Anxious Souls Will Ask …

the christ-centered spirituality of

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

John W. Matthews

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2005 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

All rights reserved

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Matthews, John W., 1949-

Anxious souls will ask — the Christ-centered spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer / John W. Matthews.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8028-2841-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 1906-1945. I. Title.

BX4827.B57M37 2005

230′.044′092 — dc22

2005041737

www.eerdmans.com

Contents

Foreword, by H. Martin Rumscheidt

Acknowledgments

Brief Chronology of Events

Preface

God’s People Embrace God’s Future

Dietrich Bonhoeffer—Prophet of Truth and Transition

1. The Solid Foundation

2. The Crumbling Pillars

3. The New Pillars Needed

4. The Pillars Outside of the Prison (Writings)

5. The Discipline Needed to Know When the Pillars Need Replacement

Epilogue

Appendix 1: Selections from Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison

Appendix 2: Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Appendix 3: Secondary Resources for Further Study

Foreword

Towards the end of the twentieth century, an impressive series of sculptures was added to the already magnificent treasury of sculptures adorning Westminster Abbey in London. This house of God records a long, multifaceted history through, among many other features, the stonework over the West Entrance to the Abbey. Men and women depicted in the new sculpture series are all twentieth-century persons, witnesses to God in life and work, and in sacrifice of even life itself. Their witness is to be remembered and commended in the labor of the sculptors who created figures of, among others, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Visitors learn from the guides at Westminster Abbey that everyone depicted there is considered a significant representative of the will of God for the whole of creation. Concerning Romero, King, and Bonhoeffer, one is left with the picture of three martyrs for truth, justice, and freedom. Not only are they worthy to be remembered as martyrs, it is good to allow oneself to be caught up by them into following Jesus Christ and embracing what Bonhoeffer called “costly grace.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not intend to become a martyr. For him, seeking martyrdom was too much like trying to be a religious person, something he said we ought to give up trying to be. Read his letter of July 21, 1944, to Eberhard Bethge. There he refers to his earlier work Discipleship, written in 1937; the new critical edition in English was published under that title in 2001. In Discipleship he had developed reflections on what John Matthews calls “Christ-centered spirituality.” The real issue for Bonhoeffer was that we so live with God and by God’s grace that we ...