The Coherence of Life Without God Before God

In his Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer urges Christians to feel their longings for earthly realities to the fullest, and argues that such yearnings strengthen faith. This issue has been overlooked by Bonhoeffer scholars, despite its central place in the Letters ; this study seeks to correct that oversight. Through a selective, chronological analysis of the Ethics , this text shows Bonhoeffer progressively developing a positive view of the natural and of fallen life which undergirds his later encouragement of secular longings in the Letters . This new perspective has rich implications for Christian anthropology and ethics. Earthly Desires in the Letters and Papers from Prison and Bonhoeffer’s Pre-1939 An Introduction to the Problem; Earthly Desires in the Life of Biographical Background of the Problem; Bonhoeffer on Earthly Desires in His Ethics : Toward a Solution to the Problem; and Bonhoeffer on Does He Solve the Problem?