Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A German theologian whose letters and papers from prison were published in 1951, after his death, by Eberhard Bethge.
Among the papers of Bonhoeffer that Eberhard Bethge published in 1951 is a short reflection on folly. Folly, he wrote, is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice, because evil can be protested against and exposed while against folly there is no defence. He held it to be a human and not an intellectual defect, and observed that every strong display of power, political or religious, strikes a large part of mankind with folly (Bonhoeffer, Von der Dummheit, pp. 17–18).
His arrest and death are told in the Execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The documents cited for the Barmen Declaration do not name him among those who called the synod.
In the timeline
- 9 April 1945, firm dateThe Execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, held for two years for his part in the German resistance, is condemned by an SS court-martial at Flossenbürg concentration camp and hanged the next morning. His letters from prison are published in 1951.
Primary sources
Von der Dummheit
- Bonhoeffer, Von der Dummheit, pp. 17–18de.wikisource.org