Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

This book is now known to some people as the book Kristi couldn't shut up about. This was the best book I’ve read in years, and I read a lot. Eric Metaxas is a brilliant writer and researcher, and owing to his own faith and heritage, he presents a mountain of information without losing sight of an important story that needed to be told. This book blends World War II History, Bonhoeffer family history, and various writings (including many personal letters) by and about Dietrich Bonhoeffer into a seamless narrative. It’s better than fiction in terms of romance, intrigue and suspense. I knew the ending was coming, but I became so involved in the story that I kept hoping Bonhoeffer would think of himself and change course.

Bonhoeffer was a complex and fascinating person. From my notes: He was multilingual (Spanish, German, English and more), a hiker, athlete, theologian, smoker, PhD, twin, world traveller, pianist, singer, flutist, teacher, preacher, believer, children’s minister, outlaw, expatriate, genius, writer, romantic, conscientious objector, undercover agent, fiancé. He had a temper at times, owned a St. Bernard once, and liked to argue. “You could not be a friend of Dietrich’s if you did not argue with him.”

I saw Metaxas joke in an interview that he wrote the title for rhythm. Pastor, prophet, martyr, spy. How could one man be all these things? Bonhoeffer was a pastor from a young age, and a spiritual leader even on his dying day. As “prophet” he recognized advancing evil and took a strong stand against it. He died a martyr because his Christian conscience led him into illegal activity. He was a spy in the sense that he carried on a deceptive identity in order to plot against the Nazis. (He once saluted Hitler in public as part of his false identity.) In reading how these random facts are linked in one person you get a feel for who he really was.

I loved reading from the German point of view. Most of what I knew about WWII was from a non-German perspective. It seems there is no end to the damage done by unfathomable evil, the tragic stories, or the sadness in the broken lives of survivors. (This hit home last year when I had the opportunity to hear a Polish holocaust survivor speak in person.) For me, Bonhoeffer’s story hammered a great wedge between the horrible holocaust stories and the greatness of Germany as a country and a people. As Hitler rose to power, some opposed him from the beginning, others were truly blinded. Some who had mistakenly supported him in the beginning had a slow revelation and a change of heart. Bonhoeffer played only a small part among countless German heroes, but his aristocracy and previous fame propelled his story into greater public interest.

The most challenging aspects of this book are the moral questions. Is it ever right to lie, disobey the law or kill? When you delve into the reality of being a Christian in a country where evil has taken over, the truth of right and wrong doesn’t change, but what has to be done for the sake of right and wrong can change. Sometimes you have to break the law. This area gets confusing to me, and even after some long conversations with friends, I am not so worried about what Bonhoeffer did, because no matter how we want to judge him in retrospect, he believed it to be right. I can easily leave that between him and God. But so many hypothetical situations come to mind... Would I have courage? Would I know what is right? Those were the battles Bonhoeffer faced in his mind. He made decisions that he believed were right, and they cost him his life. He had the courage to consider his eternal soul before his physical life. Some of us will never have to make the decision in terms of life versus death, but we do have to decide between an ordinary life and a dedicated life. In a slow way, we have to make the same decision. This book is praised by a broad audience, but I imagine the Christians who read it will be challenged in a much deeper way to live their faith with actions, and to evaluate their own convictions. Metaxas promotes this quote elsewhere, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

The ending. As I said before, I knew it was coming. Bonhoeffer is known as a martyr, and that status can tend to sound saintly and elevated. It can’t be overlooked that he was an extraordinary person who lived in extraordinary times. Yet Metaxas resisted glorifying Bonhoeffer’s death with pompous words. Yes it was heroic, but what comfort is that? It was one tragic loss among millions, an idea-churning mind halted, a writer stopped mid-book, a fiancé prevented from marrying, and a family's loved one gone without a grave to visit. Even though he died unjustly (as did so many others) the focus of the book is on his life, on his legacy, and on the empty space his death left in his world. I'm glad I read the ending alone, because I really don't like to be seen crying.

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

I was sad when I finished this book because it's that good! I loved Emma, and I loved Sense & Sensibility. I loved Persuasion and Mansfield Park. I always thought Pride & Prejudice couldn't be that much better than her other books--until I read it. I can see why this book is her most famous, and I can't believe she wrote it at nineteen. This book is known for inspiring romance fiction, but honestly, I don't know why other people bother writing spin-off stories. This story is too perfect to be improved upon.

The greatest works of art have both universal and simple basic elements, and this story is both incredibly simple (boy meets girl), but also contains a variety of dynamics so that almost anyone to relate to it. A wise aunt told me years ago that you can have 4 kinds of guy problems. 1. No guys.

2. A guy likes you, but you don't like him. 3. You like a guy, but he doesn't like you. 4. You and a guy like each other. (More later on why that's a problem.)

In this story, Elizebeth Bennet experiences all four scenarios in that order, with the addition of Wickham, who Lizzie liked, but shouldn't have. The book opens with the five Bennet girls waiting around for husbands to rescue them from poverty. And all the while, "Mrs. Bennet was quite in the fidgets." (Read that out loud with a British accent.)

First, Lizzie rejects two proposals, once from Mr. Collins who is ridiculous, and once from Mr. Darcy, who she dislikes altogether. So the transition from "no guys" to two proposals is all bad news in Lizzie's book.

As the plot unfolds and Lizzie finds herself mentally attached to Mr. Darcy she is disappointed in herself for rejecting him. She begins to like him and he must not like her. By then we know they are both in love with each other, but Lizzie thinks she is wasting her emotion to care about him. This is why liking each other is a problem - the problem is coming to the revelation. For Lizzie, part of the problem is explaining why she's going to marry this man she used to hate, and now it looks like she's just marrying for money. She tries to convince her parents of her real emotions, but in the end, only Darcy really understands how she feels. In fact, her problems are not over until Darcy's second proposal. She is still embarrassed, and feeling "more than common awkwardness and anxiety."

There is no dialogue in the book at Lizzie's acceptance of Darcy's second proposal, only that her reply was with "gratitude and pleasure." And Jane Austen's genius shows in the way she handles these important moments. She zooms out, and leaves the couple standing there, almost as if even the reader doesn't dare intrude, and tells us, "The happiness which this reply produced was such as he had probably never felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do." She leaves you amused, and wondering what's so sensible about a man "violently in love."

I think the beauty of Darcy and Lizzie is that in the end, they were both humbled by their love. Darcy married far below his social status and disappointed his family's expectations. He humbles himself to pursue a peasant. For Lizzie's part, she has to admit that she loves Darcy when she had rejected him to his face and to others. She is humbled to receive his love, and the gift of his saving her entire family from ruin. Only Jane Austen could make you think that a poor disgraced girl marrying a millionaire was actually a humbling experience for the girl. But we know, ironically, since many characters in the book don't realize, that they really married for love. This book ends non-famously by saying that the couple stayed friends with the Gardiners, "who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them."