The White Bonhoeffer, by Tim Judson 

A reading through Bonhoeffer’s writings that asks questions about race - those who make the journey will find their efforts rewarded with much food for thought - and action

The White Bonhoeffer - A Postcolonial Pilgrimage
By Tim Judson
SCM Press
ISBN: 978 0 334 06536 4
Reviewed by John Matthews

 
In this 80th year of Bonhoeffer’s execution by the Nazis he continues to inspire the writing of books, as well as a recent film. This volume, by a Baptist minister who teaches ministerial formation at Regent’s Park College, and subtitled ‘A postcolonial pilgrimage’, is a reading through Bonhoeffer’s writings that asks questions about race, a subject which the author believes evangelicals, of whom he is one, have disregarded. He seeks to retrace familiar ground with Bonhoeffer in the hope of learning where we need to redress or repent of aspects of who we are as White Christians. We cannot evade the voices of those who offer a challenge to our often White Western perspectives, because to do so risks evading Christ himself.
 
Part One, entitled ‘Themes and Theology’, presents a thematic exploration of some key themes of Bonheoffer’s thinking, focussing on the ideas that carry some import for a critical discussion about race, beginning with Christ who, for Bonhoeffer, is the foundation of everything. Each chapter ends with the lyrics of a song penned by the author.

Part Two, entitled ‘Works and Witness’, carries this postcolonial pilgrimage through Bonhoeffer’s main publications, each chapter ending with one of his poems.
 
Judson recounts how, during a year of study in the USA (1930-31) Bonhoeffer become good friends with a black American student, called Frank Fisher, who had experienced racism very directly, and with whom he attended Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, which he felt was more Christian than the liberal, white churches he attended.

But he also notes that Bonhoeffer’s view of what it means to be human, in his work towards his (unfinished) ‘Ethics’ over ten years later, has been criticised as being too western and, therefore, too white.
 
The author concludes with reflections regarding some of the ongoing questions he has as a White Christian, entangled in the history and heritage of White Western colonialism, while seeking to see where Jesus is leading him and others.
 
In his Foreword Anthony Reddie commends the book as ‘a bold and imaginative reflection’ on Bonhoeffer but, more than this, as an invitation, especially for white readers, to engage on a pilgrimage with the author...’ Pilgrimages are not without their demands, and this one is no exception – those with little or no knowledge of Bonhoeffer may find it more difficult - but those who make the journey will find their efforts rewarded with much food for thought - and action.
 

John Matthews is a retired Baptist minister living in Rushden, Northants