Here are the links to six "major" reviews of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas (Thomas Nelson, 2010) that I know of in the order they were published in the last year. Each argues that the anachronistic American conservative evangelical bias is the book's weakness.
"Bonhoeffer: The evangelical hero."
by Andy Rowell
Th.D. student at Duke Divinity School
Books & Culture
June 2010
http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/webexclusives/2010/june/bonhoeffer.html
"Review"
by Victoria Barnett
General Editor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition and
Director of Church Relations, U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
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
Executive director of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works.
Christian Century
October 5, 2010
http://www.christiancentury.org/reviews/2010-09/hijacking-bonhoeffer
"Metaxas's Counterfeit Bonhoeffer: An Evangelical Critique"
by Richard Weikart
Department of History, California State University, Stanislaus and author of The Myth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Is His Theology Evangelical?
Reviewer's website.
January 2011
http://www.csustan.edu/history/faculty/weikart/Metaxas.htm
"The Grounds of Courage"
by Alan Wolfe
Professor of Political Science and Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College
The New Republic
February 3, 2011
http://www.tnr.com/print/article/books-and-arts/magazine/81378/Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-pastor-martyr-spy
"Agenda-Driven Biography: Two very different tellings of the life and times of Dietrich Bonhoeffer."
By Nancy Lukens
Nancy Lukens is a retired University of New Hampshire professor of German and women’s studies. She has translated works by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothee Soelle, and East German church leaders involved in the nonviolent opposition of the 1980s.
Sojourners
February 2011
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj1102&article=agenda-driven-biography
This last article by Lukens recommends
Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance by Ferdinand Schlingensiepen (T & T Clark; released in English in June 2010). This is also the book that J. Kameron Carter is using in his Duke Divinity course this semester on Bonhoeffer.
See my Dietrich Bonhoeffer category for more on Bonhoeffer.
Related:
The review by conservative reformed blogger Tim Challies (May 25, 2010) and his subsequent reflection Counterfeit Bonhoeffer (Jan 18, 2011)
Bonhoeffer and Anonymous Evangelicals
by Carl Trueman
January 18, 2011
Reformation 21 blog
Redeeming Bonhoeffer (The Book): The problem with Eric Metaxas's portrayal of the German hero as an evangelical.
by Jason B. Hood
Christianity Today online
February 7, 2011
3 replies on “Reviews of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas”
Hello,
the main aim of Bonhoeffer was not the resistance but the renewal of the German Evangelical Church (former DEK, today EKD). In Germany there are evil powers trying to turn and to fix publics gaze on Bonhoeffers resistance activity. Everybody must admit that the Third Reich is over and the EKD sill exists with her problems. It is high time to turn the gaze away from Bonhoeffers resistance activity to his activity as reformer of the Church. Assumed Bonhoeffer would be recognized as very gifted theologian and assumed his theology would be applyed the EKD had to change totally.
I have just started a website concerning this issue:
http://www.confessingchurch.wordpress.com
Kind regards,
Rainer Braendlein (Munich, Germany)
The best book of Bonhoeffer: “The Cost of Discipleship” Buy it now!
Andy,
Since Carter does not list the textbooks for his Bonhoeffer course, do you know what others books are used? I use these textbook lists as a source for self directed study. Thanks in advance for any information you may have.
Christopher
Will fix this sometime maybe!
Here is a note from someone.
FYI some links no longer work, here are links that should work
https://contemporarychurchhistory.org/2010/09/review-of-eric-metaxas-bonhoeffer-pastor-martyr-prophet-spy-a-righteous-gentile-vs-the-third-reich/
https://newrepublic.com/article/81378/dietrich-bonhoeffer-pastor-martyr-spy
https://sojo.net/magazine/february-2011/how-eric-metaxas-agenda-driven-biography-fails-capture-true-bonhoeffer