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Showing posts from July, 2016

How to Speak

The past week was the XII. International Bonhoeffer Congress. The theme of the conference was the relevance and reality of Bonhoeffer in globalization. It was a group of 225 academics and Bonhoeffer fans from around the world, spending four days deeply immersed in the theology and implications of a man who died in 1945 at the age of 39 for not only plotting an attempt on Hitler's life, but actively endangering his own by working as a double agent in the Nazi state, smuggling Jews out of Germany, and running an illegal seminary. Bonhoeffer writes, "Silence in the face of evil is evil. To not speak is to speak. To not act is to act." It's a quote that deeply resonates with people. It invokes a type of populist will to speak out against evil. It's a quote, which I think sums up his theology and his life. And over the last week, as we checked our Facebook accounts at the conference, we all learned about the appalling resurgence in violence in the United States.