Peteskibreen's Blog

Deitrich Bonhoeffer and Donald Trump

Last night I sat down after everyone was in bed and nonchantly started reading a new print edition copy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous pre World War 2 book when his execution by the Nazis made him “a saint” – “The Cost of Discipleship.” It was a go to book in the 1970’s for the radical disciplship movement in my little church world where “cheap grace” was almost a mortal sin and the call Bonhoeffer made was “a call to follow Chist was a call to come and die.” I bought my book after the 1970’s in a second hand book shop and it was printed by SCM, a leftist Christian student publishing company. I filled it with underlining, anotations and notes. A friend brought her boy friend around one night for dinner and I loaned him the book – for some reason he was interested. I shouldn’t have let it go as he confessed to losing it! There’s a lesson in that somewhere but maybe it was some kind of wake up. He bought me a replacement, one printed in 2023 by a conservative publishing mob in the USA , Touchstone Press. I decdied to read the new forward by a guy I had never heard of, Eric Metaxas. I had no idea who he was. But after the proverbial Wikipedia search I found that he is indeed a very conservative writer and radio host and a passionate supporter of the US President, Donald Trump!

By a coincidence a Facebook friend posted this today on his page and so our converstaion evolved as per below.

“Metaxas is a deeply unpleasant individual. I would definitely skip the forward and go straight to the text. Notably, the title of the book actually translates as simply: “Discipleship,” though I am unaware of who it was who decided that title was insufficient. Furthermore, Metaxas has, particularly in more recent times, completely distorted Bonhoeffer’s theology and message for the world.”

Thanks for this update and some clarification. The actual application of this is a daily stuggle. I am still recovering from this discovery and my on line search has found that Touchstone Press is a conservative press [ across protestant, catholic and orthodox ] and was once part of Simon and Schuster. My old copy of this book was lost by someone I loaned it to sadly as it was highlighted and had my anotations in it and was the copy printed by SCM.

Ah, that is a shame…His “Letters from Prison” – a collection of letters written to people while imprisoned – probably better represents his theology, at least as it developed towards the end if his life. “

The struggle to be as Bonhoeffer calls is a struggle. The reminder of the path to tread “to come and die” is a bit dark in the light of, say, Oscar Romero or Bobby Sands. Or even Jesus! There are a host of folks across religious strains and divides who say, the death of the self/selves is the path to life and liberation. That the Puritans didn’t know how best to know how to know if they were Christians except convertive piety, devotions and church attendance is indicative. And influential. And leads to such people as Metaxas writing fowards in books about being one who throws out “cheap grace” while espousing the wonder of the current president of the USA.

But who am I, to come and die,

to live a life for others?

Who am I to attempt to be

a signpost for the living?

The way of living

in the land of plenty

is poverty and death.

But then it seems

as if it is

impossible to find the door.

The only snare are weights and measures,

countless hoards that block the way.

The way is slim, slim and slimmer still

but not in monastries and stripes.

The way is solidarity,

incarnation

inconsequential endless love

and nothing more.

If only it was possible to be

while

blinded by the light

and a dark moon’s shadow.

Peter Breen