As summer draws to a close, we hope that you were able to find some time for rest and reflection. Our prayer was that our Summer Reading with Bonhoeffer Series provided you an opportunity to spend some time with the wise words of our namesake and that in reading Who is Christ For Us?, Spiritual Care, and Collected Sermons 1 & 2, you were enriched, encouraged, and inspired to work towards a more ethical and moral world.

As you read the Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Volumes 1 & 2, we invite you to consider these reflection questions:

Spend some time looking over the Table of Contents for each volume. What do his sermon titles and corresponding Bible passages suggest about Bonhoeffer’s preaching ministry? 

In Volume 1 and his exposition on I Corinthians 13, “What Love Wants,” Bonhoeffer asserts, “Despite all our ideals, our seriousness, our knowledge, and our faith, even our good deeds and sacrifice, our lives are worth nothing if we do not have that one thing Paul calls love” (pg. 148). What are the implications of this when it comes to our outward religiosity or even our inward self-assessment?  

In Volume 2, Bonhoeffer observes in “The Human Yearning for God,” “Just like the individual person, so too the world itself experiences hours in which it cries out for God’s countenance from within its godlessness and godforsakenness” (pg. 43). What might this suggest about our propensity for categorizing the “godly” and the “ungodly,” the religious and irreligious? Are they that different? Or are they that much the same? 

If you’re interested in wrapping up your summer Bonhoeffer journey with something a little different, we commend to these two dramatic productions that humanize our beloved Dietrich.

Agent of Grace is a feature length film written by Gareth Jones and Eric Till, directed by Till, and starring Ulrich Tukur and Johanna Klante. The film is an entertaining and profoundly touching portrayal of Bonhoeffer’s spiritual, emotional, and patriotic complexities.

The Beams Are Creaking, a two-act play by Douglas Anderson is “part political thriller, part love story, leavened with moments of humor, filled with a compassion that reaffirms one’s faith in man.”  – Concord Theatricals. You can watch a community theater-style production online.