On Bonhoeffer

From Alan Wolfe’s exceptional study/review of the recent Metaxas book on Bonhoeffer:

It is important to note that Bonhoeffer’s criticisms of theological liberalism would hardly make him an ally of today’s versions of religious conservatism. He would, one imagines, be utterly scornful of the politically tendentious piety of Pat Robertson, who sees little or no break between the teachings of Jesus and the platforms of the Republican Party. And the more moderate and accommodating evangelicalism of a figure such as Rick Warren would, I believe, appear to him as an example of “cheap grace,” the famous phrase he coined in The Cost of Discipleship to describe those who play up forgiveness and play down repentance. Were he with us now, Bonhoeffer would no doubt still dislike the goings-on at Union Theological Seminary; but he would be even more appalled, I think, by the religious culture of the mega-church, with its undemanding preaching and its insipid hymnology. (Bonhoeffer was an accomplished musician with a passionate love of the German masters.) This man was made of stern stuff.