Bonhoeffer

Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is revered as a lonely voice of reason, compassion, and conscience. In a defining moment "when light pierced the darkness," he was a man who dared to defy Hitler's madness and dreams of world domination, paying the ultimate price for his courage as he was led naked to the gallows during the last days of WWII. This stimulating video reviews the life and death of this unlikely martyr who was born into a prosperous, politically aware, but not particularly religious family. An academic prodigy, Bonhoeffer embarked on his career as teacher, minister, and author about the same time that Hitler began his dark rise to power. Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier's feature-length documentary details Bonhoeffer's rejection of a "tribal god," his insistence on the primacy of God's word, and his challenge to German church leaders, who all too willingly succumbed to Hitler's demand for a muscular, nationalistic brand of Christianity. Bonhoeffer could have saved himself by remaining in America, where he made two teaching trips, discovering Harlem's spiritually vibrant, socially conscious black church in the process. Ultimately, however, his disgust with Germany's anti-Semitism led him back to the fatherland and he became involved in a plot to kill Hitler. Masterfully describing Bonhoeffer's ideas--influenced by Karl Barth and Reinhold Niebuhr, the father of social ethics--Bonhoeffer employs old photos and the testimony of friends and associates to limn an affecting portrait of a very human figure who wrestled with feelings of weakness and self doubt. While the splendid Hanged on a Twisted Cross (VL-1/97), a much more reasonably priced ($24.95) in depth portrait, remains a first purchase, this is still highly recommended for larger collections. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)