Reading from the Underside of Selfhood: Bonhoeffer and Spiritual Formation

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's example of self-sacrificing discipleship has for over fifty years inspired Christians around the world in both their resistance to evil and their devotion to Jesus Christ. Yet for some readers—particularly those who suffer trauma, abuse, and other forms of violence—Bonhoeffer's insistence on self-sacrifice, on becoming a "person for others," may prove more harmful than liberating. For those already socialized into self-abnegation, uncritical applications of Bonhoeffer'...