German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a committed pacifist who eventually felt called to participate in a plot on Hitler’s life. This winter, Beatrice Institute collaborates with the Bruderhof community to discuss and interrogate the tension in Christian ethics between a preference for non-violence and the responsibility to protect the innocent.

Join us for an evening of hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and a panel discussion inspired by the new movie on Bonhoeffer’s life, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. (Seeing the movie is not necessary to attend the Salon.)

Our panelists, representing different mediums, fields, traditions, and historical epochs, will speak about Bonhoeffer's historical context and the theological commitments that swayed both pacifist and activist responses to Hitler's regime.

• Pastor Eric Andrae is the Campus Pastor and Outreach Minister at First Trinity Lutheran Church in Oakland. He earned a B.A. degree in 1993 from Valparaiso University and a Master of Divinity Degree in 1997 from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO. He has traveled extensively and earned a Master of Sacred Theology in pastoral care from Concordia Seminary in 2003. Eric is also a published Bonhoeffer scholar.

• Amber Hindley worked for several years as a Bruderhof archivist and now lives in the Woodcrest Bruderhof community. She brings a perspective on the Bruderhof church experience in Nazi Germany (until the expulsion in 1937), insight on some of the similarities and differences between different churche responses to the rise of the Third Reich, and thoughts on the theme of non-violent pacifist resistance.

• Patrick Jones is a PhD in Theology from Catholic University of America and currently teaches at St. Vincent's in Latrobe. His studies focus on the intersection of political philosophy and moral theology, with a special focus on 19th and 20th century Catholic political thought. His dissertation was entitled, “The Nation-State and Global Governance: A Question in Modern Catholic Social Doctrine.”

• Ben Burkholder is a PhD in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University, an Associate Pastor, and an adjunct professor at La Roche University. Ben has a particular interest in questions regarding how certain accounts of the atonement might encourage people—in the face of oppression—toward either violence or passivity. He has a passion for the integration of Christian worldview, theology, and higher education and has always been interested in how Bonhoeffer’s ethics and theology inform a Christ-centered approach to nature.

We will meet in the John Knox Room at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, which is in building 8 on the map below. Please park behind buildings 5 and 7.

Food and wine will be provided!