I was unfamiliar with the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so I did a little digging. This piece is perhaps a useful capsule summary. I had often seen references to the Confessing Church in books about Germany under the Nazis, so I suppose I may have seen his name before.

The article includes this:

On the other hand, the theological section of the essay also contains the traditional antisemitic teachings that for centuries had characterized Christian understandings of Judaism, and Bonhoeffer argued that the “Jewish question” would ultimately be resolved through the conversion of the Jews. He never explicitly abandoned this view.

To which I would offer that he was hanged at 39 years of age, less than a month before Germany surrendered, still a young man. We will never know how his views might have evolved. I think it's important to note his thinking at the time; but I think it's possible that such a man might have changed his views, and indeed may have.

I don't think we'll ever know.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:55 Saturday, 4 November 2023