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Amazon.com Review
Letters and Papers from Prison is a collection of notes and correspondence covering the period from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's arrest in 1943 to his execution by the Gestapo in 1945. The book is probably most famous, and most important, for its idea of "religionless Christianity"--an idea Bonhoeffer did not live long enough fully to develop, but whose timeliness only increases as the lines between secular and ecclesial life blur. Bonhoeffer's first mention of "religionless Christianity" came in a letter in 1944:

What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today. The time when people could be told everything by means of words, whether theological or pious, is over, and so is the time of inwardness and conscience--and that means the time of religion in general. We are moving towards a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious any more. Even those who honestly describe themselves as "religious" do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by "religious."

Review
"'No one who reads these letters can fail to be struck by the health and humanity of their author, and no one who thinks that there may be something in God after all can fail to be moved by Bonhoeffer's positive evaluation of the earth and his patent, if inexplicable ability to hold God and the world together in a way which is uncharacteristic of large tracts of Christian thinking.' Glasgow Herald 'On any showing, the book is a great Christian classic. Reading it is, in itself, a religious experience. I like it the better because the stance of heroism is one that Bonhoeffer eyes with suspicion; he is in all things human and for that very reason, in the end sublime.' Malcolm Muggeridge 'The advantage of this abridged version is that it contains all the important passages relating to Bonhoeffer's so-called 'new theology' while omitting much of the not so important material contained in the larger edition.' South Africa Religious Education"

Language Notes
Text: English, German (translation)

Customer Reviews

Inspiring
At times hard to read, this book gives some insight into the man Bonhoeffer. His relationship with God, and the sheer intelligence of the man are most impressive. This book is somewhat discontigous and incongruent due to the nature of the source material, but the essence of faith shines through. Along with the direct works from Bonhoeffers hand, this is an excellent book, with lessons that still apply for people of faith, not just Christians, but all faiths.

"I Am Yours".
help but feel a sense of impotent rage as this man chosen for martyrdom writes thinly disguised pleas to his 18 year old fiancee, begging for news of her every smile and the minutae of her daily life.

Despite the excruciating loneliness and suffering, Bonhoeffer manages to reach the conclusion of this theology both literally and figuratively. He is desperate to communicate the hope of Christ to a nation mired in worst evil imaginable and also to the entire world. In July of 1944 he elucidates on the meaning of his poem, "Christians and Unbelievers", which is really unremarkable except for the ideas expressed in it.


"The Christian must plunge himself into the life of a godless world, without attempting to gloss over its ungodliness with a veneer of
religion or trying to transfigure it. He must live a 'worldly' life and so participate in the suffering of God. He may live a worldly life
as one emancipated from all false religions and obligations. To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, to
cultivate some particular form of asceticism (as a sinner, a penitent or a saint), but to be a man. It is not some religious act which
makes a Christian what he is, but participation in the suffering of God in the life of the world."

The slow recognition that the world (and even in the absence of Hitler one might say that this state of affairs has grown worse) was so devoid of any sense of the divine and therefore any sense of real commitment that most cohesive sense of community among believers had been chopped up into a million insincere rituals and cheery platitudes. Therefore, the task of the true Christian is to hold his/her own in a world without recognition of God's presence and to do His will anyway.

And this is precisely what Bonhoeffer did unto death. Before he was hung he thanked all of his guards and a soldier who witnessed the event later said that he had "never seen a man go so calmly and submissively to his death." He had thrown himself entirely on the mercy of God when He must have seemed entirely absent. His last poem is manifesto of uncompromising faith. An example of the triumph of the human spirit over ultimate evil.

A book of hope
Reading his words, we are saddened in knowing he is soon to die a martyr at the young age of 39 by the Nazis. Bonhoeffer fought for biblical truth, and against appeasement. He writes his thoughts (at times very deep and philosophical) from prison, when he entered in 1943 until extradition to another prison over two years later, just before the Allies' liberation in 1945. In his letters to his parents amazingly he is not bitter, but thankful and in good spirits. He was always hopeful. He finds joy in even the smallest of things. Some of the letters we will discover are slightly coded to get through the "checkers". The preface sums it up better than I can: "page by page, these letters show us a picture of life in a prison cell, as it was experienced in all its aspects, with the intimate details of an individual life fused into a striking unity with the disastrous events that were going on in the world outside, a unity produced by an outstanding mind and a sensitive heart."

Much of Bonhoefffer's letters were written to his dear friend Eberhard Bethge. Bonhoeffer expounded with difficult theological questions for Bethge........I would like to hear his answers. Bethge as editor writes the foreword and preface, along with what Bonhoeffer experienced during his final days. The preface is a short biography and explains how the papers came to be.

The two years Bonhoeffer spent in his dreary jail cell he consumed an immense amount of literature; he discusses his favorites. He also gives us a hint of what jail life was like: the solitude, the allied bombings (air-raids), the cell attendants, and his fellow prisoners, whom he does not justify their pathetic cowardly actions; he believed prison was no excuse for poor behavior. Other subjects he touches on is liberalism within the church, and a world that is increasingly existing without God. He believed his thoughts were somewhat odd and his poems needed work, but they were far from it.

This is a book of hope for all who will believe. If Christ is a lie, think of the millions who then threw their lives away in martyr for Him.

Wish you well
Scott