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He studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1930 and 31. During this time he was well aware of developments in Germany, but could not arouse much interest from a complacent west. The ignorant complacence of those who did not understand the roots of the titanic struggle that was about to occur in Germany, as Bonhoeffer did, grieved him. For some time he struggled with his options, including some time in England, before he decided to return to suffer with and share in the creation of the Confessing Church in Germany.

He saw it as his duty to return rather than exercise his opportunity for freedom, even though he sensed what this could mean. 'The reasoning which brought Bonhoeffer to his decision belongs, as Reinhold Niebuhr says,"to the finest logic of Christian martyrdom". "I shall have no right", Bonhoeffer wrote to Niebuhr (before leaving the US for the final time in 1939) "... to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people....Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot make this choice in security"

Sources :'Memoir' written by G. Leibholz as a forward in 'The Cost of Discipleship' SCM, 1980, p13 and 'Who's Who in Christian History.' by J.D. Douglas.

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17y ago

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