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Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s thinking is as pertinent to the 21st century postmodern church as it was to the German church under Nazi seige and the world wide church in the half century following his death. Dramm, a great admirer and student of this brave pastor, provides a solid explanation of Bonhoeffer’s major theological positions. Quotes from Bonhoeffer’s works are central to Dramm’s book, and his clear and graphic prose appears throughout. This is a thoughtful and intelligent work focused on a theology which was, above all things, practical.
Dramm explores Bonhoeffer’s thoughts on a number of subjects (roughly in about 10 categories in 24 chapters), including:
• His understanding of his call to ministry
• The nature of God
• Ecclesiology (especially his insterest in the church as community)
• The nature of humanity
• His views on the Jews
• Discipleship, ethics, and what the world would be like without God.
What makes Bonhoeffer so interesting is that he was both complex and teachable, so that as the circumstances of life peeled away his social conventions to reveal what was truly important to him (his faith in God), his writings change and mature—and this over the space of only 25 or so years because of his execution by the Nazis for being in a plot to kill Hitler. Here is a German raised in the upper middle class who is a patriot, but who by reflection on what it means to be a Christian becomes a pacifist as his country becomes increasingly militant, and who goes on to be a spy and traitor. He is a pacifist who ends up in the center of a plot to kill his country’s leader and who faces (and writes about) his thoughts as he himself draws ever more closely to his criminal (in the eyes of the Nazis) end. It is obviously a fascinating exploration of the development of his thought in some ways and a revelation of the rock solid core of his convictions on the other.
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