“Seldom has a generation been as uninterested as ours in any kind of ethical theory or program…this does not come from any ethical indifference in our times, but rather the reverse, from the pressure of a reality filled with concrete, ethical problems such as we have never had before in the history of the West…Today we have villains and saints against, in fully public view. The gray on gray of a sultry, rainy day has turned into the black cloud and bright lightning flash of a thunderstorm. The contours are sharply drawn. Reality is laid bare. Shakespeare’s characters are among us. The villain and the saint have little or nothing to do with ethical programs. They arise from primeval depths, and with their appearance tear open the demonic and divine abyss out of which they come, allowing us brief glimpses of their suspected secrets…” Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, 1943.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer-the pastor who tried to kill Hitler
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a legendary figure in Christian circles. Born in 1906, Bonhoeffer was one of only a very few German Christians who dared to speak out against the Nazi regime. Despite his pacifist leanings, Bonhoeffer eventually took part in a secret conspiracy to kill Hitler and install a new government. The conspiracy failed, and Bonhoeffer was sent to a concentration camp and hung for treason at just 39 years of age. Perhaps because of his prophetic voice, his writings, including The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together, have been global bestsellers for decades. [In recent years, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been a lodestar for American conservatives eager to see themselves as Bonhoeffer-esque culture fighters warring against what they see as the tyranny of American liberalism. Eric Metaxas, a die-hard Trump supporter and notable evangelical who recently was caught on video sucker-punching an unarmed protester, wrote a biography about Bonhoeffer that further lionized him (despite being rife with historical inaccuracies).]
Growing up as a young evangelical, I also loved Bonhoeffer’s writings, particularly The Cost of Discipleship, which centers on the Sermon on the Mount–the passage where Jesus says blessed are the poor, love your enemies, you can’t serve God & money, and other famous lines. As a bookish, ethnically German Christian myself, I have always felt a certain affinity to Bonhoeffer. However, the one part I couldn’t understand was to reconcile his wholehearted commitment to the Sermon on the Mount with his attempt to assassinate Hitler–is killing any man, even Hitler, really congruent with Jesus’ command to “love your enemies?” I’d often wondered how Bonhoeffer would answer that, but didn’t put forth significant effort to discover the answer.
That changed recently, when I was looking for a book to read and came upon Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, a massive 500+ page work examining Christian ethical theory that concludes unfinished–Bonhoeffer was arrested in the middle of writing it. A book that I expected to be dry and philosophical felt urgent and of the utmost importance: these were the thoughts of a man written while he was secretly planning to overthrow his own government! I realized: what Bonhoeffer had written was not a mere theory of Christian ethics, but the start of a comprehensive and rigorous antifascist theology–perhaps the first one ever written.
Of course, Bonhoeffer didn’t use the term “antifascist theology,” as it’s a term I came up with on my own–if you Google the phrase “antifascist theology”, only two results currently come up! In fact, one could argue, why use the phrase ‘antifascist theology,’ isn’t that confusing a political theory with a religious theory? But I firmly believe that a religious orthodoxy (set of beliefs) that has no physical orthopraxy (set of actual practices) is meaningless and toothless, the musing of an intellectual in ivory towers. That is not who Bonhoeffer was. The theology of a man who gave his life to fight German fascism can only be interpreted as an inherently antifascist theology–for it is exactly this theology that led Bonhoeffer to his daring course of action. As the foreword to Ethics puts it, “Understanding Bonhoeffer requires moving from disembodied principles to the concrete situation: confronting the life-destroying warmonger and the murderer of the Jews who had to be stopped.” (p. 16)
Fascism Defined
To define antifascist theology, one must first define fascism. “Fascism” comes from the Latin word “fasces”, which describe a bundle of sticks tied together with an axe—symbolizing the unifying power of the State to simultaneously bind society together and punish evildoers. Fasces have been a symbol of State power for 2000 years, ever since the Roman Empire ruled over most of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The symbol of the fasces have been incorporated into many different cultures, such as at the Lincoln Memorial (below).
However, the political ideology of fascism is a more recent development, one that arose alongside imperialism, capitalism, and the modern nation-state beginning in the 1800s. While political scientists disagree over the precise definition of fascism, historian Stanley G. Payne focuses on three concepts:
- The “fascist negations”: anti-liberalism, anti-communism, and anti-conservatism; [Translation—fascism is strongly opposed to any “softening” of society brought on by liberalism, and firmly opposed to any state-run economic engines such as those brought by communism. Yet interestingly, fascists are also in tension with traditional conservatives, who are seen as being too weak to do the “dirty work” that is actually needed to improve society…sounding familiar yet?]
- “Fascist goals”: the creation of a nationalist dictatorship to regulate economic structure and to transform social relations within a modern, self-determined culture, and the expansion of the nation into an empire; and
- “Fascist style”: a political aesthetic of romantic symbolism, mass mobilization, a positive view of violence, and promotion of masculinity, youth, and charismatic authoritarian leadership.
Besides Germany, a number of other societies have become ruled by fascists over the past two centuries. Italy, Spain, and Greece come to mind, and many nations still have strong far-right groups that regularly try to agitate society and recruit new members into their movements. From the Brownshirts and the Hitler Youth, to skinheads and neo-Nazis, to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, all of these proto-fascists are linked by their desire for the State to rise up and demolish any liberal/Jewish/“Deep State” political enemies.
To lay all my cards out on the table, I think there are some troubling fascistic tendencies rising up in the United States. In looking at the three concepts I listed above that define fascism, I have witnessed all three elements become more and more widespread in American society over the past 20 years. It used to be that everyone knew the Nazis were the bad guys; but now I see grandmas on Facebook actively spreading anti-Semitic propaganda, I see fathers teaching their children to hate all Marxists, and I see politicians excited about killing liberals in the streets (“pre-emptively” of course). And unfortunately, just like in 1930s Germany, many Bible-believing Christians are the very ones supporting these fascist tendencies, often by using Scripture taken out of context–although to be honest I haven’t see them even bother to do that very often!
Now, whether America is about to collapse into some kind of fascist dictatorship, I do not know. What I do know is that for years far-right individuals have been quickly buying up guns, joining militias, and proclaiming that America is close to being destroyed by nefarious forces who must be defeated at any costs…it seems hard to imagine a scenario where this all just magically ends without more violence than we’ve already seen so far. For most of us though, the struggle remains primarily a war of ideas, not a war in the streets. It is thus incumbent for all of us to make sure that we have a rigorous ethical and theological foundation with which to fight the growing tide of fascism. Hence: the need for an antifascist theology.
Antifascist Theology Defined
With fascism thus explained, I will define antifascist theology as an systemic explanation of the true nature of God and implications for Christians living in a fascist society. While good theology is always able to be translated into different cultures and contexts, there is something particularly challenging about fascism that tends to draw Christians in – unless there is a counterbalancing force warning them of it. Bonhoeffer’s work of Ethics seeks to do exactly that. And in the same way as one cannot fully understand the teachings of Jesus without understanding the socio-political environment in which he lived, we cannot fully understand Bonhoeffer without recognizing his status as a German man writing during the time of German fascism.
So as we dive deeper into Bonhoeffer’s antifascist theology, let’s not sugar-coat things. With a disastrous economy wracking Germany, and the perceived cultural threat of progressive city-dwellers, Jews, communists, atheists, and cultural elites, the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany can be seen as a reactionary attempt to “Make Germany Great Again.” Thus perhaps it’s sad but not surprising that the vast majority of German Christians enthusiastically supported fascism. For Bonhoeffer to oppose the majority of his fellow Christians was bold indeed. While he used a lot of coded language in his writing (in order to avoid being persecuted for his political views), Bonhoeffers’ attacks against fascism are quite clear.
For those of us in America today who see similar signs of fascism in our churches, communities, and national politics, Bonhoeffer’s antifascist theology will give us some tools and a framework through which we can fight back. Stay tuned for future posts in which I will explicitly lay out the main pieces of his antifascist theology.
To be continued…
This concludes Park I of this series. Future parts will dive into the specifics of Bonhoeffer’s Antifascist Theology as described in his work Ethics, and the implications therein for our own world. To make sure you are appraised of future parts, please make sure you have subscribed your email address to get blog updates.
Looking forward to this series!
-Bill Jones