The myth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

An arresting new study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a theologian and as an activist. Weikart carefully and persuasively argues that Bonhoeffer's postwar reputation as an anti-Nazi martyr has subsumed aspects of his religious and cultural beliefs to the detriment of both.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer suffered for his moral courage and his anti-Nazi activities. Professor Richard Weikart argues that Bonhoeffer's theology has also suffered a terrible fate: misunderstanding. Rather than being a largely conservative affair as argued by Huntemann and other, Bonhoeffer was informed and radicalized by existentialism and the political currents of his time. In no other work is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's soteriology examined in such depth and his evangelism reaffirmed.