Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A concise guide to one of the most remarkably martyrs and theologians of the twentieth century.
Table of Contents
1. Approaching Bonhoeffer: The Challenges and Opportunities
This chapter would function to introduce Bonhoeffer and to describe the difficulties that are found in Bonhoeffer's work, including a brief overview of Bonhoeffer's life, an analysis of Bonhoeffer interpretations and the reasons why his theology has the character it has.2. Beginning at the End: The Perplexing Nature of the Prison Letters
Dovetailing off of chapter 1, I would here describe in depth the nature of the prison letters, engaging specifically with the key themes that I will unpack in the following chapters. This chapter will include engagement with various interpreters of Bonhoeffer to see how the prison letters have been used in Bonhoeffer research.
3. Christocentric Lordship: The Centrality of Christ
This chapter would prove to be a foundational methodology for establishing Bonhoeffer's overall project in the prison letters, and would place the letters, not as hermeneutical keys for interpreting Bonhoeffer backward, as it were, but would demonstrate that the prison letters emerge from Bonhoeffer's earlier theology, at the heart of which is a concern for the Lordship of Christ.
4. Arcane Discipline: Ecclesiology in Bonhoeffer's Theological Development
This chapter would approach the nature of the church in Bonhoeffer's theology. Bonhoeffer began his theological career with a treatise on the church (Sanctorum Communio); his passion for the Body of Christ never waned, even in the darkness of the failure of the Confessing Church to live up to its responsibility. While many authors believe Bonhoeffer has given up on the church in the prison letters, I would argue that he is, in fact, very much interested in the church, and the theme of arcane discipline reveals this. Thus, this theme, seen in the light of Bonhoeffer's other writings, is an excellent way to explore Bonhoeffer's ecclesiology.
5. As If God Were Not Given: The Weakness of God in Bonhoeffer's Thought
One cannot understand Bonhoeffer apart from his theology of the cross. Again, this is a theme that is present throughout his writings, but it comes to its most pointed expression in the prison letters. In speaking of God on the cross in the letters, Bonhoeffer makes some of his most difficult statements. How can we act without God before God? What does it mean that God is pushed out of the world on the cross? These statements make sense when read against the backdrop of the developing theology of the cross in Bonhoeffer.
6. World Come of