John A. Moses: The Reluctant Revolutionary
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Collision with Prusso-German History
Summary
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a uniquely reluctant and distinctly German Lutheran revolutionary. In this volume, the author, an Anglican priest and historian, argues that Bonhoeffer’s powerful critique of Germany’s moral derailment needs to be understood as the expression of a devout Lutheran Protestant. Bonhoeffer gradually recognized the ways in which the intellectual and religious traditions of his own class —the Bildungsbürgertum— were enabling Nazi evil. In response, he offered a religiously inspired call to political opposition and Christian witness —which cost him his life. The author investigates Bonhoeffer’s stance in terms of his confrontation with the legacy of Hegelianism and Neo-Rankeanism, and by highlighting Bonhoeffer’s intellectual and spiritual journey, shows how his endeavor to politicially reeducate the German people must be examined in theological terms.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
The “Peculiarity” of German Political Culture
Chapter 2
Bonhoeffer’s Formation
Chapter 3
The Problem of Anti-Semitism in Germany from Luther to Hitler
Chapter 4
Bonhoeffer’s Opening to the West and the Involvement in Ecumenism
Chapter 5
The Church Struggle to 1937
Chapter 6
The Ethics of Conspiracy
Chapter 7
Bonhoeffer and the Jewish Question
Chapter 8
Dietrich Bonhoeffer as Critic of His Class in Retrospect
Chapter 9
The Post-War Confrontation with the Nazi Past
Epilogue
Bonhoeffer-Reception in post War Germany
Appendix I
The Barmen Declaration of Faith
Appendix II
The Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt
Appendix III
Darmstadt Statement
Appendix IV
More Justice in the GDR
About the Author
John A. Moses taught at the University of Queensland from 1965 to 1994. Since 2007 he has been professorial associate of St. Mark’s National Theological Institute in Canberra. His publications include The Politics of Illusion: The Fischer Controversy in German Historiography (1975), German Trade Unions From Bismarck to Hitler (1982), Trade Union Theory from Marx to Walesa (1990), and edited with Christopher Puglsey, The German Empire and Britain’s Pacific Dominions 1871–1919 (2000).
Reference: Berghahn Books
