Letters and Papers from Prison: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 8

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Isabel Best, John W. de Gruchy, Reinhard Krauss (Editor), Lisa E. Dahill

Overview

Despite Dietrich Bonhoeffer's earlier theological achievements and writings, it was his correspondence and notes from prison that electrified the postwar world six years after his death in 1945. The materials gathered and selected by his friend Eberhard Bethge in Letters and Papers from Prison not only brought Bonhoeffer to a wide and appreciative readership, especially in North America, they also introduced to a broad readership his novel and exciting ideas of religionless Christianity, his open and honest theological appraisal of Christian doctrines, and his sturdy, if sorely tried, faith in face of uncertainty and doubt.

This splendid volume, in many ways the capstone of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, is the first unabridged collection of Bonhoeffer's 19431945 prison letters and theological writings. Here are over 200 documents that include extensive correspondence with his family and Eberhard Bethge (much of it in English for the first time), as well as his theological notes, and his prison poems. The volume offers an illuminating introduction by editor John de Gruchy and an historical Afterword by the editors of the original German volume: Christian Gremmels, Eberhard Bethge, and Renate Bethge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800697037
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	06/01/2010
Series:	Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works , #8
Pages:	776
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.00(h) x 2.40(d)

About the Author

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the most significant Protestant theologians of the twentieth century, a legacy sealed by his imprisonment in a German concentration camp and eventual execution. His resistance against Nazism and pivotal role in the Confessing Church movement have been key points of illumination for many on the nature of Christian political witness and action. Millions have been inspired by his rich reflections on the Christian life, especially his beloved works on discipleship and ethics. As a professor, seminary leader, and ecumenical theologian, Bonhoeffer's work also profoundly shaped academic theology, especially systematic theology, and the life of the church.

Isabel Best has contributed translations to a number of volumes in the English language series of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works published by Fortress Press, including Letters and Papers from Prison, Vol. 8 (2009), Berlin: 1932-1933, Vol. 12(2009), London, 1933-1935, Vol. 13 (2007), and Ecumenical, Academic, and Pastoral Work: 1931-1932, Vol. 11 (2012). She was also the translator of Ferdinand Schlingensiepen"s Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance (2010).

John de Gruchy is professor emeritus of Christian studies and a senior scholar at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is also an Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University.

Lisa E. Dahill is Assistant Professor of Worship and Christian Spirituality at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.

Nancy Lukensis Professor Emerita of German and Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her translations include among others three volumes in Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English edition: Sanctorum Communio (1998, with Reinhard Krauss), Fiction from Tegel Prison (2000), and Bonhoeffer"s prison poetry and late correspondence in Letters and Papers from Prison (2010), as well as Daughters of Eve: Women Writers of the German Democratic Republic (1993). She and her husband, Martin Rumscheidt, are co-translators of Soelle"s The Mystery of Death (2007).