Abstract
In this 150-page book, Christiane Tietz, who is professor of systematic theology at the University of Zurich and chair of the German language section of the International Bonhoeffer Society, has written a remarkably detailed account of the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The ten chapters that make up this brief book cover all the major events in Bonhoeffer’s life. Like most biographies of Bonhoeffer, the first chapter describes his family, including their home in Breslau and their move to Berlin, while the last chapter (chapter 10) describes Bonhoeffer’s arrest, his time in prison, and his execution. Other chapters cover his time in Barcelona and Berlin (chapter 3), his encounters with Karl Barth, the ecumenical movement, and lectures at the University in Berlin (chapter 4), the church struggle, pastoring two churches in London, and being director of the preachers’ seminary in Finkenwalde (chapters 5, 6, and 7); chapters 8 and 9 include “the path into illegality” and his support of the conspiracy against Adolf Hitler.
One of the great strengths of the book is Tietz’s ability to summarize Bonhoeffer’s major books and some of his significant essays in a succinct yet accurate manner. Even his somewhat difficult first book, Santorum Communio, and the more challenging second book, Act and Being, are given concise summaries that provide readers with a road map for making their way through Bonhoeffer’s sometimes demanding arguments. One finds equally insightful descriptions of Creation and Fall, Discipleship, Ethics, and Letters and Papers from Prison (including excellent interpretations of the provocative theological terms included in the letters). Obviously, Tietz cannot summarize these books in their entirety or give detailed interpretations of their themes, but her succinct descriptions will prove to be invaluable to the new reader of Bonhoeffer’s work. A professor teaching Bonhoeffer’s theology could assign this biography at the beginning of the semester and invite students to reread the descriptions of books and essays when those works are being examined throughout the semester. Readers who are approaching Bonhoeffer’s work on their own could follow the same pattern.
Knowing that Bonhoeffer has often been described “as an unquestionable hero,” Tietz seeks to provide an accurate alternative that challenges some of the overly biased presentations that have “little to do with the real person and his work” (viii). While she accomplishes this task throughout the book, an epilogue (“A Modern Saint?”) specifically addresses the various forms of biased interpretations of Bonhoeffer. The epilogue is followed by a chronology, a brief bibliography of texts by and about Bonhoeffer, and a well-constructed index.
Victoria Barnett, who served from 2004 to 2014 as the general editor of the English translation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, has made another valuable contribution to Bonhoeffer studies by translating Tietz’s 2013 German book into English. This is an excellent, concise, and compelling account of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and works that, once started, is hard to put down. Readers who are new to Bonhoeffer will find an overview of his life and work that will prepare them for reading one of the longer biographies if they want to pursue his life and works further. Readers who already know something of Bonhoeffer’s life and work will find an excellent review. The book will serve particularly well in the classroom where one of the lengthy biographies is difficult to require alongside Bonhoeffer’s numerous theological writings, but anyone interested in Bonhoeffer—scholar and layperson alike—will benefit from this excellent book.