Who Am I?

New book on Bonhoeffer’s poetry.

Things to Read in Prison

While Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in prison, hoping to be released but-as it turned out-waiting to die, he kept himself busy by reading and writing.  One of the books that captured his attention was The Worldview of Physics by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker.
Bonhoeffer was arrested in April of 1943, initially on relatively minor charges after helping [...]

What’s a Pro-Life Voter to Do?

The archbishop of Denver criticized Nancy Pelosi for misrepresenting catholic teaching on abortion (here).  She claimed that the church was ambiguous on the question of when life begins.  Archbishop Chaput answered that the church has never been ambiguous about abortion–it has always condemned the practice.  Archbishop Chaput even quotes the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who [...]

Easter Wishes from Bonhoeffer

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Christian and Heathen (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Here is the poem by Bonhoeffer that I promised earlier. It is a good meditation for Holy Week and Good Friday.

People go to God in their need,
plead for help, ask for happiness and bread,
for deliverance from sickness, guilt, and death.
So do we all, all of us, Christian and heathen.
People go to God in his [...]

What Does God Need?

The obvious answer would be that God needs nothing from us. It was the answer Epicurus gave: the gods are perfectly happy and their bliss is neither diminished nor enhanced by anything we do. Passages in the Bible also agree, that God in his eternal divinity is in need of nothing–certainly not sacrifices. [...]

A Prayer from Bonhoeffer

I have begun posting over at Wellspring Bonhoeffer’s prayers he wrote in prison. The first was composed for Christmas, 1943, his first Christmas in prison. It is a Morning Prayer, one of a series written for himself and his fellow prisoners (at Wellspring, here).
Tomorrow I will write my thoughts about today’s tragic news.

Christmas Letter Concluded

We were snowed in a few days before Christmas, and I wasn’t able to get to my computer to complete the Christmas letter.  The thoughts are still worth reading even a couple days late.  View the second post below.

Christmas Letter continued . . .

I’m going to keep adding a brief paragraph a day to the Bonhoeffer Christmas letter. Each thought makes a good thought for the day, so be patient and enjoy it a little at a time. But keep coming back to the post below this one.

Bonhoeffer Christmas Letter

I have returned to posting excerpts from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s letters on my Theological German blog, so I will share a few translations of the selections. The first is from a Christmas letter to his parents, written December 17, 1943.
Dietrich had been held for several months with no formal charges being made. He assumed [...]

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Who would have guessed that encouraging words would come from Christopher Hitchens? Yesterday he announced on CNN that Al Qaida has been defeated in Iraq. Sometimes we are embarrassed at the prayers in the Psalms for the destruction of one’s enemies; but when you have an enemy as hideous [...]

Letter from Prison Dec 21, 1943

(I have copied this letter from “Wellspring.” If you wish to read more, check Wellspring about once a week. Click on the link above, or in the blogroll on the right.)
Eberhard Bethge was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s best friend. He had been a student at the Seminary in Finkenwald. During Bonhoeffer’s time in [...]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

You have probably heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer before–even Richard Dawkins, who doesn’t read theology, knows about him. Bonhoeffer was a member of the Confessing Church in Germany during the Nazi’s rise to power. The Confessing church refused to acknowledge any “Führer” other than Jesus Christ.
One of Bonhoeffer’s early books, the Cost of Discipleship [...]