The Reluctant Revolutionary

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Collision with Prusso-German History

John A. Moses

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9781782383406
  9781845455316
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781845459109
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a uniquely reluctant and distinctly German Lutheran revolutionary. In this volume, the author, an Anglican priest and historian, argues that Bonhoeffer's powerful critique of Germany's moral derailment needs to be understood as the expression of a devout Lutheran Protestant. Bonhoeffer gradually recognized the ways in which the intellectual and religious traditions of his own class - the Bildungsbürgertum - were enabling Nazi evil. In response, he offered a religiously inspired call to political opposition and Christian witness—which cost him his life. The author investigates Bonhoeffer's stance in terms of his confrontation with the legacy of Hegelianism and Neo-Rankeanism, and by highlighting Bonhoeffer's intellectual and spiritual journey, shows how his endeavor to politicially reeducate the German people must be examined in theological terms.

Table of contents

• The Reluctant Revolutionary
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Intrtroduction
• 1. The “Peculiarity” of German Political Culture
• 2. Bonhoeffffer’s Formation
• 3. The Problem of Anti-Semitism in Germany from Luther to Hitler
• 4. Bonhoeffer’s Opening to the West and the Involvement in Ecumenism
• 5. The Church Struggle to 1937
• 6. The Ethics of Conspiracy
• 7. Bonhoeffer and the Jewish Question
• 8. Bonhoeffer as Critic of His Class in Retrospect
• 9. The Postwar Confrontation with the Nazi Past
• Epilogue: Bonhoeffer Reception in Postwar Germany
• Appendix I. The Barmen Declaration of Faith
• Appendix II. The Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt
• Appendix III. A Statement by the Council of Brethren of the EKD Concerning the Political Course of our People
• Appppendix IV. Ecumenical Assembly: More Justice in the GDR—Our Task and Our Expectations
• Bibliography
• Index