The Cup of Wrath: A Novel Based on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Resistance to Hitler by Mary Glazener

Author:Mary Glazener [Glazener, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Smyth & Helwys Publishing
Published: 2019-01-28T22:00:00+00:00

From his place by the rail Dietrich could hear the water below slapping against the sides of the Bremen. Shouts and scurrying on the dockyard signified the imminent departure of the ship. Across this busy scene and halfway up the block, Paul Lehmann waited under the street light, where Dietrich had left him. Paul had wanted to come aboard, but with so many Gestapo agents around, Dietrich could not risk drawing attention to himself.

“Too bad,’’ he said to Karl-Friedrich, who was returning to Germany at the same time as Dietrich. “I would like to have introduced Paul to you.”

“Yes,’’ said his brother, “if he came all the way from Illinois just to see you, I’d like to have met him.”

“Paul wanted me to stay. He had lined up speaking engagements for me all over the Midwest and tried awfully hard to persuade me, but it was too late. I had already made my decision.” Dietrich spoke in an undertone. A little farther down the rail there stood an enigmatic figure with a lighted cigarette in his hand.

“I just wonder if you shouldn’t have listened,’’ said his brother. “I hope you aren’t making a mistake.” Leaning against the rail, Karl-Friedrich looked skinnier than usual in his dark, ill-fitting suit.

“No more than you,” said Dietrich. “I have a family.”

“So do I, after a fashion.”

“What did this Paul Lehmann say?” Karl-Friedrich inquired.

“Among other things, that the world will need an authoritative interpreter of the church struggle.”

“That’s true, isn’t it?”

“Oh, there’ll be plenty of those. Paul’s main argument was my theological task—what he saw as my theological task.”

“I think he is right, Dietrich. Isn’t what you have to say more important than what you might do in the conflict at home?”

“No. If I stayed here and war came, I’d have nothing to say. I would have compromised my witness. Don’t you agree?”

“Oh, I don’t think so.”

“Yes. Not only that, I would have no right to take part in the reconstruction of Christian life after the war. You and I know what the alternatives will be for Christians in Germany—either willing the defeat of the Fatherland so Christian civilization can survive, or willing victory and the destruction of our civilization. I know which one I must choose. But I cannot make that choice in the safety of America.”

“Well, I hope there’s someplace in Pomerania where you can hide,” said Karl-Friedrich.

“I’ll think about that when I get there.”

“You’d better start thinking about it now.”

Later that night in the cabin Dietrich read the passage for the day: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, the better to learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71). It was one of his favorite verses from his favorite psalm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.