Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christian pastor in the Lutheran tradition, scholar, and resister against the Nazi regime, was executed for his resistance activities in 1945, at the age of 39. His writings and life have become well known around the world, from South Africa to South Korea.
This retreat will place us in conversation with the life and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is a retreat, not a class, though we will certainly learn from the retreat and from each other.
Our lens will be a meditative one in which both prayer and critical thinking will be welcome and encouraged. There will be readings, but they will not be as long as they would be for a course. In addition to readings, the retreat will include some musical and visual resources.
Like all human beings, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was complex and lived in a particular historical period. We need to look at him in the context of his own times as well as with our contemporary lenses.
The retreat will offer spiritual exercises based on Bonhoeffer's life and work and oriented toward the Christian season of Lent.
This year, the Christian season of Lent begins on
Ash Wednesday, February 26, in the Western Christian churches. (The Eastern Orthodox season of Great Lent nearly coincides with Lent in the Western church this year and begins on Monday, March 2.)
Lent is in many ways a long retreat for the whole church, a six-week preparation for the celebration of Easter
. It is a time of intensified or more intentional prayer, greater simplicity of life, and giving to others, especially those who are poor.
In observance of Lent 2020, we invite you to join us in
Lent with Dietrich Bonhoeffer
An Online Retreat
February 26-April 19, 2020
The first full week of the retreat starts on the first Sunday of Lent, March 1, but the retreat starts on Ash Wednesday, February 26. While it's best to get started on Ash Wednesday --the gateway to the season of Lent-- feel welcome to start slowly, a day or two later, if for some reason you aren't able to join us right on Wednesday.
Read on for further details,
registration information,
and FAQ.
[Prefer a shorter retreat? We're offering three this Lent. See here.]
Focus and themes
Every week in the retreat will have an overarching theme or cluster of themes related to Bonhoeffer's life and work.
Prelude (Ash Wednesday and the next three days):
Why Bonhoeffer? Why this retreat?
With an introduction to Bonhoeffer's life and some Psalms
Week 1 (March 1):
Bonhoeffer's context and ours (with an examination of the Nazification of Germany, but also of Bonhoeffer's family and personal formation)
Week 2 (March 8):
Jesus Christ, discipleship, and grace
Week 3 (March 15):
Life together: community, church, resistance
Week 4 (March 22):
Friendship, trust, commitment: Bonhoeffer and relationships
Week 5 (March 29):
Travel, ecumenism, inspiration: Bonhoeffer beyond German borders, from Rome to Harlem and Sweden to South Africa
Week 6 (April 5, Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion, and into Holy Week):
Suffering, sacrifice, and the cross
Week 12 (April 12, Easter):
Heirs to Bonhoeffer, friends of Christ: living Resurrection.
We will ponder each theme or cluster of themes through Bonhoeffer's writings and related resources and also reflect on and pray with these themes as they are manifest in our own lives.
To register and pay
To pay by credit or debit card or with a PayPal account, simply register and pay in a single transaction using the secure PayPal button below.
Note: You can use that PayPal button and its secure connection to pay with a credit or debit card even if you don't have a PayPal account. The PayPal mechanism will record your name and e-mail address and serve as your registration. You will also receive an automated acknowledgment from PayPal and a personal e-mail acknowledgment from me.
Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.
Please note the EARLY BIRD RATE. It applies through Valentine's Day, February 14. If you are in a situation of financial stress, please use the discount rate on the menu below or write me so that we can arrange for a payment plan or a scholarship. Don't let your lack of money prevent you from seeking spiritual support and nourishment here.
If you wish to help make possible more scholarships and discounts, just check the benefactor rate.
If you prefer to pay by check, write me, Jane Redmont, and I will acknowledge your registration and send you the mailing address. I will notify you via e-mail when I receive your check.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
An online retreat? What's that?
It's a retreat in daily life with resources and guidance online. You'll need a computer or tablet and an internet connection. You'll be using the computer to make the retreat, but you won't be spending the whole retreat staring at the computer.
The beauty of an online retreat is that you can check in with the retreat on your own schedule, at whatever hour of the night or day works for you. You do need to devote some time to it, but if you have 20-30 minutes two or three times a week, you can benefit from the retreat. You can also spend more time on the retreat if you wish, or check in daily. The retreat is structured to work for a two or three times a week check-in as well as for daily participation. It's up to you.
How does an online retreat work?
The retreat offers daily resources online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.
What's a closed blog? It's a blog open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me, Jane, the retreat facilitator) has signed in.
In other words, the retreat blog is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments. Conversations among retreatants remain private.
Do I have to talk to other people on this retreat? I'm a very private person.
See the answer to the next question.
Can I get some support here? I want some company.
These online retreats offer you a choice; it is up to you to find your preferred balance between the solitary and the communal, between privacy and solidarity.
You can and may remain private and just read the blog and use the spiritual practices and meditations on your own. Nobody will force you to speak or disclose who you are.
Or you can and may take part in conversation with other retreatants. Conversation during the online retreat takes place in writing, through the comments feature on the blog posts of the retreat blog. Please be prepared to observe confidentiality and to respect other participants' diverse experiences and outlooks.
Use the retreat according to your personality and your circumstances. The online retreat is like a room in which you are welcome to sit in the company of others and to be either visible or invisible.
What about that theme for the first week of Easter? I thought this was a Lenten retreat.
It is. But the celebration of the Passion and Resurrection are one. Lent doesn't just lead to the Last Supper, the Cross, and the silent closed tomb. It leads to Easter, the open tomb, and the proclamation of enduring and risen life.
The retreat will continue into the first week of Easter for those who desire. This will give us an opportunity to celebrate Easter together and to reflect on the meaning of Bonhoeffer's life and writings in the context of Resurrection.
Also, it is likely that some of our participants will be clergy and lay leaders, for whom April 5-12 will be the most intense and demanding days of the church year. These ministers will need quiet and rest on Easter Monday (April 13) and some personal reflection time during that week (Easter Week, April 12-18) afterwards. Having a retreat offering during Easter Week takes this need into account.
What do you mean by "spiritual exercises"?
Spirituality --including Christian spirituality-- involves our entire life. It is bodily as well as mental. It involves our imagination and also our actions. It is about practice, not just thinking.
A spiritual exercise, therefore, may be a prayer or meditation, or a reading assignment or way of reading; but it may also be a piece of writing in a journal, a new or repeated way of interacting with others, a way of gazing or focusing, a practice of fasting or mindful eating, a new way of creating, a daily habit.
Retreat designer and facilitator
Jane Redmont is a retreat leader, spiritual director, pastoral worker, writer, and theologian who has worked in campus, urban, and parish ministries as well as in academia and the nonprofit world. An Episcopal (Anglican) Christian, she was also formed in the Catholic tradition and has Jewish and Unitarian Universalist family roots. She has been involved in work for justice and in ecumenical and interreligious relations all her life. She has read and taught the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for many years, including in a college course called "Radical Theologians of Europe and North America" and an online course called "Radical Hope in Hard Times." A graduate of Oberlin College and Harvard Divinity School, she began her academic study of Bonhoeffer in her first semester of Ph.D studies with a paper entitled "Preaching in the Storm: The Word from the Pulpit and the Word in the World in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer."
Jane serves as a Congregational Consultant and Search Consultant for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and is co-chair of the Bishops' Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations in that diocese. She just completed six months as Scholar in Residence for the Massachusetts Council of Churches with the assistance of a grant from Mass Humanities. She is the author of Generous Lives: American Catholic Women Today and When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life
Questions? Concerns? Write Jane here.
For a full listing of Lent 2020 online retreats, see here
