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With the values that his wife taught the children, he was entirely in agreement. Among those values was a serious respect for the feelings and opinions of others, including his wife’s. She was the granddaughter, daughter, and sister of men whose lives were given to theology, and he knew she was serious about her faith and had hired governesses who were serious about it. He was present at family religious activities and at the holiday celebrations his wife orchestrated, which invariably included hymns, Bible readings, and prayers.

Eric Metaxas has delivered a masterwork of compelling literary and historical proportions. This extraordinary biography exposes the formative impressions in Bonhoeffer’s life that reveal him as a gifted, complex, humanely sensitive twentieth-century figure responding to the call of God and his unfolding spiritual understanding of his times. ” —GORDON RIDDLE PENNINGTON, CEO, BURNING MEDIA GROUP “Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer will be regarded as one of the best books of the year. There are a few books that, years after I have read them, I realize have had a great influence on me.

Bell arranged the service, for he had known and loved the man being honored. The bishop met him years before the war when the two were engaged in ecumenical efforts, trying to warn Europe against the designs of the Nazis, then trying to rescue Jews, and finally trying to bring news of the German resistance to the attention of the British government. Just hours before his execution in Flossenbürg concentration camp, the man directed his last words to this bishop. That Sunday he spoke them to a British officer, who was imprisoned with him, after he performed his last service and preached his last sermon.