Bradley, organist.  The author’s books will be available for purchase and signing.

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Bonhoeffer Author Metaxas at First Baptist Charleston

            Eric Metaxas is the featured speaker for the John A. Hamrick Lectureship at First Baptist Church of Charleston at 5p.m. on Sunday, January 15 and Monday morning January 16, at 10a.m. Both of his lectures followed by questions and answers will center on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The program will be in the church sanctuary and the public is encouraged to attend. There is no admission fee. Parking is at 48 Meeting Street across from the Richard Russell House. The author’s books will be available for purchase.

            “As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a pastor and author.  Eric Metaxas implores us to remember, “A man determined to do the will of God radically, courageously and joyfully – even to the point of death.”

             Metaxas is the author of two New York Times bestselling biographies, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace:  William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. This book became a movie.   Bonhoeffer has been named as the best Christian book of the year by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Metaxas received the Canterbury Medal, the Becket Fund’s highest honor in recognition of courage in defense of religious liberty.  

            The lectures celebrate the life and work of the late Dr. John A. Hamrick long time pastor of First Baptist Church and the founding president of what is now Charleston Southern University. Special music will be presented by David Templeton, minister of music and worship and Beverly Bradley, organist.

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