Dietrich Bonhoeffer is frequently misrepresented as a simple man: he saw the evil of Hitler, stood against him, and was killed for it. This picture is not entirely wrong, but it is certainly incomplete. One must only read Letters and Papers from Prison, the posthumously published collection of writings, to see the conflicted conscience behind this pastor’s actions (and inactions). The “letters and papers” are wonderful, and they include the pastor stretching his mind through short stories, theological essays, sermons, plays, and poems. Reading Letters and Papers is an incredible gift now in 2020 as it displays Bonhoeffer’s interior deliberations—his large, open mind that led him towards the actions for which he is most remembered. These interior deliberations are what we most commonly omit from the hagiographies that surround his witness. It was not Bonhoeffer’s certitude that served him best, but his lack of it.
I say that reading Letters and Papers is valuable for 2020 for various reasons, including but not limited to the Big Three (pandemic, racial injustice, election), but also the tone of speaking that we take when we discuss, well, anything in 2020. Online or in person, I see us projecting a kind of intellectual bravado that Bonhoeffer would most certainly find puzzling, if not wicked. All across the ideological spectrum, everyone seems quite certain of their own opinions: first, we all…
