Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 30, 1995 TAG: 9511300080
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The couple, who came to Roanoke in 1991 when Matheny became pastor of Westhampton Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), are specialists in the life, thought and work of a man who is increasingly a household word among mainstream American Christians. They have edited the letters, diaries, sermons and other written works of Bonhoeffer, who is known throughout the world for his books, "The Cost of Discipleship," "Life Together" and "Letters from Prison."
These works, covering the German teacher's life from age 12 to 25, are part of a 16-volume project being issued by the international Bonhoeffer Society and published by the Lutheran Fortress Press.
Matheny said it is the first complete collection of all the Bonhoeffer papers and a "critical" study to satisfy the demands of accuracy and detail of scholarly church people.
Bonhoeffer's life was tragically short. He was hanged in a Nazi prison camp a few days before the camp was liberated by advancing Allied troops in 1945. He was 39 and had been fighting Hitler with his sermons and his pen for many years.
Nine months before his death, Bonhoeffer had been part of a plot to assassinate the dictator. It failed, and not only he but also uncounted friends and family members were destroyed by Hitler's secret police.
Bonhoeffer, Nebelsick said, was a theological thinker for a secular world. He wrote of the serious business of being a Christian when, in everyday life, it is easy to forget how hard it is to live by scriptural values. As a Lutheran from a prominent family of intellectuals and pastors, Bonhoeffer might have rejected activism against the atheist Nazi government, but he carried on his crusade for God until the very end.
Little known at first, he has become a model for living in a difficult world. Many Roanoke Valley churches have made his work the subject of study groups. Matheny said Bonhoeffer's appeal has steadily grown even with the relatively poor translations of his work from German into English.
It is natural that the Roanoke couple should involve themselves with Bonhoeffer. Both come from ministerial families. Matheny is the son of a Disciples of Christ pastor in Houston, Texas, and Nebelsick is the daughter of a Presbyterian who worked with refugees in Eastern Europe just after World War II. Nebelsick grew up bilingual, and German comes as naturally as English for her. Matheny, however, had to learn the language while both were students in advanced theology at the University of Heidelberg.
Nebelsick's father, Harold, was acquainted with such church luminaries as Martin Niemoller and Karl Barth, both of whom opposed Hitler from the dictator's early days. She spent several periods in Germany while growing up.
Nebelsick met Matheny while they were studying at Princeton Theological Seminary and has retained not only her maiden name but also her family denomination - Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
"It's no problem," said her husband, whose Disciples of Christ denomination stands for ecumenical cooperation. "By the time our baby's grown, we're all going to be doing more things together."
The baby is currently almost outstripping Bonhoeffer in interest in the Matheny-Nebelsick household. Married for 12 years, the couple are awaiting their first child, due right before Christmas.
They're trying to be prepared for adjustments in their lifestyles. Nebelsick plans to keep her part-time, interim job as Christian educator at Second Presbyterian Church. Not yet ordained, she continues to work toward that goal under the supervision of the Louisville, Ky., presbytery.
Being pregnant, she said, makes her identify more with Bonhoeffer's childhood prior to World War I.
A picture of Bonhoeffer, as a toddler clad in a white dress, with his large family is like an old friend, she said. Bonhoeffer was musically gifted as well as inclined to the church as early as age 14. He grew up to be a "people person" of large stature, a lover of children and the tender sweetheart of a girl who might have married him had he survived the prison camp.
In their involvement with Bonhoeffer's life, Matheny and Nebelsick have discovered personal details, such as his love of food, his affection for his siblings and his reactions to the turbulent times through which he lived in Germany.
It's all there in his writings, which soon his admirers will be able to read.
The Roanoke Valley Ministers Conference will sponsor a morning workshop on Bonhoeffer's life and works on Feb. 2 at Second Presbyterian Church. The workshop, open to the public, will include an address by the Rev. Wayne Floyd of Philadelphia. He is general editor of the translation project and a professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary there. Others involved in the project also have been invited.
by CNB