Comments on: Will the Real Bonhoeffer Please Stand Up? Part 1

By: Alberto

Alberto — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 02:19:21 +0000

I remember a few years back reading an article in Christian Century which criticized the book by Metaxas. It was written by Clifford Green, a man who seems to know what he’s talking about when it comes to Bonhoeffer.

Just search in Christian Century or do a web search for Clifford Green or “Hijacking Bonhoeffer” and you’ll find the article.

By: Blake Reas

Blake Reas — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:44:11 +0000

Is piety contrary to having a view of scripture that is in some sense deficient? I would agree that Bonhoeffer’s view of scripture is less than satisfactory, but it seems to me that a person can believe that much of scripture is true, but not inerrant, and still be in some sense conservative when it comes to their personal faith and even many theological positions. I think of someone like F.F. Bruce or Adolf Schlatter. Neither man, as far as I know, held to inerrancy, but their view of scripture was still conservative. Does that in some way devalue the true things Bonhoeffer said (or these other writers)? I guess for me the question arises: Could Bonhoeffer be as liberal as a Von Harnack or a Bultmann and still say some of the things that he says about following Christ? I have read a few of Bultmann’s works and I never get a sense of piety from him, nor for that matter from what little of Von Harnack I have read.

In Christ,
Blake

By: Benjamin P. Glaser

Benjamin P. Glaser — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 01:27:22 +0000

Thanks for pointing out the deficiencies of the Metaxas biography. In reading that book I always got the feeling that Metaxas was writing about the Bonhoeffer he wished existed, the Bonhoeffer who would fit in well at Baylor or a “evangelical” think-tank in D.C. rather than the historical Bonhoeffer who would be teaching at Fuller or Pittsburgh Theo Sem.

By: Baus

Baus — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 14:43:47 +0000

Not to steal your thunder, but this just seems to be unmysterious run-of-the-mill neo-orthodoxy (or later theological liberalism). It uses “traditional” historic Christian and biblical language, but doesn’t actually mean it. It’s all a cypher.