Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Witness to Jesus Christ (Making of Modern Theology)

Rating:
Summary: A superb overview of the work of this seminal thinker
Review: This book is a great place to start if you are new to Bonhoeffer's work. It is equally useful for those who have read a lot of Bonhoeffer since it includes selections from key but less well known or less accessible works like his talk at the Fano "Life and Work" conference on the importance of addressing international issues, or his 1939 letter to the Finkenwald brethren. Moreover, de Gruchy's selection of pages or even paragraphs of more difficult texts are a model for such anthologies. The very useful 40-page introduction and editor's notes before each selection say just enough to be helpful while they reveal de Gruchy's mastery of his subject. They also reflect the fact that like Bonhoeffer, de Gruchy was active for years in political struggle within a repressive regime -- in his case, South Africa. Aside from brief biographies by Bethge or Robertson that quote widely from Bonhoeffer, I don't know of a better overview to one of the most useful thinkers of the last century for our own, precarious, ...

Rating:
Summary: A costly faith
Review: This volume on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is part of a series by Fortress Press entitled 'the Making of Modern Theology: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Texts'. Each of the volumes in the series focuses upon one particular theologian of note. These volumes are of use to students, seminarians, ministers and other readers interested in the development of theological ideas in the modern and postmodern world. Each volume is a reader of key texts from the theologian highlighted - the text entries are annotated a bit by the editors, and the editor of each volume provides an introduction setting the general stage for context and understanding.

Editor John de Gruchy describes Bonhoeffer in simple terms -- as a witness to Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer is no arm-chair theologian, but rather someone who put his theology into action, and became a modern-day martyr for his beliefs in what the gospel of Jesus Christ requires. Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945 for his part in the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler, believing that what was finally required of Christian witness in Germany at the time was direct action against the evil that he embodied and perpetuated.

Bonhoeffer was never a bone fide academic systematic theologian, but his writings, including those pieces he wrote in prison, have become classics of Christian literature. 'Letters and Papers from Prison' and 'The Cost of Discipleship' are known the world over, but are only part of a larger body of essays, lectures, sermons and books. Bonhoeffer's early upbringing, the son of a psychiatrist/professor, part of a Lutheran/Reformed family that was generally non-religious in outlook, was not one that would predict a theological career for young Dietrich -- in fact, his earliest interest in things theological may have had more to do with his desire to be different from his brothers and the rest of his family than any direct faith in the church. Bonhoeffer was a good student, but remained unswayed by any particular influence -- he was influenced by Kierkegaard, but not to the extent that Barth was; he used I-Thou language, but not taken directly from Martin Buber.

Bonhoeffer was a parish minister, but continued to write during his pastorate. His work, 'Act and Being' was an exploration of the theology of action, including God's action in the world, and the theology of ontology, of being. After this work, Bonhoeffer spent time in America, at Union seminary in New York City, and developed there the beginnings of a theology of scripture and the Word. Back in Germany prior to the advent of the Nazi era (a period of relative political freedom in Germany), he worked on Christological issues. Bonhoeffer became the first Evangelical theologian to attack the Nazi's repressive policies. Was Bonhoeffer thinking that the freedom of expression that had come to be taken for granted in Germany would still exist under the Nazi regime?

In what is arguably Bonhoeffer's most important work, 'The Cost of Discipleship', he argues against ideas such as cheap grace and doctrines of justification by faith that permit passive acceptance of evil policies and conditions in the world. Using the Sermon on the Mount as one example, he argues that the actions of discipleship are part of the grace bestowed, not in a works-righteousness manner, but nonetheless a requirement against what today we might term 'warm fuzzy feeling' theology.

de Gruchy looks at several key areas of Bonhoeffer's work in the selected texts. The first section draws extensively from his doctoral dissertation, 'Sanctorum Communio', and his book 'Act and Being'. The other sections draw liberally on his other works as they relate to the topics at hand: Christology, the Confessing Church, Life of Free Responsibility, and finally, some of his last works from prison. de Gruchy speculates a bit on what a 'mature' Bonhoeffer who had lived might have looked like. He also includes a brief annotated listing of some key works that have been significantly influenced by Bonhoeffer's work.

Each volume in this series also has a selected bibliography section -- this one for Bonhoeffer is divided into works by Bonhoeffer (primary sources in English), works about Bonhoeffer (secondary sources in English), and includes a text of larger bibliographic references. The book also has several indexes -- a place and subject index, and a names index. This is a very good book for scholarship. The translations of the works from the original German is new, preserving some of the language uses (masculine pronouns for God) while modifying others (gender neutral translations for terms such as Mensch, Menschen).