[Oe List ...] more on that Bonhoeffer movie

[Don Bushman]

NOTE: I replied to the wrong email-the above was intended for one person
only.



828-292-9696



On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 5:02 PM Don Bushman <onedonbushman at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you for reading my email. And even more for responding in your
> standard thoughtful manner.
> I don't know that you have to go to the movie, I anticipate you will find
> what you have already described--which rings true mostly to my experience.
>
> I am glad to know that Angel Productions has the slant you described. I
> like to know when the propaganda targets me.
>
> Peace
> Don
>
>
>
> 828-292-9696
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 4:31 PM W. J. via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> wrote:
>
>> I still haven't seen the movie, but a few of us have. Here's my response
>> to a private email from one colleague:
>> Marshall
>>
>> D**, I'm guessing from your description that the screenplay was not the
>> result of any in-depth study of Bonhoeffer's life or his theology.
>> I bet the screenwriter didn't even bother to read Eberhard Bethge's
>> biography.
>> What I think he did is to create a cartoon Bonhoeffer character by
>> superimposing the skeletal outline of Bonhoeffer's life onto a thriller
>> movie framework.
>> Leaving out the nuances and agonizing complexities of Bonhoeffer's
>> ethical dilemmas as a pacifist.
>> I'm not shocked that this cartoon version of Bonhoeffer has him wishing
>> to "tear down the institutional church."
>> I think the real Bonhoeffer's life was more profoundly nuanced than that
>> kind of statement. His *Life Together* and *The Cost of Discipleship* were
>> written while he supervised the underground seminary at Finkenwalde for
>> students who were preparing to serve the dissenting Confessing Church that
>> opposed the official German Church coalition that embraced Hitler.
>> His focus on a "religionless Christianity" is a rejection of the 'smells
>> and bells' and medieval belief system Luther inherited from Catholicism in
>> favor of a radical immersion in the secular life of the world.
>> And also a radical following of Jesus rather than middle class cultural
>> norms.
>> Something like the monastic life of seminary students at Finkenwalde. Or
>> maybe the O:E.
>> Although Bonhoeffer never abandoned his upper-class entitlement to a
>> rich, privileged life.
>> I believe that the real Dietrich was in love with his young student
>> Eberhard
>> <https://spiritualfriendship.org/2014/08/08/one-more-post-on-the-gay-bonhoeffer/>,
>> who was the beneficiary of his will.
>> Dietrich reluctantly became engaged to marry the much younger Maria Von
>> Wedemeyer only after her grandmother relentlessly pushed her on him and
>> only after Eberhard got engaged to Dietrich's niece Renate.
>> I don't get the sense that he was ever hot to make love with Maria.
>> Perhaps their experience of 'true love' was always from an emotional
>> distance, especially after Dietrich's arrest just three months after their
>> announcement. There were letters and supervised visits. That's all.
>> After both became engaged, Dietrich wrote to Eberhard, imagining that
>>
>> *Now, we can resume our partnership, and we can travel together in those
>> places where we found so much joy, and we can leave our wives back in
>> Germany, in Berlin, or some place.*
>>
>> In other words, they both acquired beards, and Dietrich longed to renew
>> and pursue their spiritual friendship as 'soul mates' or whatever they
>> decided to call it.
>> But Eberhard was never willing to venture below the belt (as far as we
>> can tell).
>> I'm not at all sure that Dietrich was ever willing to go there, much as
>> he may have longed to do just that. He wrote in prison that he would die a
>> virgin.
>> But since Eberhard's *whole life* was about Dietrich--especially as his
>> martyred mentor and forever lost lover--how *hard* is it to understand
>> the depth of his love in return?
>> At least that's *my* version of Bonhoeffer. Now I'll have to see the
>> damn movie!
>> Marshall
>>
>> Dietrich Bonhoeffer Was Flamingly Gay-- Deal With It
>> <https://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankschaeffer/2014/06/dietrich-bonhoeffer-was-flamingly-gay-deal-with-it/>
>> Links in the message (1)
>> One More Post on the “Gay” Bonhoeffer
>> <https://spiritualfriendship.org/2014/08/08/one-more-post-on-the-gay-bonhoeffer/>
>> Dietrich Bonhoeffer Was Flamingly Gay--...
>> <https://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankschaeffer/2014/06/dietrich-bonhoeffer-was-flamingly-gay-deal-with-it/>
>>
>>
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>
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