Gudina Tumsa and Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Abstract

The situations in which Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Gudina Tumsa lived were basically very different from each other, but nevertheless similar because of the parallel challenge through a totalitarian dictatorship with a quasi-religious anti-Christian world view. In many basic theological decisions, both prove to be amazingly similar. Both have been equally gifted in initiating ideas and inspiring people during their lives and far beyond. Many of Gudina's statements have the evocative, associative, fascinating power of Bonhoeffer's sometimes fragmentary, but always provocative, deep and concise reflections. Both their legacies are certainly worthy of interpretation for each generation--the theology of Gudina Tumsa just as the theology of Bonhoeffer has been during the past decades.