My new book review of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas is posted online at Books & Culture this morning. Below are the first two paragraphs.
ANDY ROWELL
Bonhoeffer
The evangelical hero.
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A decade ago, Christianity Today published a list of the ten best religious books of the 20th century. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship came in second, behind only C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity—a measure of Bonhoeffer's standing among contemporary Christians, and evangelicals in particular. And yet until now, American readers have lacked an account of Bonhoeffer's life that is both thorough and engagingly readable, a book that captures the full sweep of his remarkable story and highlights its meaning for us today. In Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas has given us just such a book.
Library shelves are already loaded with studies of Bonhoeffer from every conceivable angle. In The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon: Portraits of a Protestant Saint, Stephen Haynes argues that Bonhoeffer fits the criteria for a saint, while Craig Slane has written a monograph entitled Bonhoeffer as Martyr. But for the television and movie-soaked American evangelical, perhaps Bonhoeffer's appeal can be explained best with the term "hero," in the "Entertainment Weekly All-time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture" sense: James Bond, Superman, Spider-Man, Jack Bauer, Batman, etc. An intelligent, courageous, romantic figure faces stark choices as the world is threatened by a ruthless evil that perhaps only he has the power to stop.
Comments
7 responses to “My new book review of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas is posted online at Books & Culture”
Well done, Andy.
Either the link is not working or CT is down this morning, I can’t read what I’m sure is a great review.
I got this book the other week, and it is stunning.
Thanks David and Jason. Yes, the link is working again. It was down Saturday morning for a little bit.
Andy, today in Hall’s ethics class we discussed the Christian Century review of this book, and boy was it heated. Since this is such a popular book, many were offended by the assertions of Green (and Hall per her agreement). For them (Green/Hall), this book is a dangerous misrepresentation that does not square up with the scholarship on Bonhoeffer. Where do you stand concerning Green’s review? http://www.christiancentury.org/reviews/2010-09/hijacking-bonhoeffer
John Jay,
I think my review at Books & Culture fits with Green’s. I see similar issues–an evangelical slant–but I see Metaxas’s book as a decent introduction to Bonhoeffer.
See also Victoria Bartnett’s review:
http://journal.ambrose.edu/ojs/index.php/acchquarterly/article/view/46/92
See also the fine review “Agenda-Driven Biography: Two very different tellings of the life and times of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”
By Nancy Lukens
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj1102&article=agenda-driven-biography
Here are the links to 5 reviews in the order they were published. Each argues that the evangelical bias is the book’s weakness.
Bonhoeffer: The evangelical hero.
by Andy Rowell
Books & Culture
June 2010
http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/webexclusives/2010/june/bonhoeffer.html
Review
by Victoria Barnett
Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletter
September 2010.
http://journal.ambrose.edu/ojs/index.php/acchquarterly/article/view/46/92
Hijacking Bonhoeffer
by Clifford Green
Christian Century
October 5, 2010
http://www.christiancentury.org/reviews/2010-09/hijacking-bonhoeffer
Metaxas’s Counterfeit Bonhoeffer: An Evangelical Critique
by Richard Weikart
January 2011
http://www.csustan.edu/history/faculty/weikart/Metaxas.htm
Agenda-Driven Biography: Two very different tellings of the life and times of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
By Nancy Lukens
Sojourners
February 2011
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj1102&article=agenda-driven-biography