Dietrich Bonhoeffer

27 Sep, 2018 230 Christianity

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of the German theologian, born in Breslau/Wroclaw in 1906 and killed in the Flossenburg concentration camp on 9th April 1945. Bonhoeffer developed ideas about the role of the Church in the secular world, in particular Germany after the Nazis took power in 1933 and demanded the Churches’ support. He strongly opposed anti-Semitism and, with a role in the Military Intelligence Department, took part in the resistance, plotting to kill Hitler and meeting with contacts in the Allies. Bonhoeffer’s ideas on Christian ethics and the relationship between Christianity and humanism spread more widely from the 1960s with the discovery of unpublished works, including those written in prison as he awaited execution.

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Guests

  • Stephen Plant 4 episodes
    Dean and Runcie Fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge
  • Eleanor McLaughlin No other episodes
    Lecturer in Theology and Ethics at the University of Winchester and Lecturer in Ethics at Regent's Park College at the University of Oxford
  • Tom Greggs 2 episodes
    Marischal Chair of Divinity at the University of Aberdeen

Reading list

  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologian, Christian, contemporary
    Eberhard Bethge (ed. Edwin Robertson) (Collins, 1970) Google Books →
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Life in pictures
    Eberhard Bethge, Renate Bethge and Christian Gremmels (eds.) (SCM Press, 1986) Google Books →
  • A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer (HarperCollins, 2007) Google Books →
  • Creation and Fall: A Theological Exposition of Genesis 1-3
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ed. John W. de Gruchy) (Augsburg Fortress, 2004) Google Books →
  • Discipleship
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer (eds. Geffrey B. Kelly and John D. Godsey) (Fortress Press, 2003) Google Books →
  • Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ed. Geffrey B. Kelly) (Augsburg Fortress, 2005) Google Books →
  • Ethics
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ed. Clifford J. Green) (Fortress Press, 2005) Google Books →
  • Fiction from Tegel Prison
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ed. Clifford J. Green) (Fortress Press, 2010) Google Books →
  • Letters and Papers from Prison
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ed. John W. de Gruchy) (Fortress Press, 2010) Google Books →
  • The SPCK Introduction to Bonhoeffer
    Keith Clements (SPCK, 2010) Google Books →
  • What Freedom? The Persistent Challenge of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    Keith Clements (Bristol Baptist College, 1990) Google Books →
  • The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    John W. de Gruchy (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 1999) Google Books →
  • The Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    Ernst Feil (trans. Martin Rumsheidt) (Fortress Press, 2007) Google Books →
  • The Bonhoeffer Reader
    Clifford J. Green and Michael P. DeJonge (eds.) (Fortress Press, 2013) Google Books →
  • Bonhoeffer: A Theology of Sociality
    Clifford J. Green (W. B. Eerdmans, 1999) Google Books →
  • World Come of Age: A Symposium on Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    Ronald Gregor Smith (ed.) (Collins, 1967) Google Books →
  • The Dark Side: Proceedings of the Seventh Australian and International Religion, Literature and the Arts Conference
    Christopher Hartney and Andrew McGarrity (eds.) (RLA Press, 2004) Google Books →
  • Bonhoeffer: A Guide for the Perplexed
    Joel Lawrence (T& T Clark, 2010) Google Books →
  • The Bonhoeffers: Portrait of a Family
    Sabine Leibholz-Bonhoeffer (Covenant Publications, 1994) Google Books →
  • Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    Charles Marsh (SPCK Publishing, 2013) Google Books →
  • Reality and Faith: The Theological Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    Heinrich Ott (Lutterworth Press, 1971) Google Books →
  • Bonhoeffer
    Stephen Plant (Continuum, 2004) Google Books →
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance
    Ferdinand Schlingensiepen (T&T Clark, 2009) Google Books →
  • A Theology of Life: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Religionless Christianity
    Ralf K. Wustenberg (trans. Doug Stott) (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998) Google Books →

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Programme ID: b0bkpjns

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bkpjns

Auto-category: 230 (Christian theology)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906 to 1945, was a Lutheran theologian who stood up to Hitler as he threatened to destroy the core of the German church.