1/14

Dr. Victoria Barnett recently visited campus to discuss the work and legacy of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer with Dr. Mike Schmidt’s Narratives of the Holocaust class. Barnett, the renowned religious scholar and editor of the complete works of Bonhoeffer, discussed his 1942 essay, “After Ten Years,” a reflection on Germany’s moral and spiritual collapse under Nazism.

From the rise of the Nazi party until his execution in 1945, Bonhoeffer worked relentlessly alongside well-known family members against the Nazification of the Protestant Church. In many ways, Barnett said, Bonhoeffer’s work worked. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party never took over the Protestant Church. However, in order to survive, the church was not allowed to speak out against the Nazi party. So Bonhoeffer did, and ultimately became the leading figure of the Christian resistance against Nazism.

Bonhoeffer managed to keep his faith throughout an extraordinarily difficult time in human history. His belief that “God stands over history and has a much longer view” was evident in “After Ten Years,” where he reflected on the fate and future of Germany. “What is happening in our country, and what could possibly follow?,” he asked himself and others. “Bonhoeffer wanted to keep conscience, dissidence, and religious faith alive,” Barnett said. The students were excited to hear from an expert on a difficult text: “Dr. Barnett’s breadth of knowledge helped expand on the information we learned throughout our time in class and rounded out the semester perfectly,” said Parin C. ’27.