The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Women, Sexuality, and Nazi Germany

Book info: The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Women, Sexuality, and Nazi Germany (Paperback, 466 pages) – Cascade Books, 2016. Language: English.

Few twentieth-century theologians have had a bigger impact on theology than Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a manwho lived his faith and died at the hands of the Nazis. For Bonhoeffer, the theological was the personal, life and faith deeply intertwined-and to this day the world is inspired by that witness. Yet the true story of the women in this remarkable man's life has until now been obscured by a conventional narrative that has distorted their role. Using primary source material by the women, and even including the first ever photo of alleged "first fiancee" Elisabeth Zinn, this book "sees" these women fully for the first time. A highly readable but scholarly work of narrative non-fiction, The Doubled Life places Bonhoeffer's theology of love and sexuality within the context of his struggles with women, friendship, and the evils of Nazi Germany. Editorial Reviews Review Using letters, photos and published writing, Reynolds studies the social ecology of her subject, placing him in context to show whom he loved and how those relationships mattered ... The field of Bonhoeffer studies will benefit from this balanced correction to popular hagiography. Publishers Weekly

"If you are interested in the lives of women behind the "great men" and their contributions, then please consider buying this book." Nancy Bowen, author of Ezekiel, professor of Old Testament, Earlham School of Religion

In a "world come of age" the most illuminating theology is often found in biography. Diane Reynolds gives voice to the surprising silence of women in previous Bonhoeffer studies and in so doing reminds us that Bonhoeffer's worldly holiness exiled neither the dynamics of gender nor the complexity of sexuality. This book will be a required text in my Bonhoeffer graduate seminar.
--Scott Holland is the Slabaugh Professor of Theology & Cultureand the Director of Peace Studies at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Indiana.

"A cracking good read." --Peter Carrell, Anglican Down Under

"This is an excellent biography of a man placed in the contextof his time and directed to our world today. ... Reynolds's book's historical significance is its irrefutability and portrait of a fallible and quietly courageous highly intelligent man." -- Ellen Moody, scholar and blogger, Ellen and Jim have a blog, two About the Author Diane Reynolds is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, and Publishers Weekly among other publications. She teaches literature and writing at the university level and also holds an MDiv from Earlham School of Religion.