The Bonhoeffer Reader

15. Report on a Conference of the World Alliance

317 1. [DBWE 11:9–11, editors’ introduction. For more on Bonhoeffer’s ecumenical work in 1931– 1932, see DB-ER, 238–255.] 2. [For more on this conference specifically, see DB-ER, 189–202.] 3. [DBWE 11:165–166, nn. 3–9.] 4. [DBWE 11:35, n. 6.] 5. [DBWE 11:159.] 15. Report on a Conference of the World Alliance DBWE 11:165–169 Bonhoeffer’s theological education, international experience, and growing proficiency in English prepared him well for the international ecumenical work he pursued upon returning from the United States. His efforts focused on the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship among the Churches, an organization which he served as Germany’s youth secretary.1 The selection below is Bonhoeffer’s report on the World Alliance’s 1931 conference in Cambridge, England.2 As Bonhoeffer relates in the opening lines, this conference met against the background of a “world crisis.” With this phrase, Bonhoeffer likely had in mind a number of issues, including the economic devastation facing North America and Europe following the New York stock-market crash of October 1929, as well as the recent Japanese invasion of China. Foremost, however, is clearly the rearmament of the European nations, which he took as a violation of the 1920 League of Nations covenant as well as the 1919 Versailles Treaty.3 The publication of this report in a theological journal (Theologischer Blätter) was appropriate since many of “those who view[ed] the World Alliance with disinterest or resentment” were theologians. Paul Althaus and Emanuel Hirsch, whose theologies tied Christianity with nationalism, had recently published in the same journal a statement suspicious of ecumenical organizations.4 Such statements were incompatible with Bonhoeffer’s deepening sense that Christianity could not be reconciled with “Germanism.”  5 Bonhoeffer had his own frustrations with the ecumenical movement, The Bonhoeffer Reader 318 165 166 167 6. [This 1932 conference would fail. Bonhoeffer alludes to this at DBWE 12:258 (Reader 353).] though, chief among them the superficiality of its theology and the vacuity of its resolutions , as discussed in the report below. The International Conference of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches in Cambridge (September 1–5, 1931) Those who view the World Alliance with disinterest or resentment should take the opportunity either to confirm their judgment based on the results of the Cambridge meeting or to revise it. The forthcoming disarmament conference in Geneva6 and the world crisis, whose problems are not insignificantly related to it, dictated the theme of the conference for the assembled representatives of the churches. In the disarmament question, which was the banner under which the conference took place, the important thing for the churches was not primarily the political debate among the nations that were particularly affected by it, but rather the question whether the nations that are presently rearming will be resolved to stand by their given word (in Article 8 of the League of Nations covenant and in the Preamble of Part V of the Versailles treaty) or whether, by breaking their word, the first attempt toward a moral order in international relations among nations shall hopelessly collapse. At the very edge of the abyss of yet another complete moral chaos in the lives of the nations, the churches are standing firm and summon all to truthfulness and faithfulness, to respect and honor the foresworn promise. The honor of the rearming nations and the justice of this cause are at stake. The English and the Americans expressed this at the conference with unparalleled clarity. Even the French presentation on the disarmament question was in agreement with this thinking and, furthermore , was characterized by an extension of the concept of securité [security] as a fundamental international principle, as opposed to their previously narrower version. This included a clear recognition of the justice of the German position, which means that an attempt was made to engage with deep sincerity on the level of unconditional equality of rights that serve the common cause. In this way, the conference was able to issue the proclamation unanimously to the churches of the world that, in its conviction, war as a means of settling international disputes contradicts the spirit (“mind and method”!) of Christ and his church. Further, the conference called for (1) a substantial reduction in armaments of every form down to the lowest 319 Report on a Conference of the World Alliance...