by Eric Metaxas
First published 2010
Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood at the center of Nazi Germany's moral crisis. The young pastor and theologian watched Hitler seduce his nation and target Europe's Jews for extermination. While other church leaders stayed silent, Bonhoeffer chose resistance. Eric Metaxas traces both sides of Bonhoeffer's double life. By day he served as a pastor and wrote spiritual works like "The Cost of Discipleship." By night he worked with conspirators planning Hitler's assassination. The biography draws on personal letters, journal entries, and firsthand accounts to reveal new aspects of Bonhoeffer's story. Metaxas examines his painful 1939 choice to abandon safety in America and return to Germany. He details Bonhoeffer's passionate romance conducted through love letters from prison Cell 92. The book explores his transformative time at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church and his conviction that Christians must defend Jews. It covers his response to Kristallnacht, his role in the Valkyrie conspiracy, and Operation 7's efforts to smuggle Jews to Switzerland. Bonhoeffer paid the ultimate price for his resistance when the Nazis executed him in 1945.
Genres: biography, history, christian, 20th-century, non-fiction, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: based-on-true-events, double-life, moral-dilemma
Setting: America, Germany, Harlem, Switzerland
Period: 1939, 1945, Nazi Germany
617 pages · ebook · Thomas Nelson Publishers
Content warnings: death, violence