Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis: Recovering the True Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Ebook
Overview
”Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself." These are words Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke to his brother a few months before he began training future pastors in the ways of discipleship. For several years he had been speaking out against war. Near the beginning of the anti-Semitic Nazi regime, he called on his fellow Christians to speak out against a state that was engaging in oppressive measures, to respond to victims of oppression, and to be willing to suffer, as a church, if it was required to stop such oppression. His vision for training disciples was rooted in pure doctrine, serious worship, a new kind of monasticism, and the Sermon on the Mount. Bonhoeffer was convinced that through the living presence of Jesus and the explosive teachings of the Sermon on the Mount “lies the force that can blow all this hocus-pocus sky-high--like fireworks, leaving only a few burnt-out shells behind." This is the legacy of this extraordinary theologian that this book seeks to recover--exploring how this was lived out in a world full of Nazis.
“Nation may be a pacifist, but this book is a take-no-prisoners, full-blooded attack on a certain perception of Bonhoeffer as a hero of the German Resistance. Controversial and iconoclastic, the central argument demands interpreters of Bonhoeffer to respond.”
—Jennifer Moberly, Tutor and Lecturer in Ethics and Spiritualty, Cranmer Hall, St John’s College, Durham University
“If you still think Bonhoeffer can be conscripted in support of Niebuhrian-style political realism, read this book. Nation patiently, painstakingly, and powerfully continues his work of delivering Bonhoeffer from that Babylonian captivity. Nation unfolds Bonhoeffer’s nonviolence and pacifism not as ethical and political principles but as intrinsic to his radical, courageous participation in the living reality of Christ. Bonhoeffer’s work is always existentially and theologically challenging, but ever more so when illuminated by Mark Nation.”
—Douglas Harink, Professor of Theology emeritus, The King’s University, Edmonton
“Nation’s meticulous research should disrupt the popular, often truncated narrative that Bonhoeffer was a tragic realist, a failed assassin. But even if readers remain committed to that tale, this book invites us to reread Bonhoeffer’s theology with fresh eyes for our own day. In a world still full of violent powers vying for our allegiance, Bonhoeffer helps us imagine what it means to live with Christ crucified as the measure and mediator of a good and grace-filled life.”
—Erin Dufault-Hunter, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary
- Title: Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis: Recovering the True Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Authors: Mark Thiessen Nation, Scot McKnight, Stanley Hauerwas
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2022
- Pages: 258
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725295100, 9781725295094, 1725295091, 9781725295087, 1725295083, 1725295105
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725295100
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T17:20:12Z
Mark Thiessen Nation is Professor Emeritus of Theology, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Virginia. His books include Bonhoeffer the Assassin? (2013).