11/10/2019
Galatians 2:20
Chris Breslin
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, underground seminary-founder, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. He died in 1945 in a concentration camp in Flossenbürg.
Bonhoeffer episode of the Road to Now (RTN Theology #10 podcast)
Entry Bonhoeffer
DB at his most accessible and challenging. At once deeply theological and heady while practical. Published in 1939, these desires and insights came from his vision and experience developing an underground residential seminary in Finkenwalde.
Sometimes known as “the Cost of Discipleship,” this is Bonhoeffer’s most popular work centering on the Sermon on the Mount. You can feel the dissonance building as he writes in a mode of critique and resistance about grace against the backdrop of 1937 Europe.
God is in the Manger (Advent & Christmas)
Accessible and inspiring devotional snippets from sermons, letters and writings centered on the Incarnation of Jesus.
God is on the Cross (Lent & Easter)
Accessible and inspiring devotional snippets from sermons, letters and writings centered on the Crucifixion of Jesus.
Psalms: The Prayerbook of the Bible
A short and punchy rumination on the importance of the Psalms for the life of faith. DB reminds us that Jesus died with the words of the psalms on his lips ana challenges us to read the psalms imagining them coming out of Jesus’ mouth. This provides a whole new lens that has the possibility of transforming a prayer life.
Next-level Bonhoeffer
Letters and Papers from Prison
A compilation of writings (personal correspondence, poetry, occasional reflections…) from prison which lives in the pantheon of the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and the Apostle Paul.
DB’s unfinished and posthumously released volume meant to be his magnum opus. Perhaps his most nuanced and theopolitically incisive writing.
A slim and challenging theological work featuring his robust Christology.
About Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography by Eberhard Bethge
Written by former student, friend, and recipient of many a letter, this is considered one of the most personal and insightful of DB bios.
Performing the Faith by Stanley Hauerwas
Written by famed theological ethicist specifically about DB’s ethic of nonviolence. A valuable guide for dispelling some of the assassin-spy persona and understanding the core of DB’s faith-based political resistance.
Battle for Bonhoeffer by Stephen R Haynes
As discussed in Bob’s interview in this RTN-Theology episode, Professor Haynes deftly navigates the popular portrayals and, in some cases, misconstruals of DB in an attempt to resituate his witness and thought for our times.
Strange Glory by Charles Marsh
Written by UVA professor and Director of the Project on Lived Theology, this DB bio is fastidiously researched and provocative in its portrayal of a cosmopolitan wunderkind turned enemy of the state.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance by Ferdinand Schlingensiepen
Considered by many to be the definitive DB bio; exhaustive to be sure, clocking in at almost 500 pages.
Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus by Reggie Williams
A brilliant recent contribution to DB scholarship focusing on Bonhoeffer’s 1931 fellowship at Union Seminary and his transformative experience at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. DB claims to have met Jesus in the church life, Sunday School classes, neighborhood gatherings, black gospel music, and literature and culture of the Harlem Renaissance- rather than the coursework of the liberal protestant seminary he’d set out to attend.
All Saints Resources:
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals eds. Shane Claiborne, Enuma Okuro, & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Blessed Among All Women: Women Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time by Robert Ellsberg
A Living Gospel: Reading God’s Story in Holy Lives by Robert Ellsberg
All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time by Robert Ellsberg
Can I Get a Witness?: Thirteen Peacemakers, Community-Builders, and Agitators for Faith and Justice eds. Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, & Dan Rhodes
Spiritual Classics: Selected Readings on the Twelve Spiritual Disciplines ed. Richard Foster & Emilie Griffin
Songs for Today’s Worship Gathering:
Galatians 2:20 by Aiuto
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus by Singh
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed by Montgomery/McCracken
Bonhoeffer’s Prayer by Taizé/Wardell
Lamb of God by Assad
Jesus Spreads His Banner O’er Us by Barthélémon/Crawford
Doxology
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