Happy almost New Years Eve!!! Here on Flipping Tables we are going to end each year with an inspirational story. So here's one of my heroes.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident whose life continues to challenge how faith responds to power, violence, and injustice. Raised in an intellectually rigorous, non-religious household, Bonhoeffer came to believe that Christianity was not merely a system of beliefs, but a call to costly, lived obedience—especially when moral clarity comes at personal risk.

As Adolf Hitler rose to power, Bonhoeffer warned early that the church faced a defining test. When Christianity was fused with nationalism and racial ideology, he argued, the church had ceased to be the church. He became a key figure in the Confessing Church, opposing the Nazification of German Christianity and rejecting loyalty oaths to the Führer. His theological writings during this period—including reflections on “cheap grace” versus “costly grace”—confronted complacent faith that avoids sacrifice.

Eventually drawn into resistance circles connected to the German military intelligence service, Bonhoeffer wrestled deeply with ethical responsibility in a world where evil left no clean choices. Arrested in 1943, he continued writing from prison, leaving behind letters and reflections that would later shape modern Christian ethics and political theology. Executed by the Nazis in April 1945, just weeks before the war’s end, Bonhoeffer’s life stands as a haunting reminder: faith that refuses to act in the face of injustice is no faith at all.

Sources:

Bethge, Eberhard. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography. Fortress Press.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Act and Being. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 2. Fortress Press.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters and Papers from Prison. Fortress Press.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Sanctorum Communio. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 1. Fortress Press.
Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives).
Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) – Bonhoeffer family records.
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education), Germany.
Cambridge University Press. The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. John W. de Gruchy, ed.
Chickering, Roger. Imperial Germany and the Great War. Cambridge University Press.
Christian History Institute. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Timeline & Biography.”
Clark, Christopher. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914. Harper.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (DBWE), English Edition, Vols. 1–3. Fortress Press.
Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich. Penguin.
Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich at War. Penguin.
Fischer, Fritz. Germany’s Aims in the First World War. W. W. Norton.
Fulbrook, Mary. A History of Germany 1918–2014. Wiley-Blackwell.
German Reichstag Records, 1918–1923.
Green, Clifford J. Bonhoeffer: A Theology of Sociality. Eerdmans.
Herwig, Holger H. The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary. Arnold.
Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Empire: 1875–1914. Vintage.
Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. Penguin.
Keegan, John. The First World War. Vintage.
Keynes, John Maynard. The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Harcourt.
MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. Random House.
Marks, Sally. The Illusion of Peace: International Relations in Europe 1918–1933. Palgrave.
Marsh, Charles. Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Knopf.
Metaxas, Eric. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Thomas Nelson.
National Archives (UK). World War I diplomatic records.
Overy, Richard. The Dictators. W. W. Norton.
PBS. Bonhoeffer Timeline.
Peukert, Detlev. The Weimar Republic. Hill and Wang.
Stevenson, David. Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy. Basic Books.
Strachan, Hew. The First World War. Oxford University Press.
Treaty of Versailles (1919), full text.
Union Theological Seminary Archives – Bonhoeffer Papers.

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