It's always an honor to get to know someone even if it is through another's penned words. We all have a story. A story worth sharing. Bonhoeffer is one of those men I could never read enough about. This is a beautiful selection. Charles Marsh brings Bonhoeffer to life through these pages.
I usually don't choose biographies, but this one stood out to me. Sadly, I must admit, until I began reading novels based during WWII I had never heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Terribly sad, right? Once I began reading about him I was fascinated. His life speaks volumes of what honor and character are. He encompasses surrender. He fought the good fight. He set out to change the world and in doing so he empowered others to follow in his footsteps and become leaders in their own right.
I feel Marsh did a spectacular presentation of allowing me to know Bonhoeffer better than before. His words flow. He gives just enough and then allows room for the imagination to embrace what it would have been like to stand next to this heroic man.
This biography is enlightening and challenging to the reader. It gives a platform to inspiring others to walk in faith and live the life that God has chosen for us. To live without fear! This is the example of life Bonhoeffer gives us.
I will definitely pass this biography on to a friend. I enjoyed every chapter. From his early childhood to his last years. His life will forever impact our history.
This biography was a gift from the Blogging for Books program and is published by Knopf Publishing.
Charles Marsh is a professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia and director of the Project on Lived Theology. He is the author of seven previous books, including God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights, which won the 1998 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Of Marsh’s earlier volumes Reclaiming Bonhoeffer, the late Eberhand Bethge, Bonhoeffer’s closest friend and first biographer, wrote: “This book is a theological sensation—an exciting event. Nobody who attempts to define Bonhoeffer’s legacy today will able to ignore Marsh’s book.”Marsh was a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship in 2009 and the 2010 Ellen Maria Gorrissen Berlin Prize fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
