Bonhoeffer and Gandhi

Bonhoeffer grew to be, and in some ways, always was a very open-minded and wide thinker. For all the talk of his fanaticism and dogmatic writings, he kept breaking molds, and having his own molds broken.

I feel I can see this happening at 18 when he visited Barcelona and Italy and had strong experiences and dialogues with Catholic believers. You can see it in his visit to America where at first he was turned off by their lack of theological education, but he was ultimately challenged by their social and political actions. You can see it in his involvement in the ecumenical movements. You can see it in his interest in protestant and catholic monastic communities.

And another area is his great interest in visiting India and even studying with Gandhi. This was something that was in his plans all along with his stay in London. He saved money and even had letters written on his behalf. Here is one comment from a letter to his brother:

"...since I am becoming more convinced each day that Christianity is approaching its end in the West--at least in its previous form and its previous interpretation--I should like to go to the Far East before returning to Germany."

Here is another from a letter to his grandmother:

"Sometimes it even seems to me that there's more Christianity in their 'paganism' than in our entire Reich Church. Of course, Christianity did come from the East originally."

In the 1934 Bonhoeffer asked Bishop Bell to write on his behalf. Bell wrote to Gandhi:

"A friend of mine, a young man, at present German Pastor in London, Pastor Bonhoeffer ... is most anxious that I should give him an introduction to you. I can most heartily commend him. He expects to be in India for the first two or three months of 1935. He is intimately identified with the Church Opposition Movement in Germany. He is a very good theologian, a most earnest man, and probably to have charge of the training of Ordination candidates for the Ministry in the future Confessional Church of Germany. He wants to study community life as well as methods of training. It would be a very great kindness if you could let him come to you."

Soon after this a friendly letter arrived from Gandhi. Gandhi invited Bonhoeffer and his friend to live in the Mahatma's ashram and to accompany him on some his journeys. Bethge comments that "at this point it was still unthinkable to Bonhoeffer to join a conspiracy against Hitler; he sought a prototype for passive resistance that could induce changes without violence."

Unfortunately things were changing rapidly in Germany and the offer to become the director of the illegal seminary for the Confession church couldn't wait for him. He had to choose and he chose to come back to Germany and begin the seminary.

On April 25th, 1935, Bonhoeffer and the ordinands were offered "the use of the Rhineland Bible school in Zingst on the Baltic Sea until the beginning of the summer season. It was still bitterly cold, but there was little doubt that it would be deserted. On April 26th the candidates and their director, who was their own age, made their way to the cabins among the dunes of the Baltic coast.