Resisting tyranny

Tyranny is not an occasional act of madness afflicting a group of people or a nation. Tyranny is a nightmare which occurs generation after generation within human history. Embedded in the Christian storyline is a repeated call to vigilance, a call to be alert to the many masks that tyranny employs.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s unlikely choice of occupation as a Lutheran pastor set him on a course which inevitably entailed resisting the tyranny of his times.  His was a pathway of Christian thought/action/resistance which led to his arrest, imprisonment and execution. Throughout the two years he spent in prison he continued to think and plan for the future.  His prison writings added a new dynamism to what was already innovative and challenging body of work.

His example of Christian commitment to human solidarity in the face of tyranny continues to inspire those who discover the story of his life.  In his day, his witness was as uncomfortable for the German church as it was for the Nazi regime.  His Christian discipleship sprang from a radical orthodoxy rather than popular liberal values. A man for our times? I should say so.

David Moore