ABSTRACT
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) is one of the best known twentieth-century theologians. In Germany, his fame is obviously linked to his participation in the resistance to Nazism. He spent many years in German prisons, and was finally executed because of his share in the responsibility for the attack on Hitler. Elsewhere, his fame is linked more to his theology, especially to some brief passages in the letters he wrote from prison in the last years of his life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer won his place in the history of modern theology through formulations such as that we “must live as if God did not exist (etsi deus non daretur).” This sentence makes a demand that is almost mystical, and theologians and believers throughout the world have worked on interpreting it for more than 65 years. What did Dietrich Bonhoeffer really mean?
