ISBN : 9780198827139
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's dramatic biography, a son of privilege who suffered imprisonment and execution after involving himself in a conspiracy to kill Hitler and overthrow the Third Reich, has helped make him one of the most influential Christian figures of the twentieth century. But before he was known as a martyr or a hero, he was a student and teacher of theology. This book examines the academic formation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology, arguing that the young Bonhoeffer reinterpreted for a modern intellectual context the Lutheran understanding of the 'person' of Jesus Christ. In the process, Bonhoeffer not only distinguished himself from both Karl Barth and Karl Holl, whose dialectical theology and Luther interpretation respectively were two of the most important post-World War I theological movements, but also established the basic character of his own 'person-theology.' Barth convinces Bonhoeffer that theology must understand revelation as originating outside the human self i
1 Between Berlin and Barth
2 The Problem of Act and Being
3 The Challenge of Barth's Theology
4 God is Not Subject but Person: Bonhoeffer's Alternative to Barth
5 The Lutheran Provenance of Bonhoeffer's Alternative
6 Evaluating Bonhoeffer's Alternative
7 Claiming the Lutheran Tradition
8 The Academic Roots of Bonhoeffer's Ethical Theology
Conclusion