I reference this from time to time as I reflect on the church today. His work still engages me! A must read to get at the heart of Bonhoeffer's life while in prison, his thoughts, fears, concerns, and hope.

These letters are filled with fascinating insights into Bonhoeffer’s mindset while in prison. They will leave you thinking hard and wishing that he had lived longer to flesh them out!

THE GOOD: True story. Does go into a fair bit of theological detail.

THE BAD: To be honest, this book was a bit of a bore. I've always been interested in WW2 and learning more about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the great theologians of his time. However, the majority of his letters were pretty mundane (get me this, get me that) and failed to keep me entertained at all.

THE UGLY: I give this book 2 stars based on fact that I felt like I had to labour through most of it (Excuse the pun).

DNFed, unfortunately. Too many of the letters are repetitive and day-to-day… wish this was edited down, I don’t think we really need to publish every single letter.

I got this book because I wanted to dig deeper into Bonhoeffer’s mature thought, found in the letters he wrote while imprisoned. Those profound, insightful, eye-opening thoughts are in here but first are dozens (hundreds) of letters both from and to Bonhoeffer. The introduction noted that the first edition of this book was much shorter, consisting mostly of just the theological letters.

I wasn’t expecting 350ish pages of letters before getting into the theological meat, but it was an intriguing and heart-moving read. I mean, Bonhoeffer is in prison and seems so level-headed! If you didn’t know any better, you might assume being in prison wasn’t so bad. Sure, compared to most prisoners of the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer was in an ideal situation. But it was still rather terrible. And it certainly affected him more than he let on, which is especially apparent when he writes to his friend Eberhard Bethgee, Here he lets his guard down, which shines a light on how much it is up when he writes to his parents.

Beginning with the letter of April 30, 1944, Bonhoeffer discusses “religionless Christianity”. I am not going to try to sum it up, but there is a lot here to gnaw on - it started (or contributed to) an entire movement in the 60s (Death of God theology). I

Bonhoeffer is critical of how Christians tend to present God at the moment when all other explanations are over. After that, whatever is left that cannot be unexplained, or things such as meaning and morality, are where God is found. For Bonhoeffer, this reduces God to the edges while God ought to be at the center. His criticism of apologists is spot on, though I admit I was thinking of the apologists I was reading in the early 2000s. For them, and many Christians, God is a deus ex machina - brought in at the end to solve whatever problem remains.

“Religious people speak of God at a point where human knowledge is at an end (or sometimes when they’re too lazy to think further), or when human strength fails. Actually, its a deus ex machina that they’re always bringing on the scene, either to appear to solve insoluble problems or to provide strength when human powers fail, thus always exploiting human weakness or human limitations. Inevitable that lasts only until human beings become powerful enough to push the boundaries a bit further and God is no longer needed as deus ex machina” (369).

Another great quote comes from his letter of May 29, 1944:

“God is the center of life and doesn’t just ‘turn up’ when we have unsolved problems to be solved” (411)

Now, to say God ought to be at the center may sound much like what you’d here at some kind of youth rally or summer camp revival. Sweaty evangelistic preachers are always guilt tripping impressionable youth to take God more seriously, to give God more of life, to put God at the center! This seems to mean pray more, read the Bible more, just plain think about God more. Maybe give up anything fun in life and go be a missionary.

This is not what Bonhoeffer means. He speaks of this earlier, and I couldn’t find the one quote I was thinking of, where he speaks os enjoying life:

“I believe we are so to love God in our life and in the good things God gives us and to lay hold of such trust in God that, when the time comes and is here. But truly only then! - we also go to God with love, trust and joy. But - to say it clearly - that a person in the arms of his wife should long for the hereafter is, to put it mildly, tasteless and in any case is not God’s will. One should find and lovve God in what God directly gives us: if it pleases God to allow us to enjoy an overwhelming earthly happiness then one shouldn’t be more pious than God and allow this happens to be gnawed away through arrogant thoughts and challenges and wil religious fantasy that is never satisfied with what God gives” (215).

Then in his letter of July 16, 1944 he writes:

“Thus our coming of ave leads us to a truer recognition of our situation before God. God would have us know that we must live as those who manage their lives without God. . . Before God, and with God, we live without God. God consents to be pushed out of the world and onto the cross; God is weak and powerless in the world and in precisely this way, and only so, is at our side and helps us” (480).

Honestly, I am not even sure what this means.

“The world come of age is more god-less and perhaps just because of that closer to God than the world not yet come of age” (483).

I don’t know what living this way looks like, I am struggling to get my mind around it, but I find it fascinating and inspiring.

He does give some hint in the next letter, July 21, 1944:

“The Christian is not a homo religiosus but simply a human being, in the same way that Jesus was a human being” (487)

And

“Living fully in the midst of life’s tasks, questions, successes and failures, experiences, and perplexities” (488).

Be human as Jesus was human, live fully in this life. Live a life of self-sacrifice in love of others.

At least, that’s what I think he’s getting at.

Overall, a brilliant and haunting book. It was especially haunting to read the final letter from his parents, wondering why he hasn’t written back and not knowing which prison he was transferred to. Bonhoeffer was a brilliant and inspiring man and though we wish we had more writings from him, what he left us is amazing.

Poco puedo decir sobre escritos basados en hechos reales y tan íntimos como lo es esta compilación del filósofo y teólogo Dietrich Bonhoeffer, salvo lo increíble que resulta leer pensamientos brillantes desde una realidad tan devastadora como lo fue la de la Alemania de principios del siglo pasado. Sin duda, una lectura altamente recomendable. Grandes lecciones éticas de vida y otros temas universales son los que engloban este libro.