Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 8: Letters and Papers from Prison
Overview
Despite Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s earlier theological achievements and writings, it was his correspondence and notes from prison that electrified the postwar world six years after his death in 1945. The materials gathered and selected by his friend Eberhard Bethge in Letters and Papers from Prison not only brought Bonhoeffer to a wide and appreciative readership, especially in North America, they also introduced to a broad readership his novel and exciting ideas of religionless Christianity, his open and honest theological appraisal of Christian doctrines, and his sturdy, if sorely tried, faith in face of uncertainty and doubt.
This splendid volume, in many ways the capstone of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, is the first unabridged collection of Bonhoeffer’s 1943–1945 prison letters and theological writings. Here are over 200 documents that include extensive correspondence with his family and Eberhard Bethge (much of it in English for the first time), as well as his theological notes, and his prison poems. The volume offers an illuminating introduction by Editor John de Gruchy and an historical afterword by the editors of the original German volume: Christian Gremmels, Eberhard Bethge, and Renate Bethge.
In the Logos edition, Letters and Papers from Prison is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
Key Features
- Offers an insightful afterword that provides an extended reflection on the content of the featured letters
- Provides a clearer context for Bonhoeffer’s theological writings
- Contains over 200 documents written and received by Bonhoeffer from prison
- Presents a mature reflection during a decade of Christian resistance to National Socialism
Product Details
- Title: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 8: Letters and Papers from Prison
- Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Translators: Isabel Best, Lisa E. Dahill, Reinhard Krauss, Nancy Lukens, Barbara Rumscheidt, and Martin Rumscheidt
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Publication Date: 2010
- Pages: 776
About Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) a German theologian, pastor, and ecumenist, was a professor in Berlin, an uncompromising teacher in the Confessing Church, and a consistent opponent of National Socialism. Executed by Hitler at the end of World War II, his influence continues today as one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century.
Top Highlights
“We must learn to regard human beings less in terms of what they do and neglect to do and more in terms of what they suffer. The only fruitful relation to human beings—particularly to the weak among them—is love, that is, the will to enter into and to keep community with them. God did not hold human beings in contempt but became human for their sake.” (Page 45)
“The questions to be answered would be: What does a church, a congregation, a sermon, a liturgy, a Christian life, mean in a religionless world? How do we talk about God—without religion, that is, without the temporally conditioned presuppositions of metaphysics, the inner life, and so on? How do we speak (or perhaps we can no longer even ‘speak’ the way we used to) in a ‘worldly’ way about ‘God’? How do we go about being ‘religionless-worldly’ Christians, how can we be ἐκ-κλησία,[18] those who are called out, without understanding ourselves religiously as privileged, but instead seeing ourselves as belonging wholly to the world? Christ would then no longer be the object of religion, but something else entirely, truly lord of the world.” (Page 364)
“What remains for us is only the very narrow path, sometimes barely discernible, of taking each day as if it were the last and yet living it faithfully and responsibly as if there were yet to be a great future.” (Page 50)
“Time is lost when we have not lived, experienced things, learned, worked, enjoyed, and suffered as human beings. Lost time is unfulfilled, empty time.” (Page 37)
“As a working hypothesis for morality, politics, and the natural sciences, God has been overcome and done away with, but also as a working hypothesis for philosophy and religion (Feuerbach!).[30] It is a matter of intellectual integrity to drop this working hypothesis, or eliminate it as far as possible. An edifying scientist, physician, and so forth is a hybrid. So where is any room left for God? Ask those who are anxious, and since they don’t have an answer, they condemn the entire development that has brought them to this impasse.” (Page 478)
- Title: Letters and Papers from Prison
- Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Series: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works
- Volume: 8
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Print Publication Date: 2010
- Logos Release Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 1906-1945 › Correspondence; Prisoners of war › Germany--Correspondence; Theologians › Germany--Correspondence
- Resource ID: LLS:DBW08
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T07:56:05Z
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), a German theologian, pastor, and ecumenist, was a professor in Berlin, an uncompromising teacher in the Confessing Church, and a consistent opponent of National Socialism. Executed by Hitler at the end of World War II, his influence continues today as one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century. Bonhoeffer penned countless letters, portions of fiction, and several works on theology and ethics that have shaped modern religious thought. Life Together and The Cost of Discipleship are two examples of this modern martyr’s enduring legacy.
Reviews
2 ratings
Prayson Daniel
2/5/2015
We have approached, by and large, a completely religionless Western World. It is a post Christian era. We are living in a mature civilization, a brave new world, whose ethics and politics are more-or-less not influenced by Christian beliefs any longer. Sadly, these include the very lifestyle of self-describing Christians. For most of us, our lives as Western Christians show no practical difference from that of unbelievers. It is truly a world that has “come of age”. How we could reconcile the religionless era, or most correct post Christian world, that has dawn, with the lordship of Christ Jesus, or as Bonhoeffer wrote, “how can Christ become Lord of the religionless as well?” and “is there such a thing as a religionless Christian?” is one of though provoking project he undertook in this volume. If you would love to know how “the nonreligious interpretation of biblical concepts” could aid you proclaim Christianity in post Christianity world, this is your book.
Larry Proffitt
3/27/2014
