bonhoeffer letters and papers from prison

Marty tells the story of how, in the 1960s and the following decades, these provocative ideas stirred a wide range of thinkers and activists, including civil rights and antiapartheid campaigners, 'death-of-God' theologians, and East German Marxists. In his late letters, Bonhoeffer raised tantalizing questions about the role of Christianity and the church in an increasingly secular world. In this, the first history of the book's remarkable global career, National Book Award-winning author Martin Marty tells how and why Letters and Papers from Prison has been read and used in such dramatically different ways, from the cold war to today. The posthumous Letters and Papers from Prison has had a tremendous impact on both Christian and secular thought since it was first published in 1951, and has helped establish Bonhoeffer's reputation as one of the most important Protestant thinkers of the twentieth century. A Lutheran pastor and theologian, Bonhoeffer spent two years in Nazi prisons before being executed at age thirty-nine, just a month before the German surrender, for his role in the plot to kill Hitler.

Bonhoeffer's story seems as vitally relevant, as politically prophetic, and as theologically significant today, as it did yesterday.For fascination, influence, inspiration, and controversy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison is unmatched by any other book of Christian reflection written in the twentieth century. Letters from Bonhoeffer's parents, siblings, and other relatives have also been added, in addition to previously inaccessible letters and legal papers referring to his trial.Īcute and subtle, warm and perceptive, yet also profoundly moving, the documents collectively tell a very human story of loss, of courage, and of hope. His letters appear in greater detail and show his daily concerns. This expanded version of Letters and Papers from Prison shifts the emphasis of earlier editions of Bonhoeffer's theological reflections to the private sphere of his life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young German pastor who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 for his part in the 'officers' plot' to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

One of the great classics of prison literature, Letters and Papers from Prison effectively serves as the last will and testament of the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer letters and papers from prison