Bonhoeffer’s Prison Writings
Second Tuesdays of the Month via Zoom
1:00pm – 2:30pm (Pacific Time)
Instructor:
Dr. Mark Brocker ([email protected])
To register, send an email to Dr. Brocker.
Texts:
Primary Text: Letters and Papers from Prison (DBWE 8)
Conspiracy and Imprisonment: 1940–1945 (DBWE 16)
Love Letters from Cell 92
Fiction from Tegel Prison (DBWE 7)
Description:
This seminar will focus on the writings of German Lutheran pastor/theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer during his imprisonment by the Nazis. The Nazis executed Bonhoeffer on April 9, 1945. Our primary text will be the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works edition of Letters and Papers from Prison (DBWE 8). We will also read selected writings from Conspiracy and Imprisonment: 1940–1945 (DBWE 16), Love Letters from Cell 92, and be introduced to Fiction from Tegel Prison (DBWE 7). We will address his key insights into theological themes and issues such as telling the truth, the view from below, the polyphony of life, religionless Christianity, this-worldliness, and sharing in the sufferings of God. In a letter of April 30, 1944, Bonhoeffer informed his dear friend Eberhard Bethge that what keeps gnawing at him is the question “What is Christianity, or who is Christ actually for us today?” We will be especially concerned to ponder the significance of his prison insights for us today.
Schedule:
| September 8, 2026 | An Introduction to Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought | Watch Bonhoeffer before class. It is a 90-minute documentary. |
| October 13, 2026 | An Introduction to Bonhoeffer’s Prison Writings | DBWE 8:1–34 DBWE 7:1–23 + TBD |
| November 10, 2026 | After Ten Years | DBWE 8:37–52 |
| December 8, 2026 | Faith under Fire: The Interrogation of Bonhoeffer | DBWE 16:395–99, 404–07, 409–11, 413–27, 435–46, 462–66 DBWE 16:601–08 “What Does It Mean to Tell the Truth?” |
| January 12, 2027 | The Fullness of Life | DBWE 8:2/54, 2/84, 2/88, 2/101–02, 2/121–22, 3/147–48,3/152, 3/155, 3/158, 3/170, 3/172, 4/179, 4/190Love Letters from Cell 92, 198–204, 207–10, 216–19 |
| February 9, 2027 | A New Theological Beginning: Religionless Christianity in a World Come of Age | DBWE 8:2/108, 3/137, 3/139, 3/145, 3/161, 3/168, 3/180,4/181–82, 4/186–87 |
| March 9, 2027 | The Church for Others / Arcane Discipline | DBWE 8:383–90, 499–504 |
| April 13, 2027 | Poetry from Prison | DBWE 8:1/76–78, 3/158, 3/167, 3/173, 3/174, 3/175, 4/191, 4/196, 4/197, 4/199, 4/200 |
| May 11, 2027 | Sharing in the Sufferings of God | DBWE 8:2/121, 3/167, 3/169, 3/177, 4/178, 4/183, 4/188, 4/191–92, 4/199–200 |
