DeJonge lucidly retrieves Bonhoeffer's creative engagement with Luther as the engine of his resistance to the political and moral degradations of the Third Reich. Summing up: Recommended
CHOICE
...this is an excellent and extremely important book. There is no other book that focuses sustained attention on Bonhoeffer's theology of resistance and his activities. Teachers, students, and researchers of Bonhoeffer's works would do well to read this book carefully and refer to it often.
Nancy Duff, Retired Professor of Christian Ethics, East Windsor, NJ, USA, Theology Today
Michael DeJonge's Bonhoeffer on Resistance: The Word against the Wheel presents the most comprehensive, clear, and compelling study of Bonhoeffer's political theology to date.
The Journal of Religion
A key takeaway from this new volume is that Bonhoeffer's conception of resistance is inescapably Lutheran. DeJonge rejects the view that Bonhoeffer left behind his Lutheran assumptions on his way to political resistance. Bonhoeffer's involvement in political resistance was, on the contrary, inextricable from his Lutheran political theology. DeJonge has made a significant contribution to Bonhoeffer scholarship in bringing this point to light, and in such a convincing and compelling way.
Joshua T. Mauldin, Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey
DeJonge has engaged in a thorough analysis of Bonhoeffer's resistance thinking. Those of us who work on the historical side of the German church struggle would do well to incorporate his and other theologians' insights into our work, to enrich our interpretations and aid us in the cultivation of an undistorted and unpoliticized interpretation of Bonhoeffer's life and work.
Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University, Contemporary Church History Quarterly
That said, at a time when more and more people-scholars, clergy, lay people, and activists-are looking to Dietrich Bonhoeffer for theological and ethical guidance in matters of church and civic responsibility, Michael DeJonge has offered an extremely important and helpful guide for understanding what Bonhoeffer says about resistance...I highly commend this book to both serious and casual readers of Bonhoeffer.
Lori Brandt Hale, Augsburg University, Minneapolis, Minnesota
DeJonge, in crisp clear prose, and with deep textual acuity, has provided a definitive account of what "resistance" in a Bonhoefferian key looks like.
Myles Werntz, Reading Religion
Michael P. DeJonge offers a nuanced and original exploration of Bonhoeffer's "resistance thinking" in its proper political, historical and theological context. This is a valuable work that reveals fascinating insights into Bonhoeffer himself and his relation to the church. It will be of deep interest to readers of theology and history alike.
Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia and President of Asia Society Policy Institute
Before Dietrich Bonhoeffer could be a pastor, martyr, prophet, or spy he was a theologian, and without an understanding of that theology his actions makes little sense. In Bonhoeffer on Resistance leading Bonhoeffer scholar Michael P. deJonge gives us a clear, accessible, and true account of Bonhoeffer's theology of political life, in particular its relation to Martin Luther. This is an important book which deserves to be widely read.
Stephen Plant, Dean and Directory of Studies in Theology, Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge