I'm currently reading "Letters and Papers From Prison" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A man I've always found interesting. Why I admire him so much is that he has such a great intellect, but also so spiritual, which is unusual to find.Bonhoeffer was a religious genius, but also a German nationalist. Instead of fleeing Nazi Germany he returned to Germany from New York (where he had been attending Union Theological Seminary) in 1939 intending to join the German army as a Chaplin. (I think this shows his naivete about Nazism.) Instead of accepting him into the Army, the Germans put him in prison. At first, he thought all of this just a big bureaucratic mistake, and that he would be released as soon as he could convince them of their mistake. Bonhoeffer also came from an illustrious family. His father was a psychiatrist, a professor, a writer with much social standing.
One brilliant letter in the book, where he argues his case to the authorities, he signed it "Hiel Hitler." Bonhoeffer is famous for being anti-Nazi, but he sure wasn't in the beginning. I'm sure many of its philosophical ideas he accepted. His main crime was that being religious, he put God before German politics, but no one can deny how much he loved Germany. However, even in prison, if they would have let him out, he would still have joined the army, and his best friends were in the German army. It's like an American can be a deeply religious and philosophical person, but still be a Capitalist or a Republican, politically. I think the same was with Bonhoeffer, except he was a Nazi, but that fact doesn't seem to be politically correct to accept. I think because no one can reconcile his religion and philosophy with his politics.
"He Who Believes Does Not Flee." Said Bonhoeffer. But, I wonder if he would have said that if he had been Jewish. Hermann Hesse fled Nazi Germany to Switzerland. Thomas Mann and Bertold Brecht fled to Los Angeles, not to mention thousands more who would only been killed if they had stayed in Germany. Does that make them cowards or lesser people? On the other hand, Socrates did not flee when he could have. I don't know about Jesus if he could have fled before his crucifixion or not. If Bonhoeffer had stayed in America and not have gone back to Germany in 1939, we probably would never have heard of him now. Doing that gave him martyrdom, the same as it did Socrates. (Actually, I guess it was Plato who gave Socrates martyrdom.) Gandhi returned to India and did not flee ever again. Not fleeing may be the very highest level of faith.
I've met people during my whole, long life, who say they believe in God, but I can't see it demonstrated by any of their thoughts or actions. For me, "believing" means being fearless, especially of people, but certainly not of God. Fearing God, a concept that runs through the Bible, means knowing that one will be punished if they sin. People who continue to sin, even though they know intellectually that their sin will be punished, are emotionally stupid in my opinion, but they will say to themselves and everyone else: "I'm only human." Saying that one is "only human," is making excuses for oneself it seems to me.
[There's a very funny short story, I believe by S.J. Perelman, in which the main character keeps doing terrible things, and as his comeback he continually says "Well, I'm only human." These days, I hear people, mostly disturbed women housewives on TV, who demand "Don't judge me," every time they reveal something unpleasant about themselves. That phase has overtaken "Well, I'm only human." Also, I've met people who do whatever they want in the sinning field, who in their defense like to quote the famous line form St. Augustine, which to paraphrase, was about God save me from sin, but not quite yet." Frankly, when I sin, I'm overcome with guilt and remorse, which I'm not sure is the right response either. If I were a Catholic, I'd probably go to Confession, but since I'm not a Catholic, I confess in prayer and ask God to help me to act differently, but even so I have a very hard time dealing with it.]
Bonhoeffer used his prison time to read extensively. Some of his ideas, I find worrisome. He thought Rilke "unhealthy." He read "The Imitation of Christ," my favorite book ever, which I've contemplated for years, but he doesn't say anything about it other than he read it. He thought that some subjects were so personal and intimate that they should never be talked about, i.e., sex. Perhaps he couldn't talk about sex, therefore, he came up with a philosophical explanation of why it shouldn't be talked about. But, who cares. That really isn't what he was about or about his contribution. In the beginning of his 2 years in prison, his letters show how he expected to be released from prison at any time, but then they progress to the point where he accepts that he might die there.
These letters are full of spiritual insights mostly from his reading. Politics is never mentioned, but that was probably because the letters, coming and going, all went through the prison censor. In a way, the prison censor served the purpose of an editor. He probably knew the kind of thing that would be censored, so he automatically didn't put it in his letters. It would be ironic that if the prison censor took everything out of his letters that in the future would not give us such a heightened opinion of Bonhoeffer.
After 2 years in 3 different prisons, Bonhoeffer was hanged (one week before the German surrender) for ostensibly taking part in the plot to assassinate Hitler. It's hard to imagine how he could have been part of any conspiracy when he was isolated in a prison cell and all mail read and censored by the authorities, and not visitors allowed in the last prison he was in. He had much compassion for the people who worked in the prisons as well as the inmates, but he detested the inmates who were cry babies and weak. One of his fellow inmates, with whom he had become close friends, mentioned "The Jewish problem." Bonhoeffer detested him after that and didn't have anything more to do with him.
In his letters he never mentions anything about his stay in New York at Union Seminary, and doesn't seemed to have made any friends there. I think his heart was always with his family and friends in Germany, the same as Gandhi's heart was always with his family and friends in India, although he traveled to many different lands.
While in Prison, he worked on a book he called "Ethics" which I hope to read one day.