Description: Prompted by the 2017 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, this book examines the legacy of Martin Luther in the life, work, and reception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the most widely read modern Lutheran theologian. Framing the commemoration of the Reformation in conversation with Bonhoeffer's legacy places much more than Bonhoeffer's connection to Luther at stake. Given the fraught relationship of the Lutheran Bonhoeffer with the German Protestant Church under National Socialism, the question inevitably arises: "What happened to Luther's church in Germany?" This in turn prompts the question: "How did the Protestant tradition play out in public life in other nations?" And these historical issues in turn encourage reflection on a question that exercised both Luther and Bonhoeffer: "What will be the shape of the church in the future?" In these pages, an international group of scholars and practitioners from both church and state pursues these questions.
Brief description: Esther D. Reed is Associate Professor of Theological Ethics and Director of the Network for Religion in Public Life at the University of Exeter, UK.
Review Quotes:
"This rich collection of substantive and expert essays explores both Bonhoeffer's complex relation to the traditions of Lutheran faith as well as the ways in which, refracted through his own work, impulses from this same Reformation faith press upon important contemporary questions in church and public life. Students of Bonhoeffer's theology and all those wrestling with the shape of public theology today will welcome the instruction, provocation, and encouragement this volume provides." --Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen
"This volume is remarkable, and prescient. With chapters by an impressive array of international scholars, including historians, theologians, and activists, the book examines critical questions related to Martin Luther and the legacy and ongoing impact of the Reformation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the National Socialist context that shaped his life and thought, and the consequent implications of their work on contemporary issues in the church and the world. Michael DeJonge and Clifford Green have curated a book that seriously grapples with the past to form the future, that seriously grapples with global struggles for racial, social, and environmental justice. It is a book that matters." --Lori Brandt Hale, Vice President, International Bonhoeffer Society - English Language Section "There are two central challenges for theological scholarship. The first is the interpretation of past theological inheritances. The second is the constructive confession of new theological insights. One book that effectively accomplishes both tasks is Luther, Bonhoeffer, and Public Ethics: Re-Forming the Church of theFuture. . . . This volume provides an excellent and wide-ranging conversation on many subjects related to Luther, Bonhoeffer, and ethics. In looking to the past for the sake of the future, this book stands out as an important model of both theological interpretation and public confession." --International Journal of Public Theology "This volume is thoughtful, and. . . . will be provocative for those concerned with the future of public theology in the Lutheran tradition. The editors and contributors lay the groundwork for more work on public theology, an important task that must be shared by those in the academy, and practitioners and theologians in pastoral and public ministry for the sake of the world." --Reading Religion