The authors of this volume discuss specific philosophical and theological ideas in view of Bonhoeffer's intellectual formation. As such, all the studies converge on the thought of Bonhoeffer as a whole in order to illuminate the growth and maturation of his theology.
In spite of the plethora of Bonhoeffer studies there is a large lacuna regarding studies that have addressed Bonhoeffer's intellectual grounding in a thorough, comprehensive and methodical manner. Scholarly attention to this important subject matter has indeed been scarce. However, without an attempt to examine, trace, and weigh these influences in Bonhoeffer's theological formation it is hardly possible to gain a comprehensive and complete understanding of his thought. In the studies, the different authors seek to address the decisive questions and issues in this regard.
As such, the essays collected in this volume have the one focal point and common scope in the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In each of the essays, the authors discuss one or two philosophers or theologians and demonstrate how specific ideas penetrated and shaped Bonhoeffer's intellectual formation. These various studies converge on the thought of Bonhoeffer as a whole in such a way as to illuminate the growth and maturation of his own intellect vis-à-vis the philosophical and theological ideas articulated in the thinkers discussed in the essays. Put differently, the objective of the essays is to open up the intellectual window of Bonhoeffer's thought, as it were, and thereby allow more light to fall on the structure, extension and formation of that thought.
Table of contents:
Barry Harvey: Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
Peter Frick: The Imitatio Christi of Thomas à Kempis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
Wolf Krötke: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther -
Wayne Floyd: Encounter with an Other: Immanuel Kant and G.W.F. Hegel in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
Christiane Tietz: Friedrich Schleiermacher and Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
Geffrey Kelly: Kierkegaard as »Antidote« and as Impact on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Concept of Christian Discipleship -
Ralf Wüstenberg: The Influence of Wilhelm Dilthey on Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison -
Peter Frick: Friedrich Nietzsche's Aphorisms and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Theology -
Martin Rumscheidt: The Significance of Adolf von Harnack and Reinhold Seeberg for Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
Peter Frick: Rudolf Bultmann, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
Andreas Pangritz: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: »Within, not Outside the Barthian Movement« -
Josiah Young: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr: Their Ethics, Views on Karl Barth and African-Americans -
Stephen Plant: »In the Sphere of the Familiar:« Heidegger and Bonhoeffer
