A new movie has been released this week about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was killed by the Nazis for his involvement in a plot to kill Hitler.

Bonhoeffer’s fame has ballooned into a kind of mythology that has seen people of all stripes “claim” him as their own. But our guest for this episode says that if we only think of him as a “hero” for our cause, we may miss important pieces of Bonhoeffer’s complex life and thinking.

So, who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer and why does he still matter?

Meet our guest

Links

Special thanks to our season sponsor Zondervan Academic. Get discounts on MasterLectures video courses and exclusive samples of their books at zondervanacademic.com/undeceptions

A transcript of this episode is available here. Please note that due to software not all exchanges between guests will be completely accurate.

Extras

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: 4/2/1906 – 9/4/1945 

…and here he is enjoying some time away from writing groundbreaking theology

• You can find Bonhoeffers works here

Check out these links to what we discussed on the show

To Read

• There’s been a lot of chatter about the new film Bonhoeffer. Here’s Christianity Today’s review of it
• Make sure you get yourself a copy of Matthews’ new book here
• This article explains the significant penalties Germany had to pay after World War I – they only finished paying off their reparations 13 years ago!
• Here’s an in-depth explainer of the Abwher – and the resistance movement that emerged within it
• This article recounts the July 20 plot to kill Hitler – and what went wrong

To Watch

• Here’s a helpful video that explains what was happening within the church during Nazi rule, courtesy of our friends at the Centre for Public Christianity
• Here’s the clip from Valkyrie we played – with Tom Cruise playing an anti-Hitler German soldier
• The term ‘Bonhoeffer Moment’ has been bandied about a lot recently – including by this pastor in the lead-up to the US elections of 2024
• If you want to check out the trailer for the film Bonhoeffer yourself, here it is

To Listen

• Our episodes on The Reformation explore the distant influence of the cultural milieu in which Bonhoeffer found himself working. Check it out here.
• Our episode Christian Revolution with Tom Holland partly explores the anti-religious rhetoric Bonhoeffer railed against – here it is
• We cited historian Dr Robert Ericksen in this episode. Check out this talk he gave on the relationship between the church and the Nazi state during the holocaust. Warning – it is a grim listen
• Speaking of Tom Holland, over on his podcast The Rest Is History he and fellow historian Dominic Sandbrook have an excellent series on the rise of Nazism in 1920s and 1930s Germany – check out the first part of it here

… and finally

• Bonhoeffer had a lot to say about stupidity. Here’s a fun but solemn video that explores his ideas on the danger of “stupid people”