Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Hero or Heretic?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran minister most known for his involvement in a plot to assassinate

Adolf Hitler near the end of World War II, for which Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and later executed. This became the focus of a movie about his life that came out in 2024 entitled

Bonhoeffer Pastor -Spy -Assassin. His most famous work was The Cost of Discipleship, published in 1937, examining what he called cheap grace versus costly grace.

Cheap grace would be like preaching forgiveness without repentance, whereas costly grace is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Bonhoeffer taught that salvation should radically change a person's life, for faith without obedience is no faith at all, as said in James 2 .17.

Unfortunately, Bonhoeffer's theology was rather liberal. In his book Christ the Center, he cast doubt on the fact that Christ really existed.

He wrote, As a subject for historical investigation, Jesus Christ remains an uncertain phenomenon.

His historicity can neither be confirmed nor denied with the necessary absolute certainty.

Bonhoeffer said of Christ's resurrection from the grave, Empty or not empty, it remains a stumbling block.

We cannot be sure of its historicity. Whereas the Apostle Paul provided numerous proofs for the resurrection and said,

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.

Bonhoeffer denied the inerrancy of Scripture, calling the Bible flawed. He went as far as denying the power of the gospel itself, saying,

We must finally break away from the idea that the gospel deals with the salvation of an individual soul.

But Romans 1 .16 says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.

Though regarded as a courageous hero of the faith, one should be very careful with the theology and life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer when we understand the text.