Christ-centered Empathic Resistance, the Influence of Harlem Renaissance Theology on the Incarnational Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the most inspirational Christian martyrs of the twentieth century. He was also a pastor, author and profound theological ethicist who's book Discipleship helped to redefine the shape of Christian faithfulness to Christ, and to light the way for Christian living at a time when the Christian life in German had become darkened, and masked by Nazi sensibilities. It became very difficult to discern real Christianity from its evil twin for most Christians in Nazi Germany. In that context, Bonhoeffer declared that costly grace was the only real grace available to Christians, and it was bestowed by Christ upon those who actively follow Him in simple obedience to the Sermon on the Mount. Thus Bonhoeffer became a prophetic witness for Christ in an evil time. Bonhoeffer the inspirational pastor and Christian martyr was not always gifted with the prescience to determine real Christianity in a forest of look-alikes. He gained important insight into the domination and harm caused by the mixture of Christianity and oppression from what he called the "rather hidden perspective" of an African American worldview in Harlem, New York during the Harlem Renaissance. That experience helped to equip him with the Christian insight to deflect harmful pseudo-Christian ideology and remain devoted to Christ. Bonhoeffer scholars are in agreement that shortly after he returned from New York in 1931, that there was a change in his personal commitment to Christ and to the church. There is growing recognition of the role that his time in New York 1930/31, as a foreign student studying at Union Theological Seminary, and attending Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem , played in that personal transformation. I am arguing that it was critical for him, and indicates the importance of empathy for Christian obedience to Christ's commandment to "do to others what you would have them do to you." Bonhoeffer demonstrates that important attention to the concrete needs for justice in our own context, and in the context of another, can aid in our efforts to live faithfully for Christ in an increasingly diverse world.