Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 - 1945)

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I read 'The Cost of Discipleship' by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the late 1990's.  It is a 'convicting' read for American Religious (...didn't want to use the 'c' word). 

Most won't - or can't - read it, and will remain unaware of him and his teaching.

In 2009 I ran across a long documentary about him on Netflix. What a wonderful, poignant and powerful story.  Very sad also.

His adventures led him to America in the 30s to study with the finest minds in Protestant theology.  Apparently he was less than overwhelmed with them.  But along the way he came into contact with Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. and the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.  There he found Christ very much alive.

I like this from the site Bonhoeffer.com ( http://www.bonhoeffer.com/bon2.htm )

"His insistence on the importance of an active response to Christ's Sermon on the Mount – a call to social justice – inspired many of the world's great civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Vaclav Havel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. And finally, his brave and revolutionary concept of a "religionless Christianity" has helped Christian theology turn toward uncertain vistas of the future. It is an idea which exposes the vitality and relevance of faith in a world, as Bonhoeffer put it, "come of age." "

Here is a page about his experience with the American Black Church:

"The Black Church's Influence on Dietrich Bonhoeffer" http://www.bonhoeffer.com/art4.pdf

And *definitely* take a look at this - 2006 competition winner, Junion Division Historical paper by a young  man in Middle School in Topeka, Kansas (just amazing!):

"A Modern Martyr: Taking a Stand Against the State Gone Mad"