I have had this book for a long time.  I have picked it up and put it down more times than I care to admit.  After reading it this past week, I am ashamed that I did not read it years ago.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor, scholar, educator, and political dissident.  When the Church in Germany remained silent to or acquiesced to the political and social policies of the Nazi party, Bonhoeffer and his colleagues stood up in protest.  There is much of the history of WWII wrapped up in these pages as well as the perspective of a man who knew his government was wrong, but who also viewed those who were dropping bombs on his beloved city as “the enemy.”

Contained in the editor’s forward is a brief description of the controversial nature of the collection of Bonhoeffer’s writings and a brief description of the objections different groups had to his work.  As I read, I wondered at what the fuss was all about.  I read a man’s letters of love to his parents, his best friend and to the church.  His devotion to the confession of the church did not waver, nor did his expectation the good news of the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and the restoration of the bent and broken.

As Bonhoeffer languished in prison, unsure of his fate, the questions he asked of himself and his faith become more and more pointed.  He questioned whether or not the forms of contemporary religion would be able to engage a post-war society.  He even advocated, in a fragmentary way, a recasting of the gospel for the “modern” ear.  Most of what he suggested the church do has actually happened in evangelical world, howbeit differently than he could have guessed.  His last letters contained undeveloped thoughts and theological directions which may be seen as a threat to Christian orthodoxy.  They may also be seen as the real challenge that orthodoxy answers.

I have so many quotes to share from this work, for now I will share only one:

Nothing sticks fast, nothing holds firm; everything is here today and gone tomorrow. But the good things of life–truth, justice, and beauty–all great accomplishments need time, constancy, and “memory,” or they degenerate.  The man who feels neither responsibility towards the past nor desire to shape the future is one who “forgets.”  And I do not know how one can really get at such a person and bring him to his senses.

Letters and Papers from Prison.  1968 edition, pg. 46.

May I never forget and join the long line of followers of Jesus who anxiously await his return by working for the advance of his kingdom today.