The Battle for Bonhoeffer

by Stephen R. Haynes

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2018

Overview

The figure of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) has become a clay puppet in modern American politics. Secular, radical, liberal, and evangelical interpreters variously shape and mold the martyr’s legacy to suit their own pet agendas.

Stephen Haynes offers an incisive and clarifying perspective. A recognized Bonhoeffer expert, Haynes examines “populist” readings of Bonhoeffer, including the acclaimed biography by Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. In his analysis Haynes treats, among other things, the November 2016 election of Donald Trump and the “Bonhoeffer moment” announced by evangelicals in response to the US Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Battle for Bonhoeffer includes an open letter from Haynes pointedly addressing Christians who still support Trump. Bonhoeffer’s legacy matters. Haynes redeems the life and the man.

Key Features

• Responds to recent interest in the politics and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Compares the 2016 Presidential campaign to events during Bonhoeffer’s time
• Provides helpful clarification about Bonhoeffer’s life and legacy

Contents

Part One: Exploring Bonhoeffer’s American Reception

• The Man, the Myth, the Battle
• Rorschach Test: American Bonhoeffers from Cox to Koehn
• Gradual Embrace: The Evangelical Bonhoeffer before Metaxas

Part Two: Bonhoeffer and Homegrown Hitlers

• Bonhoeffer, Bush, and the “War on Terror”
• Bonhoeffer, Obama, and the “Culture of Death”
• The Metaxas Phenomenon

Part Three: Triumph of the Populist Bonhoeffer

• Kairos: “A Bonhoeffer Moment in America”
• Surprise: Bonhoeffer Gets Trumped
• Aftermath: A “Bonhoeffer Moment” for Liberals
• The Battle for Bonhoeffer, circa 2018

Postscript

• Your Bonhoeffer Moment: An Open Letter to Christians Who Love Bonhoeffer and (Still) Support Trump

Praise for the Print Edition

Stephen Haynes has written a must-read Bonhoeffer book. Tracing Bonhoeffer’s American reception over time through scholarship, op-ed pieces, blogs, documentaries, artistic presentations, and more, Haynes uncovers—with striking clarity—the range of images of Bonhoeffer and his legacy, paying particular attention to the evangelical appropriation of that legacy and its role in current political realities. I cannot commend this book highly enough.

—Lori Brandt Hale, Augsburg University

Highly visible US evangelicals endorsed and still support Donald Trump, some doing so in the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to the horror of the vast majority of serious students of the great German theologian and resister. Stephen Haynes long ago carved out a niche as the single best scholarly interpreter of the American reception of Bonhoeffer. Here he not only updates his scholarly work but also enters the Bonhoeffer-Trump-evangelicals debate himself with an impassioned warning to evangelicals to reverse their surrender to Trump before it is too late. This is a riveting book that every US Christian should read—immediately

—David P. Gushee, Center for Theology & Public Life, Mercer University

Product Details

• Title: The Battle for Bonhoeffer
• Author: Stephen R. Haynes
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 213
• Resource Type: Topical
• Topic: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

About Stephen R. Haynes

Stephen R. Haynes is a professor of religion at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. He has been teaching there since 1989. His areas of expertise include Dietrich Bonhoeffer, religion, higher education, and Jewish-Christian relations.