Dietrich Bonhoeffer Books In Order

Publication Order of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works Books

Publication Order of Religious Books

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a religion and Spirituality author born in Breslau, Germany. He was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian and took part in the German Resistance movement against Nazism.

His participation in the plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler led to his arrest in April 1943 and later his execution by hanging in 1945, just before the war ended.

The Cost Of Discipleship
The book is a practical exposition of how christaun doctrineoffers Christian disciples in a world so hostile to them. It’s an academic theology based on Dietrich’s background

Being among the prominent theologians in the twentieth century brings to light the relationship between Jesus’ teachings and ourselves. What does Jesus what us to do? What does the call to discipleship and obeying Jesus teachings mean to people today? The author draws answers from the sermon on the mountain for the numerous questions while reading the dichotomy between costly grace and cheap grace.

The author gives a detailed discussion of what it means by cheap grace. It’s a perspective on the current church and how people take God’s grace for granted. According to Bonhoeffer understanding, it’s the grace covering one’s sins and even when they sin. There is a devil in them that tries justifying their sinful choices to believe that God will always forgive after repentance.

Even though this cheap grace isn’t dangerous, it’s a very big blasphemy and evidence that some people do not have God’s grace at all. The author uses many radical ideas in the book; for instance, he points out that the church is the physical manifestation of Christ on earth.

Bonhoeffer redefines ontology and personhood and argues that the new human being is not one who has been justified and sanctified but one that is the church, body of Christ, or Christ himself. Having some understanding of Bonhoeffer’s life, especially his role in the conspiracy against Hitler, his disgust with the holocaust, the context in Nazi Germany is enough to comprehend his work.

The editors have done a superb job in offering footnotes to assist the reader in understanding the numerous concepts presented in the book and how they are built based on Bonhoeffer’s academic theology.

The novel has four principal parts, the first being a basic discussion of the relationship of the Christian life to salvation by grace through their faith in the author’s context. Historically, the Lutheran tradition contradicted the role of God’s unearned grace in salvation to the extent that it made any real Christian living of obeying God’s commandments into being an optional thought.

The essence of faith was treated like a belief that one can do anything they want and still be saved by grace. In the second and third sections, the author discusses the Sermon on the Mount and how the twelve disciples were the messengers of God’s kingdom in Matthew’s gospel.

It deals with the biblical text in expository fashion and sometimes with significant insights as a source of blueprints of how characteristics of Christian discipleship must manifest in the modern world.

Cost of Discipleship novel aims to inspire and convict believers as they are on their Christian journey. The author’s language is positive and sharp and draws clear distinctions between his ideas the most common one being cheap grace and costly grace. The book requires careful reading and some meditation for better understanding.
Most of the book talks about the scripture, and it will change one’s understanding of what it means for someone to be of faith in the world. The author challenges the reader to look beyond the world’s values and asks whether everyone is ready to embrace the actual cost of discipleship.

Bonhoeffer wrote the book in the shadow of evil which is made worse by the fact that people calling themselves Christians were so willing to worship Adolf Hitler and regime. He further clarifies that cheap grace is at the center of the deadly compromises of faith that give evil a chance to develop.
The author’s words are as crucial in the modern-day as they were in the days of the Nazis. The book is saturated with the spirit of a martyr and hasn’t lost its freshness and relevance to the present day. Bonheoffer’s love for God and his esteem for God’s word are, without a doubt, the things that stand out in the whole book.

Life Together
In the novel, Dietrich Bonhoeffer recalls his special fellowship in a seminary in the Nazi years in Germany. He uses practical advice to teach on how life in Christ can be sustained in groups like families.

The book starts with an introduction to give the background on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his life.

The author gives a satisfying definition of human and spiritual love like he distinguished cheap and costly grace in his book, The Cost of Discipleship. His main concern is giving love and not being loved as the main preoccupation today.

The book is entirely a basic overview of how to live as a Christian in the community. The community chapter talks about how Christians are important to the community. The author goes further to explain Christian communal prayer, scripture reading, ministry and meditation and concludes on the best rationales of confessions one on one.

Bonheoffer points out how people should serve each other like Christ did the church, and it’s because of Christ’s love that we can love other people. The chapter on The Day with Others lays out how a typical day should look in Christian lives.

He insists on prayer in the morning and at night before going to bed and the importance of reading scripture daily. Bonhoeffer also adds that people should work to earn their daily bread.

The chapter on the Day Alone talks about silence and solitude as he explains how even though one lives in a community, they still some need time alone for meditation and intercession. The chapter on ministry talks about serving each other while sharing one’s other people
The confession and communion chapter is about confessing to one another then later celebrating communion together.