Bonhoeffer's faith involved "a radical obedience to God, a frame of mind widely viewed today with fear and loathing." There, within the posted book review, you have your answer about what Hitchens would say: he would react with fear (which he cannot acknowledge) and loathing (which he is eager to acknowledge in any conversation about faith in God). Hitchens--since you brought him up--is one of those tortured souls whose time in the limelight is disproportionate to his contributions to society. The fact that Hitchens continues to command attention (even from us) while someone like Bonhoeffer is forgotten by too many people speaks volumes about the malaise and dangers of our "brave new world."
Bonhoeffer in a letter from prison to his friend Eberhard Bethge, 30 April 1944:
'What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today. The time when people could be told everything by means of words, whether theological or pious, is over, and so is the time of inwardness and conscience—and that means the time of religion in general. We are moving towards a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious any more. Even those who honestly describe themselves as “religious” do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by “religious.”'
Further evidence of Bonhoeffer's importance, Lee. Whatever genuine religion may be, it never be the same old same old, though that is how it tends exoterically.
As it happens, Hitchens has spoken about Bonhoeffer, calling him a brave resister, who's "name should be impreishable" (see his debate about WWII bombing campaigns with AC Grayling "Among the Dead Cities", you can find it on Fora.tv or on CSPAN video archives.)
But the proper response to this is the one that Hitchens has given in writing and in public debate: why do we remember Bonhoeffer's name? because he was so exceptional among Christians. With a small precentage of exceptions, Christianity did not aquit itself well in the Nazi era. A large percentage of Nazi party members and soldiers were self-identified Christians, and many were confessing Catholics. Indeed, many of those who carried out the Holocaust continued to attend church throughout the period. The Church itself famously opened up its geneological records in town after town, so that the Nazi party could use the records to hunt down people who had only a small fraction of Jewish ancestery.
If the moral principles of Christianity were to resist horrific crimes like those carried out by the Nazis, it by and large failed. There were some good cases, the example of the resistance in the Netherlands comes to mind, but Christianity itself is implicated in the Holocaust. First with its general non-resistance to Nazism. Second with the huge number of Christians that were guilty of enthusiastic participation in the Holocaust. Third and most importantly, the antisemitism that is the invention of Christianity. The Christian churches (Catholic and Protestant) pumped out antisemitic ideology for hundreds of years in Europe, causing hundreds of pogroms agaisnt Jews, of which the Holocaust is the culmination.
K-Tron, your line of reasoning automatically negates itself as follows:
1) Non-resistance to Nazism. Q: How many British/Americans/Canadians/Russians were self-confessing Christians? A: Many. Therefore by your logic Christianity was a locus of resistance to Nazism.
2) Q: How many Christians were in the armies that discovered the death camps and put an end to the horrors? A: Many. Therefore by your logic Christianity was instrumental in ending the holocaust.
3) Anti-Semitism is not the invention of some monolithic and non-existent 'Christianity' but rather it is an idea developed by professing Christians, however nobody denies that it is a monstrous blot on the church's history.
Nazism borrowed this idea but it also blended it with 19th/20th century eugenics and ideas of racial superiority which were invented by 19th century scientists. Therefore by your logic Victorian scientists and George Bernard Shaw as inventors and propagators of these ideas are also responsible for the holocaust.
Edith Stein, Maximilien Kolb also died in the death camps. Those who plotted to kill Hitler were mostly Catholics. Lutheran Pastor Niemoeller was another resister. Who were the atheist heroes? I have no doubt there were such. But by definition heroes are exceptions.
Bonhoeffer's faith involved "a radical obedience to God, a frame of mind widely viewed today with fear and loathing." There, within the posted book review, you have your answer about what Hitchens would say: he would react with fear (which he cannot acknowledge) and loathing (which he is eager to acknowledge in any conversation about faith in God). Hitchens--since you brought him up--is one of those tortured souls whose time in the limelight is disproportionate to his contributions to society. The fact that Hitchens continues to command attention (even from us) while someone like Bonhoeffer is forgotten by too many people speaks volumes about the malaise and dangers of our "brave new world."
ReplyDeleteBonhoeffer will never be forgotten by me. The Cost of Discipleship is one of the most important books I have ever read.
ReplyDeleteBonhoeffer in a letter from prison to his friend Eberhard Bethge, 30 April 1944:
ReplyDelete'What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today. The time when people could be told everything by means of words, whether theological or pious, is over, and so is the time of inwardness and conscience—and that means the time of religion in general. We are moving towards a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious any more. Even those who honestly describe themselves as “religious” do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by “religious.”'
Further evidence of Bonhoeffer's importance, Lee. Whatever genuine religion may be, it never be the same old same old, though that is how it tends exoterically.
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, Hitchens has spoken about Bonhoeffer, calling him a brave resister, who's "name should be impreishable" (see his debate about WWII bombing campaigns with AC Grayling "Among the Dead Cities", you can find it on Fora.tv or on CSPAN video archives.)
ReplyDeleteBut the proper response to this is the one that Hitchens has given in writing and in public debate: why do we remember Bonhoeffer's name? because he was so exceptional among Christians. With a small precentage of exceptions, Christianity did not aquit itself well in the Nazi era. A large percentage of Nazi party members and soldiers were self-identified Christians, and many were confessing Catholics. Indeed, many of those who carried out the Holocaust continued to attend church throughout the period. The Church itself famously opened up its geneological records in town after town, so that the Nazi party could use the records to hunt down people who had only a small fraction of Jewish ancestery.
If the moral principles of Christianity were to resist horrific crimes like those carried out by the Nazis, it by and large failed. There were some good cases, the example of the resistance in the Netherlands comes to mind, but Christianity itself is implicated in the Holocaust.
First with its general non-resistance to Nazism. Second with the huge number of Christians that were guilty of enthusiastic participation in the Holocaust. Third and most importantly, the antisemitism that is the invention of Christianity. The Christian churches (Catholic and Protestant) pumped out antisemitic ideology for hundreds of years in Europe, causing hundreds of pogroms agaisnt Jews, of which the Holocaust is the culmination.
K-Tron, your line of reasoning automatically negates itself as follows:
ReplyDelete1) Non-resistance to Nazism. Q: How many British/Americans/Canadians/Russians were self-confessing Christians? A: Many. Therefore by your logic Christianity was a locus of resistance to Nazism.
2) Q: How many Christians were in the armies that discovered the death camps and put an end to the horrors? A: Many. Therefore by your logic Christianity was instrumental in ending the holocaust.
3) Anti-Semitism is not the invention of some monolithic and non-existent 'Christianity' but rather it is an idea developed by professing Christians, however nobody denies that it is a monstrous blot on the church's history.
Nazism borrowed this idea but it also blended it with 19th/20th century eugenics and ideas of racial superiority which were invented by 19th century scientists. Therefore by your logic Victorian scientists and George Bernard Shaw as inventors and propagators of these ideas are also responsible for the holocaust.
We are all guilty. And all heroes.
Awesome.
Edith Stein, Maximilien Kolb also died in the death camps. Those who plotted to kill Hitler were mostly Catholics. Lutheran Pastor Niemoeller was another resister. Who were the atheist heroes? I have no doubt there were such. But by definition heroes are exceptions.
ReplyDelete