Bonhoeffer: A Theology of Sociality, Revised Edition

by Clifford J. Green

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 1999

Overview

The classic study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s social thought, now expanded with never-before-published Bonhoeffer letters. Widely acclaimed as the best study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s early social theology, Clifford Green’s Bonhoeffer is here fully updated and expanded with new material not available anywhere else. Features of this new edition: A selection of important, newly discovered letters between Bonhoeffer and Paul Lehmann and between Lehmann and members of Bonhoeffer’s family. An extensive chapter covering Bonhoeffer’s Ethics. All citations updated to the new German and English editions of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works.

Key Features

• Features new chapter on Bonhoeffer’s Ethics
• Includes newly discovered letters between Bonhoeffer and Paul Lehmann
• Focuses on the sociality of Christ and humanity

Contents

• Interpreting Bonhoeffer’s Theology
• Human Sociality and the New Humanity of Christ: Sanctorum Communio
• Christian Anthropology and Social Ontology in Act and Being
• From the Phraseological to the Real: 1932
• Christ and Humanity in Bonhoeffer’s Theology, 1932-33
• The Prison Letters and the Theology of Sociality
• Bonhoeffer’s Ethics - a Coda
• Appendix: Letters: Dietrich Bonnhoeffer, Paul Lehmann, and Others, 1932-1949

Top Highlights

“Bonhoeffer insists equally on the irreducible, independent integrity of the individual person, and on the fact that this person exists essentially in relation to others and in corporate human structures. His paradigm is not ‘cogito, ergo sum,’ but ‘I relate ethically to others, ergo sum.’” (Page 30)

“Christology is central to Bonhoeffer’s thought, his anthropology has been strikingly neglected.” (Page 1)

“God’s free self-revelation discloses that divine being is a ‘being for humanity” (Page 86)

Praise for the Print Edition

A revised edition of one of the most important works on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s early life and writings, with a suggestive effort to reconstruct from his unfinished Ethics his justification for joining the resistance effort to kill Hitler. A necessary book for students of one of the most compelling theological and moral figures of the twentieth century.

—First Things

Brilliant book... All serious researchers into Bonhoeffer’s theology must now somehow come to grips with Green’s interpretation.

—Theological Studies

A model of scholarly exposition. . . Green has established himself as the foremost Bonhoeffer scholar writing in English. . . Rarely has a single volume done so much to clear the air and to reorient scholarship along the right track. No future study of Bonhoeffer will be able to ignore Green’s [book].

—Ecumenical Review

This is a thoroughly readable, balanced and learned study of the ways in which the earlier Bonhoeffer is a key to his later work. . . Here is a careful, clearly developed exposition of a truly great man’s thinking in the face of immense human problems. Bonhoeffer has much to say to a world which still has problems with power and with rampant individualism; Green will help any serious student come to grips with the basic thinking which is often overlooked by writers on this seminal theologian.

—Theological Book Review

Product Details

• Title: Bonhoeffer: A Theology of Sociality
• Author: Clifford J. Green
• Edition: Revised Edition
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 1999
• Logos Release Date: 2020
• Pages: 392
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 1906-1945; Christian sociology
• ISBNs: 9780802846327, 0802846327
• Resource ID: LLS:BNHFFRTHSCLTY
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:17:33Z

About Clifford J. Green

Clifford J. Green is professor emeritus of theology, Hartford Seminary, Connecticut, and author of numerous works on Bonhoeffer. He is the executive director of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works.