Bonhoeffer on Resistance

A recent flurry of references to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the context of political resistance shows that the story of his struggle against the Third Reich continues to animate imaginations across a broad political spectrum. Curious readers have long had access to a variety of Bonhoeffer biographies, all of which devote space to his resistance. And there are more specialized historical treatments that place his story in the context of the broader resistance to the Nazis. Beyond these biographical and historical accounts, however, there has been no comprehensive and accessible account of Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking. He was, after all, not only a resister but a theologian in resistance, trained by vocation to reflect on and write about what the message of the Bible and the tradition of Christian theology might have to say about political life. In this book, internationally recognized Bonhoeffer scholar Michael DeJonge provides an account of Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking as a whole, situated in the context of his thinking about political life in general and ultimately in the context of his theology. He presents Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking chronologically according to three phases of development and systematically according to a sixfold typology of resistance. Overall, what emerges is Bonhoeffer’s surprisingly systematic, differentiated, and well-developed vision of political resistance anchored by his vision of the word of God entrusted to the church.