[Recently we celebrated] Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s birthday. Since my book on him was published…[in 2010], fascination with the young German pastor continues to grow. The interest is so great I’ve recently been asked to do a ten-city Bonhoeffer tour.
I have to ask myself: Why are so many people intrigued by Bonhoeffer? The answer, I believe, is that the message of Bonhoeffer’s life is hugely relevant today””especially when it comes to the growing threats against religious freedom.
…were he alive today and living in America, costly grace for him would likely mean preaching what the Word of God teaches about human sexuality–even when activists and their allies in government try to suppress his work and attack his church. Costly grace would mean standing against churches that mix radical new doctrines about marriage with Christian truth. Costly grace would mean standing up to a government attempting to force him to buy health insurance that violates his beliefs””even if it led to his arrest.
And costly grace would, I believe, lead him to sign the Manhattan Declaration in defense of human life, marriage, and religious liberty, just as he signed the Barmen Declaration, which I quote at length in my book.
Metaxas is spot on. Yes, the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is indeed highly relevant today, as the threats to religious freedom and the dangers of rampant syncretism with a neo-pagan culture continue to grow steadily and become more ominous. His ringing call to embrace costly grace and to renounce the superficial, cheap grace that we see all around us resonates powerfully in our time.
I’m glad that Metaxas put in a strong plug for the Manhattan Declaration too. I hope all regular readers of this blog have signed that important manifesto, which is indeed similar to the Barmen Declaration of 1934.
FWIW, Bpnhoeffer’s classic book, The Cost of Discipleship was translated into English by my late, esteemed mentor, Dr. Reginald Fuller, when he was still a young scholar and priest in England.
David Handy+