In the autumn of 1933 the 27-year-old Bonhoeffer accepted a two-year appointment as a pastor of two German-speaking Protestant churches in London. It was during this time that he began his friendship with Ernst Cromwell, one of his confirmands - a friendship that is now documented in these letters published for the first time here in this book (most of which are dated between 20 March 1935 and 27 March 1936). Seventy-five years later, the publication of these letters throws light on several aspects of Bonhoeffer's life and thought, including: the development of his views on the practice of silence; his practice of catechesis and confirmation; the impact on his personal relationships of his involvement in the Church struggle; his understanding of friendship, and in particular friendship that values the potential contribution of young people to living out the 'truth-telling' of Jesus Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, a founding member of the Confessing Church. His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war's end.
Overshadowed by his life and death, his theology and his view of Christianity's role in the secular world has nevertheless remained very influential.
He seems to have undergone something of a personal conversion from a theologian primarily attracted to the intellectual side of Christianity to a dedicated man of faith, resolved to carry out the teaching of Christ as he found it revealed in the Gospels.
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