- by Carrie Shaw
- on June 7, 2026
The Confessing Church Today: Learning From Bonhoeffer In The Age Of Progressive Christianity
The Church has always faced the challenge of compromise. In the Constantinian era, pagan practices and political power began to blur the distinctiveness of Christian faith. Centuries later, the authority of kings such as Henry VIII pressured the Church to bend to political demands rather than remain anchored to Scripture.
In every age, whether through state power, cultural winds, or intellectual trends, the temptation has been the same – to exchange the costly call of Christ for an easier, more acceptable version of faith.
History shows that this danger is not new. And in the twentieth century, it took a devastating form in Germany under the rise of Nazism. Today, pressure to bend to cultural pressure often appears under the banner of progressive Christianity, something I want to explore further in this article. The resemblance isn’t perfect, but the similarities – and therefore the warning – are too close to ignore.
Bonhoeffer And The German Church Crisis
To understand the seriousness of this comparison, we must firstly remember who Dietrich Bonhoeffer was and the crisis he faced.
Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian in the 1930s and 40s, known today for his brilliant writings on Christian discipleship and his resistance to the Nazi regime.
He was born in 1906 into an academic family and trained as a Lutheran pastor. By his early thirties, he had already earned international respect as a theologian. But the defining moment of his life came when Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany.
As the Nazi regime consolidated its grip on society, it sought to bend the church to its purposes. A movement known as the “German Christians” arose, aligning Protestantism with Nazi ideology. They redefined Jesus as an Aryan (therefore non-Jewish) figure, rejected the Old Testament as too Jewish, and preached a gospel of national pride and racial purity.
In essence, they recast Christianity into a form that justified the regime’s goals.
Bonhoeffer and others recognised this for what it was: heresy, a false gospel. He helped form what became known as the Confessing Church – a body of believers who insisted that Christ, not Hitler, was the authority of the Church, directly rejecting Nazi claims of authority over doctrine and practice
They wrote the Barmen Declaration in 1934, which affirmed that the Church belongs to Christ alone and rejected all attempts to make it serve another master.
For this stance, Bonhoeffer paid dearly. He was banned from teaching, his seminary was closed, and eventually he was arrested for his role in resistance efforts.
In April 1945, just weeks before Germany’s surrender, Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging in Flossenbürg concentration camp at the age of thirty-nine. His final recorded words were, “This is the end – for me, the beginning of life.”
Bonhoeffer’s life and death remain a powerful testimony of what it means to follow Christ faithfully, even in the face of cultural and political corruption. And his context provides an important lens for evaluating the crisis we face today.
The Rewriting Of Scripture
The most obvious parallel between the German Christian movement of Bonhoeffer’s day and progressive Christianity today is the treatment of the Bible.
In Nazi Germany, large sections of Scripture were dismissed or edited because they did not serve the ideology of the state.
The Old Testament, being Jewish, was discarded. The New Testament was cherry-picked to create a de-Judaised, nationalistic Jesus. The Bible became a tool, not the authority.
In progressive Christianity today, something very similar happens. Passages that confront cultural values are dismissed as outdated, mistranslated, or irrelevant. Sexual ethics are rewritten. The uniqueness of Christ is softened, with some even commenting that “even Jesus had to ‘do his work’ ie repent. The reality of sin and judgment is downplayed in favour of self-affirmation.
The Jesus of Scripture, who calls sinners to repentance and obedience, even if its culturally unpopular, is replaced with a Jesus who blesses whatever the culture approves and who died merely to display God’s love, rather than to bear God’s judgment and secure our salvation.
The underlying move is the same: ideology sits in judgment over Scripture, rather than Scripture sitting in judgment over ideology.
This is precisely what Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church refused to do. They insisted that Christ rules his Church through His Word, not through the approval of the age.
The Erasure Of The Jews
Another chilling parallel is the treatment of the Jewish people.
In Nazi Germany, antisemitism was not only political but theological.
The German Christians wanted to strip Christianity of its Jewish roots. Jesus was recast as a non-Jew. The covenantal promises to Israel were denied. The people of God were redefined according to racial categories.
Today, progressive Christianity does not advocate racial extermination, but it often expresses hostility toward Israel and dismissiveness toward God’s covenant with the Jewish people. In the name of “justice,” Israel is frequently singled out as uniquely illegitimate, its biblical role erased or denied.
At best, there is indifference toward the Jewishness of Jesus and the ongoing story of God’s people Israel. At worst, there is outright theological antisemitism cloaked in political language.
In both cases, the continuity of God’s covenant purposes is undermined.
Bonhoeffer, by contrast, defended the Jewish roots of the faith and opposed antisemitism at great personal cost. His example reminds us that the Church cannot be faithful to Christ if it severs itself from the story of Israel.
Cultural Accommodation
The heart of the issue in both Bonhoeffer’s Germany and today’s progressive Christianity is cultural accommodation.
For the German Christians, the culture was defined by nationalism, racial pride, and loyalty to Hitler. To be relevant and in favour, the Church bent itself to these currents. The message of the gospel was reshaped until it became barely indistinguishable from state propaganda.
Progressive Christianity often takes its cues from modern culture rather than from Scripture. Instead of being guided by Christ, it mirrors cultural values like personal autonomy, sexual permissiveness, and a focus on inclusivity above all else.
In trying to stay “relevant,” some churches adapt their message so much that what they preach no longer sounds like the gospel – it just echoes the same ideas you would hear outside the church. Church culture becomes indistinguisable from secular culture.
In both contexts, the result is the same: the lordship of Christ is eclipsed by the lordship of culture.
Silencing The Confessing Voices
When Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church refused conform, they were mocked as extremists. They were accused of being divisive, of clinging to outdated beliefs, of being enemies of unity.
Many German Christians believed that Bonhoeffer’s resistance was a threat to peace and stability.
Today, orthodox Christians who refuse to bend to progressive ideology are labelled as bigoted, unloving, or harmful.
They are told they are on the wrong side of history. They are silenced in institutions, criticised in public, and even disciplined within denominations.
The pressure is not physical execution as it was for Bonhoeffer, but the mechanism is familiar: shame, exclusion, and loss for those who will not bow to the idols of the age.
A False Christ
At the root of both the German Christian heresy and progressive Christianity is the creation of a false Christ.
The German Christians fashioned a Christ who looked like them: Aryan, nationalistic, heroic. This Christ justified their prejudices and baptised their politics.
Progressive Christianity fashions a Christ who looks like modern culture: an affirming, therapeutic, activist, a paradigm-shifting resistance leader who blesses sexual sin, erases judgment, and offers salvation without repentance.
Both are equally deadly because both deny the true Christ of Scripture – the Jewish Messiah who bore our sins on the cross, who calls us to deny ourselves, and who reigns as Lord over every culture and nation.
The Need For A New Confessing Church
What does this mean for us?
The parallels are striking and serve as a timely warning and appeal. Twenty-first century Christianity must recover the spirit of the Confessing Church and be willing to say, with Bonhoeffer, that the Church belongs to Christ alone.
This will not win cultural approval. It may cost reputation, comfort, friendships, and positions. It may label the Church as ‘judgy’, ‘bigoted’, ‘phobic’, or outdated. For some Christians around the world, it already costs freedom and life.
But this is the cost of discipleship. As Bonhoeffer wrote in his most famous book: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” (The Cost of Discipleship)
To confess Christ today is to stand against the cultural captivity of the Church, just as Bonhoeffer stood against the Nazification of Christianity in his day. It is to refuse to let Scripture be rewritten or dismissed by ideology.
It is to honour the Jewish roots of the gospel and God’s continuing covenant faithfulness.
It is to proclaim Christ crucified and risen, even when the world demands a different Christ. It is to proclaim our eternal separation from God without the cross, and our only hope of reconciliation through it.
To confess the Christ of the Scriptures is to bear witness to the true gospel – costly, uncompromised, and life-giving – trusting that in him alone we find salvation and the hope of the world.
Conclusion: Faithfulness In Our Generation
The parallels between the German Christians of the 1930s and progressive Christianity today are not exact.
Progressive churches do not march under a dictator or wield power in the same way Nazis did, yet their ideology often aligns with the broader currents of left-wing politics and government. Issues such as trans rights, gender ideology, and pro-choice advocacy are taken up in the church or advanced through its influence, but none of these reflect the moral vision of Scripture.
But the theological dynamics are disturbingly similar: the Bible subordinated to ideology, the Jewish roots of the faith erased, the gospel reshaped to suit the culture, the true Christ replaced with a counterfeit.
Some will find this comparison offensive or unfair. They may call it unloving or judgmental. But raising the concern is not about winning arguments or scoring points; it is about guarding the gospel.
If Christ is Lord of the Church, then the Church must not give him away to the spirit of the age.
Compromise seldom appears dangerous at first. It feels safe, even reasonable and compassionate. But when issues framed in biblical language – justice, compassion, liberation – are stripped of the cross, the authority of Scripture, and the sanctity of human life, the result is always the same: a Church left hollow and powerless.
The question we face is whether we will follow the same path today or whether, like Bonhoeffer, we will have the courage to confess Christ, even when it costs us.
