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

[Richard Alton]

Marshal. go see the money and lead an ORID conversation with your
community.. will surprise you.
Dick

On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 5:31 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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-- 
Richard H. T. Alton
ICA Global Fund
The Last Chapter
United Methodist Net Zero
T: 773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com
Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
Won't you be my neighbor?
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