Who am I?: Bonhoeffer's Theology through his Poetry (T&T Clark Theology)

It has often been noted that poetry is a particularly suitable medium when it comes to understanding the connection between theology and biography. Needless to say that this is particularly exciting in the case of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the poems he wrote during his imprisonment by the Nazis. Although any one of his ten poems should be read within their respective historical and biographical context, they are also rounded, self-sufficient pieces of work that cannot be 'explained' by the biographical and theological prose that surrounds them. They rather serve as a sort of creative and perhaps sometimes even critical interlocutor to these contexts. This is why the contributors to this volume have not been asked to explain the poems but to facilitate this conversation: the conversation between the reader and the poems, between the individual poems as well as between the poems and Bonhoeffer's life and his theology. These poems lend themselves ideally as an entry point into Bonhoeffer's theology, in that each one of them resonates with a particular central theological concept that Bonhoeffer was developing in his prison years. Themes and concepts such as "friendship", "religion", "identity", "freedom", "representative action" and others are not only represented in these poems but often expressed in the dense and compelling fashion that only poetic language affords. As such, they deserve the thorough and imaginative engagement of the international line-up of first-class theological authors gathered in this book. Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Abbreviations 9 Contributors 12 1. Introduction: Who is Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Us Today? 14 2. ‘Who Am I?’: Human Identity and the Spiritual Disciplines in the Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer 24 3. ‘Past’: Bonhoeffer’s ‘Past’ 44 4. ‘Success and Failure’: Public Disasters, Works of Love, and the Inwardness of Faithfulness 60 5. ‘By Powers of Good’: Bonhoeffer’s Last Poem: Texts and Contexts 84 6. ‘The Friend’: Reflections on Friendship and Freedom 104 7. ‘Voices in the Night’: Human Solidarity and Eschatological Hope 128 8. ‘Stations on the Way to Freedom’: The Presence of God – The Freedom of Disciples 160 9. ‘Christians and Pagans’: Towards a Trans-Religious Second Naïveté or How to Be a Christological Creature 188 10. ‘Jonah’: Guilt and Promise 210 11. ‘The Death of Moses’: Why Moses? 226 Bibliography 256 Index of Biblical References 264 Subject Index 266 A 266 B 266 C 266 D 266 E 266 F 266 G 267 H 267 I 267 J 267 K 267 L 267 M 267 N 267 O 268 P 268 R 268 S 268 T 268 U 268 V 269 W 269 Z 269 Name Index 270 A 270 B 270 C 270 D 270 E 270 F 270 G 271 H 271 I 271 J 271 K 271 L 271 M 271 N 271 O 271 P 272 R 272 S 272 T 272 V 272 W 272 Y 272 Discusses the case of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the poems he wrote during his imprisonment by the Nazis. This book states that although any one of his poems should be read within their respective historical and biographical context, they are also pieces of work that cannot be explained by the biographical and theological prose that surrounds them. Edited By Bernd Wannenwetsch. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [243]-250) And Indexes.