Description
Book SynopsisPrompted by the 2017 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, this book examines the legacy of Martin Luther in the life, work, and reception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the most widely read modern Lutheran theologian. Framing the commemoration of the Reformation in conversation with Bonhoeffer’s legacy places much more than Bonhoeffer’s connection to Luther at stake. Given the fraught relationship of the Lutheran Bonhoeffer with the German Protestant Church under National Socialism, the question inevitably arises: “What happened to Luther’s church in Germany?” This in turn prompts the question: “How did the Protestant tradition play out in public life in other nations?” And these historical issues in turn encourage reflection on a question that exercised both Luther and Bonhoeffer: “What will be the shape of the church in the future?” In these pages, an international group of scholars and practitioners from both church and state pursues these questions.
Trade ReviewThis rich collection of substantive and expert essays explores both Bonhoeffer’s complex relation to the traditions of Lutheran faith as well as the ways in which, refracted through his own work, impulses from this same Reformation faith press upon important contemporary questions in church and public life. Students of Bonhoeffer’s theology and all those wrestling with the shape of public theology today will welcome the instruction, provocation, and encouragement this volume provides. -- Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen
This volume is remarkable, and prescient. With chapters by an impressive array of international scholars, including historians, theologians, and activists, the book examines critical questions related to Martin Luther and the legacy and ongoing impact of the Reformation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the National Socialist context that shaped his life and thought, and the consequent implications of their work on contemporary issues in the church and the world. Michael DeJonge and Clifford Green have curated a book that seriously grapples with the past to form the future, that seriously grapples with global struggles for racial, social, and environmental justice. It is a book that matters. -- Lori Brandt Hale, Augsburg University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Reformation: Grappling with a Contested Legacy Michael P. DeJonge and Clifford J. Green 1. Fatal Coincidences in 1933: Nazism’s Triumph and Luther’s 450th Birthday Hartmut Lehmann 2. Looking for Luther, 1933–1939 Victoria J. Barnett 3. Luther in Catholic Perspective across Five Centuries Euan Cameron 4. Justification, Ethics, and the “Other”: Paul, Luther, and Bonhoeffer in Trialogue Brigitte Kahl 5. Radicalizing Reformation amid Today’s Crises, in the Spirit of Bonhoeffer Karen L. Bloomquist 6. Worldly Worship: Reformation and Economic Ethics Wolfgang Huber 7. Reformation: Freeing the Church for Authentic Public Witness Heinrich Bedford-Strohm 8. Between Compromise and Radicalism: Luther’s Legacy in Bonhoeffer’s Political Thought Michael P. DeJonge 9. Church, Racism and Resistance: Bonhoeffer and the Critical Dimension of Theological Integrity Allen Aubrey Boesak 10. “On the Way to Freedom Land”: Bonhoeffer and Three Bright Lights of the Civil Rights Movement Josiah U. Young III 11. Veni, Creator Spiritus! An Ecological Reformation Larry Rasmussen 12. Reformation through Repentance: The Church’s Public Witness Jennifer M. McBride 13. Bonhoeffer and the Re-Forming Church in a Globalizing Era Esther D. Reed 14. Bonhoeffer, Truth, Ethics, and Politics Kevin Rudd, interviewed by Serene Jones
