This issue marks only the second time Christian History has featured a twentieth-century figure. (The first was Issue 7 on C.S. Lewis)

I happily acknowledge a long-standing debt to Bonhoeffer. During my seminary days, in the midst of an overly smug orthodoxy, his writings motivated me to keep on with the theological quest. At a practical level, his forthright explications of “cheap grace” and “religionless Christianity” helped make sense of the church in today’s world.

It seems that about every five years, Bonhoeffer has provided a needed spiritual tonic for me. His poem “Who Am I?” written in prison, gave me permission to ask some disturbing questions in the confidence that “God knows,” even though I wasn’t sure. Later, Bonhoeffer’s pilgrimage offered me a much-needed clue for reapproaching the adventure of faith. This is well summed up in the words of his biographer Eberhard Bethge: “The witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer began with the attempt to live and say what it is to be with Christ, ...

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