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A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Bonhoeffer was not a well-recognized figure outside of Germany when he made the decision to return to his native country from America despite the fact that the Nazis had seized power and were persecuting any who resisted their domination. Bonhoeffer had already come a long way in developing a theology of 'discipleship' and 'costly grace', and he put that theology into action when he returned to Germany and joined those who were resisting Nazi rule.

As one of the major figures of the minority 'Confessing Church' (along with Karl Barth) who rejected Nazism's total claims on the churches, Bonhoeffer spoke out in favour of the Jews, whom he called 'the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ'. He was arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of being part of a group planning to assassinate Hitler. Then, just weeks before the end of the war and Hitler's suicide, he and his co-conspirators were executed, hung by piano-wire before the dictator's malicious eyes.

In the almost sixty years since his death, Bonhoeffer's influence has continued to grow as more and more people have encountered his forward-thinking theology and the way it was lived out concretely in his life. Today he is fast surpassing Barth and Tillich as the major (German) Protestant theologian of the 20th century. There is good reason for this: Bonhoeffer was an original thinker, and all his thoughts came out of a concrete experience of God in real life, and the quest to serve and follow God - always a dynamic process - rather than serving rigid 'principles' that can never fully encompass the divine will.

This book makes for an excellent introduction to this powerful theologian's work. Serious students may then wish to turn to the full volumes of 'The Cost of Discipleship', 'Ethics' (Bonhoeffer's unfinished masterpiece), and the important and compassionate 'Letters and Papers from Prison'. Learn why this is the man many are calling not only a martyr, but also a saint.

The translations of Bonhoeffer's works by Simon & Schuster are almost unreadable. This translation reads like real English spoken by real people. The ideas expressed are powerful and reveal Bonhoeffer's dedication to knowing and following the will of God. Get it, read it, follow it.

Mr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes my list of most interesting people of the 20th century and he is certainly one of the most influencial of Christian writers. His faith, dedication to freedom, and vision for humanity is as profound as it is earnest. Raised as a Lutheran, I had always heard of Bonhoeffer, but never explored his literature.
I have a German background, my mum was a German teacher, and when someone sent me Bonhoeffer's poem "Wer bin Ich?" (in english "Who Am I?") I was overcome with emotion and conviction.
This poem is only one powerful part of Bonhoeffer's extensive writings. This poem, reaffirming Bohoeffer's faith and trust in God, was written by Bonhoeffer when he was prisoner in a Nazi camp for conspiring against Hitler.
Bonhoeffer knew that the Nazi control of Germany and the holocaust of the Jews/Minorities was wrong. While many stood aside and did nothing, Bonhoeffer was hung by the Nazis for his dedication to freedom and righteousness. He once wrote:
"We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds. We have been drenched by many storms. Experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open. Are we still of any use?"
The threat of death did not phase Bonhoeffer, he saw his actions as a responsibility: "Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility."
He also wrote, sounding very much like the Apostle Paul: "To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ."
This is a wonderful collection of Bonhoeffer's writings in an easy to read translation.

A TESTAMENT TO FREEDOM is quite the volume. It is an invaluable resource to people wanting to get a lifelong perspective on Bonhoeffer without purchasing the entire Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke. There are sections of biography, on his early writings, on his work as a pastor, some sermons, some major sections of Ethics and Discipleship, his best-known works, poetry and some of his letters and papers from prison. I use this resource often, most frequently when looking for quotes or quick reference. I'd highly recommend it to those who wish to know more about this 20th century theologian, pastor and martyr.

Of all the theology books I have read, A Testament to Freedom is the most powerful, most compelling book I have ever read. It is a wonderful collection of sermons and writings throughout his life. Each chapter is brief, but powerful. His sermon titled "On Forgiveness" is especially well-written. If you want a collection of well-written, powerful prose that speaks to spirituality at its best, get this book. Highly recommended.

The great gift of this reader is not just that it provides a diverse sampling of Bonhoeffer's works and sermons, but that the editor's provide an historical context in which to read and therefore, understand the progression of his thoughts.

It is an accesable grouping of his writings. I bought a lot of books to prepare to a conference and found this to be the most helpful review of his work.

It contains, sermons, poetry and correpondence along with all his major and quite a few important minor works with introductions that fit it into the context of history and his personal and theological development.

There have been thousands of latter day martyrs, but we have few chances to read their actual writings. This book would be a prize just on that merit, but he was also a preeminent scholar.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer occupies a distinctive niche in modern theology--a focus for both hagiography and theology; a rarity in church history, a martyred theologian. Due to his stature, as well as the profundity of his thought, various interpreters (including some advocates of the deservedly defunct "death of God" movement of the ancient '60's) have latched onto him, portraying Bonhoeffer as an advance advocate of their cause. Consequently, it's better to read Bonhoeffer himself rather than his interpreters. A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ed. Geffrey B. Kelly and Burton Nelson (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, c. 1990) provides a marvelous collection of his writings, supplementing widely-available books such as The Cost of Discipleship and Ethics.
In an illuminating introductory section, the editors chart some of the details of Bonhoeffer's life and provide insights into his character. "His life," they assert, "was a unity in that mysterious oneness where all contradictions are resolved in the experience of God's abiding love and forgive¬ness. 'Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine'" (p. 4). Consequently, in the opinion of Payne Best, a British Secret Service officer who witnessed Bonhoeffer's final days in prison, he "'always seemed to diffuse an atmosphere of happiness, of joy in every smallest event in life, and a deep gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive. . . . He was one of the very few men I have ever met to whom his God was real and ever close to him'" (p. 45). Following the introduction, the book divides into seven parts, topics within which Bonhoeffer's writings appear in chronological order. The topics include Bonhoeffer as a teacher, a pastor, a leader in the Confessing Church, and a letter writer. Most of the entries are brief, and, since they are somewhat independent of the rest, can be read and ruminated in small snippets of time.
Some themes, early and late, dominated Bon¬hoeffer's thought. The cost of discipleship is one of them. In 1928, just beginning his ministry in a German-speaking church in Barcelona, he said: ". . . one thing is clear: we understand Christ only if we commit ourselves to him in a stark 'Either-Or.' He did not go to cross to ornament and embellish our life. If we wish to have him, then he demands the right to say something decisive about our entire life" (p. 53). Four years later, back in Germany, he declared: "The primary confession of the Christian before the world is the deed which interprets itself. If this deed is to have become a force, then the world itself will long to confess the Word" (p. 91). Though Bonhoeffer embraced his Lutheran tradition's emphasis on salvation through grace alone, he insisted Christ's grace must not be reduced to "cheap grace."
As he described it in The Cost of Discipleship in 1937, "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, bap¬tism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate" (p. 325). Too frequently, he insisted, Protestants had misconstrued "salvation by grace through faith" as an excuse for non-Christ-like behavior. But believers simply must obey the Word--that demonstrates authentic belief. In a sermon preached on Reformation Sunday in London in 1934, he asked: "What does it mean to believe in Christ who was love and still be full of hatred yourself? What does it mean to call Christ one's Lord in faith and not to do his will? Such faith is not faith at all, but hypocrisy" (263).
On virtually every page, another theme, Bonhoeffer's Christocentrism shines forth. Everything, for a Christian, must focus on Christ. In a 1932 lecture for an international youth conference, he said: "We are concerned with Christ and nothing else. Let Christ be Christ" (p. 109). Twelve years later, in a letter from prison, he declared: "In Jesus God has said Yes and Amen to it all, and that Yes and Amen is the firm ground on which we stand" (p. 537). And it's really a firm ground, for it's Reality itself! All creation came into being through Christ, and in Him all creation holds together. So, in ethics, all human decisions, all human standards, must focus on Christ, God's decisive revelation of Himself to us. "To be conformed with the Incarnate--that is to be a real man. It is man's right and duty that he should be man. The quest for the superman, the endeavor to outgrow the man within the man, the pursuit of the heroic, the cult of the demigod, all this is not the proper concern of man, for it is untrue" (p. 380). In short: "The real man is at liberty to be his Creator's creature. To conformed with the Incarnate is to have the right to be the man one really is" (ibid).
Yet another theme which pervades Bonhoeffer's writings is his love for the Bible. He reads it, reflects upon it, depends upon it. It's water for the thirsty, food for the hungry, the never-failing source of spiritual life. In 1936, in a letter to a friend, he said: ". . . I will first of all quite simply make a confession: I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions and that we need only to ask insistently and with some humility for us to receive the answer from it. One cannot simply read the Bible like other books. We must be prepared really to question it. Only in this way is it revealed to us. Only if we await the final answer from it does it give that Word to us. The reason for this is that in the Bible God speaks to us. And we cannot simply reflect upon God from ourselves; rather, we must ask him. Only if we seek him does he answer. Naturally one can also read the Bible like any other book, as for example from the viewpoint of textual criticism, etc. There is certainly nothing to be said against this. Only that it is not the way that reveals the essence of the Bible, only its superficial surface. Just as we do not grasp the word of a person whom we love, in order to dissect it, but just as such a word is simply accepted and it then lingers with us all day long, simply as the word of this person whom we love, and just as the one who reveals himself to us as the one who has spoken to us in this word that moves us ever more deeply in our hearts like Mary, so should we treat the Word of God. Only if we dare for once to enter into relationship with the Bible as the place where the God who loves us really speaks to us and will not leave us alone with our questions will we be happy with the Bible. . . ." (pp. 448-449). In the midst of war-time pressures, before going to prison, Bonhoeffer urged, in a circular letter to fellow ministers, constant meditation on Scripture. "Daily, quiet attention to the Word of God which is meant for me, even if it is only for a few minutes, will become for me the focal point of everything which brings inward and outward order into my life" (p. 481).
Bonheoffer's concerns for community, private prayer and meditation, Christ's Cross and the im¬perative that we be crucified with Him, peace, freedom and justice, all appear in this rich anthology. It's not light reading! But it's the kind of collection you'll taste and want to feed some more.

I had never heard of Dietrich Boenhoffer until I found this book. It is really nice to read about such a German hero from the Nazi era. A true martyr for Christ! You don't hear of many of those from the last hundred years.

Kelly and Nelson did a superb job of bringing together a sampling of texts from Bonhoeffer's writings that tell the story beautifully. Bonhoeffer scholars of the highest caliber, they offer introductory words that provide a historical context, making the selections very understandable. This is the book, if one doesn't read all sixteen volumes of Bonhoeffer's collected works, for a well-rounded introduction. Read it!