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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why did Bonhoeffer recommend that Bethge keep up daily meditations on scripture even while he traveled according to Metaxas?
(a) Because Bonhoeffer wanted to feel the sense of connection with Bethge, even though he was in prison.
(b) Because Bonhoeffer didn't want prison to be a limit on his pastoral advise.
(c) Because doing so gives one a sense of grounding, continuity, and clarity.
(d) Because Bonhoeffer believed that self-discipline was the most important part of being a pastor.

2. What did Bonhoeffer believe to be the future of theological education in Germany, according to a letter cited by Metaxas?
(a) "The only hope for teaching any biblical truth is to find areas of compromise with the current regime and willingly take those for the immediate future."
(b) "Christians will have to seek protection from international ecumenical movements to intercede between authoritarian governments and doctrinal freedom."
(c) "Churches will have to become invisible and protective if they are to teach the Gospel in the future."
(d) "The entire education of the younger generation of theologians belongs today in church cloister-like schools, in which pure doctrine, the Sermon on the Mount and worship are taken seriously...."

3. What does Metaxas report to be the meaning of the officials at Flossenburg telling the prisoners being transferred from Buchenwald that the camp was "too full" to receive them?
(a) The camp had been converted to a receiving center for refugees fleeing allied bombing.
(b) That they were backlogged on executions and they would have to wait in another location until they could be "processed".
(c) The winding down of the war meant the Germans were not wasting resources and time on political executions.
(d) That those prisoners were not marked for death as the only purpose for Flossenburg was to execute prisoners.

4. After Bonhoeffer announced he would be willing to personally kill Hitler, why does Metaxas claim he would have to resign from the Confessing Church?
(a) He did not want to implicate the church in a task that he was undertaking alone.
(b) Because he knew that being willing to kill Hitler was leading him to renounce his Christianity.
(c) He was choosing to dedicate his life to being a double agent.
(d) He knew that the church would be marred by his sin.

5. According to Metaxas, why didn't Hitler have everyone involved in the conspiracy against him immediately executed?
(a) He was planning massive, televised show trials after his success in the war.
(b) Hitler wanted to get as much information as possible regarding the conspiracy.
(c) The war was winding down and the resources were not available to retrieve all of them.
(d) He wanted to enjoy torturing the co-conspirators to their death.

6. According to a letter cited by Metaxas, what aspect of prison life was an enrichment of his life's experience?
(a) A thrush would sing outside his window daily.
(b) The hardships of prison hardly bothered him.
(c) He was able to quit smoking.
(d) The lack of physical things made them lose their importance.

7. How does Metaxas report that Hitler avoided political confrontations from his generals as he was making plans for war?
(a) He put out false stories that his major opponents in the military were homosexuals.
(b) He took command of the military by establishing the OKW and surrounding himself with supporters.
(c) He met with Neville Chamberlain to negotiate the peaceful acquisition of Czechoslovakia.
(d) He conducted the peaceful anchluss of Austria.

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

9. 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) Life is not as easy as applying principles that define sin and righteousness.
(b) He knew that he was facing by the SS and decided to finish some things that he had always wanted to do.
(c) He felt that he had cut his ties with the church and started making decisions that were self serving.
(d) 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.

10. 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) What should be our view toward the Jews? Aren't we to honor the government since it was ordained by God?
(b) How do I learn to pray? How do I learn to read the Bible?
(c) How do I minister the Gospel under the opposition of the government? How do I protect my flock from the government?
(d) 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?

11. For what reason does Metaxas claim Bonhoeffer left London for Berlin?
(a) To organize his associated in the Confessing Church for a more effective stand against the Nazis.
(b) Because the Foreign Ministry of the Government had ordered him home.
(c) To report for duty as the imminent head of the first seminary in the Confessing Church.
(d) Because he felt the need to pick up his opposition to Hitler in his homeland.

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

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

14. What international event prevented a conspiracy from declaring Hitler insane and removing him from office, according to Metaxas?
(a) Neville Chamberlain appearing in Munich to negotiate the peaceful German occupation of Czechoslovakia?
(b) The Anschluss of Austria.
(c) The Krystallnacht.
(d) The resignation of General Ludwig von Beck.

15. 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.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Metaxas suggest to be the internal struggle regarding military service that troubled Bonhoeffer?

2. How did Bonhoeffer finally propose to Maria, according to Metaxas?

3. What former theological nemesis of Bonhoeffer's does Metaxas report to have joined a conspiracy against Hitler?

4. Where did Bonhoeffer first meet Eberhard Bethge, according to Metaxas?

5. What does Metaxas cite as the first reason that Bonhoeffer joined the Abwehr?

(see the answer keys)

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