Since my college years, I've wondered, "How was it that Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to take his stand against Nazism? What was it that set him apart from so many of his fellow clergy in that regard? Where did the discernment and the gumption come from?"
While not claiming any expertise, I'm happy to share what has emerged in answer to those questions as I have learned more about him. Simply put: I think it was the Moravians!
Moravian Influences Growing Up
As it turns out, Dietrich - with his twin Sabine, the youngest of nine children - grew up with two devout Christian nannies that been trained in the Moravian community of Herrnhut. The children's mother Paula had spent time at Herrnhut as well. It is hard to imagine Dietrich NOT observing and learning the Moravian spiritual discipline of Bible Meditation using the Losungen - "WatchWords."
With a history of over 200 years by Dietrich's time, the "Daily Texts" are gathered and assigned each year by Moravian leadership and then published to their churches, communities and missions worldwide as a resource for consciously placing their lives in the context of God’s Word each day.
CLICK HERE to learn more from the Moravian website about the history of the Moravian Losungen and HERE for direction and access to them for your own practice.
Taken Into Seminary Curriculum at Finkenwalde
Years later, in 1935, when Bonhoeffer gathered students at Finkenwalde for the underground seminary of the Confessing Church movement, the Losungen became central to their training - more central it seems than the usual disciplines of theological reflection and biblical exegesis. Training there was structured more like a monastery - communal life and spiritual disciplines - than an academic seminary of the time.
One student wrote about their morning routine. After breakfast . . .
came half an hour of meditation. Then everybody went to his room and thought about the Scripture until he knew what it meant for him today, on that day. During this time there had to be absolute quiet; the telephone couldn’t ring, nobody could walk around. We were supposed to concentrate completely on whatever it was that God had to say to us. (Metaxas. Bonhoeffer, 268)
CLICK HERE to learn more about life and training at Finkenwalde.
A Call To Return
The Finkenwalde seminary was disbanded by the Gestapo in 1937 and Bonhoeffer eventually found his way to New York City and a faculty position. But his practice of Bible meditation with the Losungen continued.
The Losungen for the day on June 26, 1939 was from 2 Timothy 4:21 "Do your best to come before winter." Exegetically, this verse is Paul asking Timothy to travel and join him where he was imprisoned, making the trip before the hard weather of winter delayed travel.
But as Bonhoeffer meditated and prayed on the text in his regular practice, he began to hear more clearly a call from Jesus to return to Germany as a pastor of the Gospel for the coming storm. Two weeks after his arrival in the city, Bonhoeffer would turn around and take passage on what we now know to be the last vessel to leave New York and arrive in Germany until after World War II. He would say to his friend in New York, Reinhold Niebuhr, “I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.”
Looking back on this decisive moment and the Losungen, Bonhoeffer would write: "It is not a misuse of Scripture if I let that be said to me."
A Final Reflection
Michael Hayes offers wise perspective on Bonhoeffer and his practice of meditation on the Losungen.
Such meditation on Scripture, listening for the voice of the living Spirit, is dangerous. It allows a great deal of room for us to claim to have found anything we like in a Bible verse. And many, many people over the centuries have abused Scripture in this way. But Dietrich Bonhoeffer was very familiar with the broad sweep and intent of the Bible and was a meticulous student of the Book. He had therefore a spiritual and biblical foundation which protected him from merely mistaking his own inner voice for that of the Spirit.
CLICK HERE for the entire post. It is well worth your time.
My Sheep Listen To My Voice - John 10:27
I think it is this thread - Bible meditation learned from Moravian influences and the Losungen, brought by him to seminary curriculum and directing him at decisive moments - that shapes and directs Bonhoeffer to stand apart from the crowd in his moment. It is immersion in God's written word and reflection on it with a community of faith, but it is also more than just those things alone: it is learning to listen for and to the Voice of the Good Shepherd.
Nothing is at any time to be added to the Bible, either from new revelations of the Spirit or from traditions of men. Nevertheless we do recognize that the inward illumination of the Spirit of God is necessary for a saving understanding of the things which are revealed in the word. (WCF 1:6)
