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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Metaxas cite as the first reason that Bonhoeffer joined the Abwehr?
(a) The Abwehr had become a front organization for helping Jews leave Germany.
(b) The gestapo would be forced to leave him alone and he would have freedom of movement to continue his work as a pastor.
(c) By joining the Abwehr, Bonhoeffer could avoid military service.
(d) Joining the Abwehr put him in touch with the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.

2. What did Bonhoeffer claim to be the two main questions that young theologians brought to him in a letter to Karl Barth that was cited by Metaxas?
(a) How do I minister the Gospel under the opposition of the government? How do I protect my flock from the government?
(b) What should be our view toward the Jews? Aren't we to honor the government since it was ordained by God?
(c) Should we strive to work within the government to change those practices that are immoral? Aren't we as Christians to humbly submit to the governing authority?
(d) How do I learn to pray? How do I learn to read the Bible?

3. How had the relationship come to be known to Maria's mother, according to Metaxas?
(a) Through Maria's brother, Max von Wedemeyer.
(b) Maria confessed her love for Bonhoeffer directly to her mother.
(c) Through Maria's grandmother, Ruth von Kleist-Retzow.
(d) Bonhoeffer told her through correspondence.

4. Why was the German Government opposed to Bonhoeffer and is ordinands traveling to visit the Swiss church, according to a quote found by Metaxas?
(a) "...because his influence is not conducive to German interests."
(b) "...because it is important that we protect the Christian solidarity of our citizens."
(c) "...because Bonhoeffer has caused no small amount of embarrassment when he has gone to other countries."
(d) "...because Bonhoeffer's presentation to the international press will bring disfavor to our leaders."

5. What does Metaxas identify as the major difference between the ecumenical movement and Bonhoeffer with regard to WWII?
(a) The ecumenical movement sought to end the war, but Bonhoeffer decided that Hitler had to be assassinated.
(b) The ecumenical movement discouraged people from joining the military, but Bonhoeffer did not feel so empowered.
(c) The ecumenical movement believed Hitler could be negotiated with, but Bonhoeffer did not.
(d) The ecumenical movement was pacifist, but Bonhoeffer was not.

6. Who does Metaxas report to be an inmate of Bonhoeffer who once performed brutal medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners?
(a) "Heidl".
(b) Dr. Waldemar Hoven.
(c) Dr. Sigmund Rascher.
(d) General von Falkenhausen.

7. What does Metaxas report to be the one thing that Bonhoeffer did every day of his captivity?
(a) He wrote in his diary.
(b) He had coffee that was one quarter grounds.
(c) He maintained the daily discipline of scriptural meditation and prayer he had been practicing for more than a decade.
(d) He had to leave his bucket outside the door every morning.

8. What does Metaxas claim that Bonhoeffer recognized while he planned to carry out his engagement with Maria and proceed with plans to assassinate Hitler?
(a) He knew that he was facing by the SS and decided to finish some things that he had always wanted to do.
(b) He felt that he had cut his ties with the church and started making decisions that were self serving.
(c) God wants his children to operate out of freedom and joy to do what was right and good, not out of fear of making mistakes.
(d) Life is not as easy as applying principles that define sin and righteousness.

9. How did the Treaty of Versailles play a role in protecting Hitler from a coup, according to Metaxas?
(a) Hitler pointed out that the treaty prohibited their jobs from existing, so he showed that his violating it was in their benefit.
(b) The German generals desired to overthrow the treaty so they accepted the victories to which Hitler led them.
(c) The treaty prohibited any action on their part unless it was taken under the advisement of the allied powers that wrote it.
(d) The treaty prohibited such treachery as they were planning in their coup.

10. What does Metaxas suggest that Bonhoeffer meant by "religionless Christianity"?
(a) Bonhoeffer began to believe that the evils of the Nazis indicated that God was dead.
(b) Bonhoeffer was seeing that it was time to recognize God's authority over the whole world and stop keeping Him in religious corners that we reserve for Him.
(c) Bonhoeffer felt that his turmoil in prison was proving all his devotion to God to be a sham and he came to the point of renouncing his religion.
(d) Bonhoeffer did not believe that the Nazis were going to be removed from Germany, so Christian churches would cease to exist and Christians were going to have to live out their faith.

11. What relationship did Bonhoeffer have with Maria von Wedemeyer before he had seen her while visiting her grandmother?
(a) He had refused to take the task of training her for her confirmation when she was 12 because she did not seem mature enough.
(b) He trained her as a Bible student as part of the Confessing Church.
(c) He had acted as an uncle to her in the absence of her father who was sent to the Russian front.
(d) He was a close friend of her brother's in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.

12. What statement did Bonhoeffer make in a lecture titled, "The Question of the Boundaries of the Church and Church Union", was criticized by his supporters as being a piece of false doctrine?
(a) "Whoever knowingly separates himself from the Confessing Church in Germany separates himself from salvation."
(b) "Those who commit themselves to Hitler have removed themselves from the hope of salvation."
(c) "One cannot be both Christian and National Socialist."
(d) "The National Socialists are making Germans the enemies of Christ."

13. How did the commissar order revitalize the conspiracy to overthrow Hitler?
(a) The generals felt that adding an SS commissar to their entourage would slow down their progress.
(b) The generals felt that prisoners of war were their responsibility and could be used in productive supporting roles for their soldiers.
(c) Many generals felt Soviet commissars could be used to find more important tactical information.
(d) Many generals considered the order to be an unreasonable violation of the rules of warfare.

14. What dramatic event greeted Bonhoeffer as 1938 was beginning, according to Metaxas?
(a) He became part of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.
(b) He heard about Kristallnacht.
(c) He helped his sister and her husband leave Germany for Switzerland.
(d) Gestapo officers arrested him and 30 others during a meeting of the Confessing Church.

15. Why did Colonel Claus von Sauffenberg join the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, according to Metaxas?
(a) A devout Catholic, Sauffenberg agreed with Bonhoeffer that the Nazis were attempting to eliminate the Christian religion.
(b) He could not face his conscience if he did not act.
(c) Stauffenberg could rise in political rank and someday be the Chancellor of Germany if he successfully killed Hitler.
(d) He was disgusted with Hitler when he witnessed the treatment of Polish prisoners of war in 1939 and for the murder of the Jews.

Short Answer Questions

1. What event began WWII according to Metaxas?

2. What seeming contradiction of Bonhoeffer's was amplified by the war, according to Metaxas?

3. What does Metaxas claim to be the major obstacle that inhibited the relationship between Bonhoeffer and Maria von Wedemeyer from developing, according to Metaxas?

4. Why does Metaxas identify Bethge as an important figure for Bonhoeffer's legacy?

5. According to a letter cited by Metaxas, what aspect of prison life was an enrichment of his life's experience?

(see the answer keys)

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