Why did 13 people make their way to my campus on a dreary February evening in 2020 for a new class I was teaching on a long-dead German theologian called Dietrich Bonhoeffer? We obviously shared an interest in Bonhoeffer’s life and teachings, but what really brought us out was an intuition that his legacy remains uniquely relevant to the cultural moment in which we’re living.
At the time, we assumed this meant that Bonhoeffer could help us to understand how faith communities both reflect and drive the deep divisions in American society that have opened up over the presidency of Donald Trump. But by the time the course ended in mid-March the question was a different one: does Bonhoeffer offer us any insights into how to live faithfully in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic?
Born the son of a prominent German psychiatrist in 1906, Bonhoeffer announced at age 13 that he would become a theologian. This shocked his family, who weren’t very religious and thought that the precocious youngster should follow his father and brothers into a more respected profession. Undeterred, Bonhoeffer continued on the path that eventually led to a dual vocation as pastor and theologian. He finished his Ph.D. in Berlin at age 21 and began lecturing there at 26. But from the beginning Bonhoeffer’s academic work had a practical dimension. His dissertation, for example, dealt with “the sociology of the church,” which he defined as “Christ existing as community.”
