Speaking to an American audience about the First World War, Bonhoeffer, born in a world culturally very different to our own, reflected on the way in which the nationalistic arrogance present in Germany in the run up to the conflict had been shaped the way that his country had looked upon the world.


But then, he said, “The great disillusionment came.” The war changed the way that Germany understood itself.

The truth is that what lives in our minds, is expressed in our societies. When we feel proud of ourselves and our achievements, and when we let that pride come to define us, then we set ourselves up for conflict that can only be addressed by an abandonment of illusion, and a return to humility.