Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 21:1 (Spring 2024)
Article: Would Bonhoeffer Think We Were Stupid?
Author: Kenneth D. Keathley

Would Bonhoeffer Think We Were Stupid?

Ken Keathley

Kenneth Keathley is Research Professor of Theology, occupying the Jesse Hendley Chair of Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC.

It is only fitting that this issue of the Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry is devoted to honoring Dr. Robert Stewart. Bob, as he is affectionately called by those who know him, is a champion of the gospel. I am glad to call him my brother and my dear friend.

Introduction

“Truth has stumbled in the public square.” (Isa 59:14)

From April 1943 to April 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer spent the last two years of his life imprisoned in a concentration camp. He was executed a few days before the war in Germany ended. During this period, Bonhoeffer composed his thoughts, which were published posthumously as Letters and Papers from Prison.1 One portion of the prologue that attracted a great deal of attention was the section entitled “On Stupidity.” It begins with the assertion that stupidity is worse than malice.

“Stupidity,” explains Bonhoeffer, “is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.” This is because malice can be confronted for what it is. It can be exposed, argued against, and opposed by whatever means necessary. Malice can be identified as malice. Malice can recognize itself in the mirror. Not so with stupidity; stupidity doesn’t know that it’s stupid.

Therefore, there is no way to respond to stupidity. Bonhoeffer laments, “Against stupidity we are defenseless.” It is impervious to reason. Facts have no impact. He advises, “For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”

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Bonhoeffer’s anguish is understandable. He watched his beloved Germany descend into the nightmare of Hitler’s fascism. How could such a tragedy happen in a country so cultured and civilized? In his book, Hitler’s Cross: The Revealing Story of How the Cross of Christ Was Used as a Symbol of the Nazi Agenda, Erwin Lutzer documents that it wasn’t just the nation that succumbed to mass fanaticism.2 The Church did also.

Just a few years earlier, Austrian philosopher and novelist Robert Musil pondered the same question. In 1937 he delivered a lecture in Vienna also entitled “On Stupidity,” in which he made many of the same observations as Bonhoeffer.You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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