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Prompted by the 2017 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, this book examines the legacy of Martin Luther in the life, work, and reception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the most widely read modern Lutheran theologian. Framing the commemoration of the Reformation in conversation with Bonhoeffer’s legacy places much more than Bonhoeffer’s connection to Luther at stake. Given the fraught relationship of the Lutheran Bonhoeffer with the German Protestant Church under National Socialism, the question inevitably arises: "What happened to Luther’s church in Germany?" This in turn prompts the question: "How did the Protestant tradition play out in public life in other nations?" And these historical issues in turn encourage reflection on a question that exercised both Luther and Bonhoeffer: "What will be the shape of the church in the future?" In these pages, an international group of scholars and practitioners from both church and state pursues these questions.
List of contents
Introduction: Reformation: Grappling with a Contested Legacy
Michael P. DeJonge and Clifford J. Green
1. Fatal Coincidences in 1933: Nazism's Triumph and Luther's 450th Birthday
Hartmut Lehmann
2. Looking for Luther, 1933-1939
Victoria J. Barnett
3. Luther in Catholic Perspective across Five Centuries
Euan Cameron
4. Justification, Ethics, and the "Other": Paul, Luther, and Bonhoeffer in Trialogue
Brigitte Kahl
5. Radicalizing Reformation amid Today's Crises, in the Spirit of Bonhoeffer
Karen L. Bloomquist
6. Worldly Worship: Reformation and Economic Ethics
Wolfgang Huber
7. Reformation: Freeing the Church for Authentic Public Witness
Heinrich Bedford-Strohm
8. Between Compromise and Radicalism: Luther's Legacy in Bonhoeffer's Political Thought
Michael P. DeJonge
9. Church, Racism and Resistance: Bonhoeffer and the Critical Dimension of Theological Integrity
Allen Aubrey Boesak
10. "On the Way to Freedom Land": Bonhoeffer and Three Bright Lights of the Civil Rights Move
About the author
Clifford J. Green is Bonhoeffer Chair Scholar at Union Theological Seminary, New York, and project director of the Early Career German-American Bonhoeffer Research Network.Clifford J. Green is Bonhoeffer Chair Scholar at Union Theological Seminary, New York, and project director of the Early Career German-American Bonhoeffer Research Network.Josiah U. Young III is professor of systematic theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.
Summary
Prompted by the 2017 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, international scholars and practitioners from both church and state examine the legacy of Luther in the life, work, and reception of Bonhoeffer, asking how this contested tradition might guide the public role of the church in the future.
