Will the Real Bonhoeffer Please Stand Up?

Eric Metaxas' new biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been getting a good deal of attention since its release, and justly so. My review of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy appears in the current issue of The City. With minor criticisms, I judge the book to be "comprehensive and thorough, with a level of close examination that most other biographical works on Bonhoeffer have not achieved, and certainly not with this level of readability and accessibility."

As with so many things related to Bonhoeffer (see an instance here on Bonhoeffer and his view of abortion), there is in this case some disagreement with such an assessment coming from the ranks of the professional Bonhoeffer experts. Victoria Barnett, general editor of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition, says that Metaxas' book is "badly flawed." She points to his "evangelical" reading of Bonhoeffer, which in her view amounts to an ideological imposition: "Bonhoeffer’s theology, precisely because it was the theology of a devout, reflective, and faithful Christian, was far more complex than the narrow ideological confines to which Metaxas tries to restrict him."

As many have noted, in the years since Bonhoeffer's death there have been ongoing attempts to appropriate the Bonhoeffer legacy for a wide variety of purposes, from the patron saint of lesbian theology and forerunner of the 'death of God' theology to an adherent of Barthian 'orthodoxy' and evangelical martyr.

Bonhoeffer's story is a complex one, and his story is not identical with the history of the reception of his work in the English language (for more on this, see my review essay in Christian Scholar's Review, "Bonhoeffer in America," Summer 2008). In my view, Metaxas' book provides an important voice and corrective to the story as told by many other popular biographies. Metaxas' book is a complement, and not a replacement, for the longer and scholarly biography by Bonhoeffer's friend Eberhard Bethge (which appeared in updated and revised edition recently, a project overseen by Victoria Barnett).

That's not to say that Metaxas' book isn't lengthy. But if President George W. Bush can brave the 600 pages(!), then you can too.

Comments

[Alan]

why the gratuitous slam against former President Bush? Was that really necessary?

[Beth from TN]

It's not a slam. You should read the article linked.

[Jordan]

Beth is right. It's kind of a sardonic nod to the tired lede of the linked article, whose point of departure is...can you believe that GWB can read at all? Much less a 600 page book?! Bet you didn't know his wife was a librarian! No way!

[Hunter Baker]

I can only add that I read the book and found it to be highly informative. If anything, Metaxas might run the risk of making Bonhoeffer look more orthodox than he really was, but I'm not sure of that at all.

[dwbosch]

Jordan, how do you pronounce "Bonhoeffer" so I can ask for the book at the library? :-)

[Jordan]

Bon as in bon-bon, hoeff in Hasselhoff, and er as in, er, uh, um...

[noel]

I think Clifford Green's comments apt "I will not linger over the numerous factual errors, including problems with the German words sprinkled throughout the text (even the notorious names Buchenwald and Dachau are misspelled). I will not fret about the problems infecting the copious endnotes, especially the missing, incomplete and garbled sources. I will not dwell on the fact that a critical assessment of sources is absent. (Metaxas repeats the pious and probably self-serving statement of the Flossenbürg camp doctor about Bonhoeffer's death and the canard about Bonhoeffer's radio speech on the Führer being cut off as if he were a marked man from the beginning of Hitler's rule, when in fact he just went over the time limit.) One of the signs that the book was rushed through the press to appear on the 65th anniversary of Bonhoeffer's death is found in the news that Bonhoeffer crossed the Atlantic in the "hirty-three-ton ship" Columbus." Christian Century " Hijacking Bonhoeffer
Oct 05, 2010 by Clifford Green