Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theology, and Political Resistance - (Faith and Politics: Political Theology in a New Key) by Lori Brandt Hale & W David Hall

About the Book

This book highlights the ways Dietrich Bonhoeffer's work informs political theology and examines Bonhoeffer's contributions in three ways: historical-critical interpretation, critical-constructive engagement, and constructive-practical application.

Book Synopsis

This book highlights the ways Dietrich Bonhoeffer's work informs political theology and examines Bonhoeffer's contributions in three ways: historical-critical interpretation, critical-constructive engagement, and constructive-practical application.

Review Quotes

An incisive collection of essays by leading Bonhoeffer scholars on a controversial theme in Bonhoeffer's legacy at a time in global history when his relevance is once again of critical significance for Christian witness across the globe.

Carefully distinguishing between political theology and "politicized" theology throughout, this volume provides a multipronged articulation of the enduring legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is a labor of love and acumen by many of the leading international scholars who have dwelled with Bonhoeffer's work the longest. Their clarity and steadfastness are a fitting tribute to Bonhoeffer with topics ranging from the historical to the contemporary, from the theoretical to the practical, and from Bonhoeffer's opposition to the Nazified church to the present-day theo-political responses to mass incarceration, the rise of the "Alt-right," and other pressing issues and movements of our time. In a time desperately calling out for courage and prophetic witness, this book will inspire and challenge you by Bonhoeffer all over again.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theology, and Political Resistance is a fresh, timely and cutting-edge collection of essays that deal with the implications of Bonhoeffer's theology for pressingissues as broad as church resistance, the status of natural law, and the challenge of climate change and as specific as mass incarceration in America, racial injusticein South Africa, and confederate monuments in Virginia. Whether established or emerging interpreters of Bonhoeffer, the authors share a sense of urgency to apply Bonhoeffer's insights to our most pressing political and social tasks. In the welter of competing attempts to establish Bonhoeffer's relevance for contemporary life, this volume stands apart and demands our attention.

Readers looking for expert and impassioned guidance in their effort to win a rich and responsible reading of Bonhoeffer in our present political moment will be well served by time spent with these serious, engaging and timely essays. The editors have drawn together a wide-ranging set of reflections which together illumine important aspects of the ongoing reception of Bonhoeffer in the American scene in particular.

About the Author

Lori Brandt Hale is professor and chair of religion at Augsburg University and co-author of Bonhoeffer for Armchair Theologians.

W. David Hall is W. George Matton professor of religion and philosophy at Centre College and author of Paul Ricoeur and the Poetic Imperative: The Creative Tension Between Love and Justice.