This week in Christian history: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Francis Xavier, George Mueller

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor

Dietrich Bonhoeffer executed – April 9, 1945

This week marks the anniversary of when notable German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

A notable theologian, Bonhoeffer wrote the influential book The Cost of Discipleship, which coined the phrase “cheap grace” to describe Christian belief that did not involve personal transformation.

Bonhoeffer was a longtime critic of the Third Reich, criticizing the Nazi regime in a radio broadcast two days after Hitler took power.

Hung less than a month before Germany surrendered, Bonhoeffer’s last recorded words were, “This is the end–for me, the beginning of life.”