Editing Dietrich Bonhoeffer (section)

=== Theological legacy ===
[[File:Breckwoldt-prüfung.JPG|thumb|upright|Sculpture by Edith Breckwoldt. "The ordeal. No man in the whole world can change the truth. One can only look for the truth, find it and serve it. The truth is in all places." Citation by Bonhoeffer.|alt=]]

Bonhoeffer's theology is subject to diverse and contradictory interpretations, sometimes necessarily based on speculation for example, while his [[Christocentric]] approach appeals to conservative, confession-minded Protestants, other commentators note his commitment to justice, and ideas about "religionless Christianity".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pugh |first1=Jeffrey C. |title=Religionless Christianity: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Troubled Times |date=1 January 2009 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-567-03259-1 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afbTAwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> He also argued that Christians should not retreat from the world but act within it. He believed that two elements were constitutive of faith: the implementation of justice and the acceptance of divine suffering.<ref>Edward Craig, ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', p. 835</ref>

His book ''The Cost of Discipleship'' famously discusses the concept of cheap grace against costly grace.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Bonhoefer |first=Dietrich |title=Discipleship |publisher=Fortress Press |year=2003 |isbn=0800683242}}</ref> He contends that Christians have relied so much on Christ's forgiveness that they do not challenge themselves enough in actually following his word to their best ability, instead relying on God's grace to save them when they fall.<ref name=":0" />{{page needed|date=October 2023}} Bonhoeffer says that Christians are instructed to strive to follow the Word of God. Only then – after they strive to the best of their ability – should God's grace come into play.<ref name=":0" />{{page needed|date=October 2023}} He contrasts cheap grace with costly grace, writing:

{{blockquote|Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.{{nbsp}}[...] Costly grace is the gospel which must be {{em|sought}} again and again, the gift which must be {{em|asked}} for, the door at which a man must {{em|knock}}. Such grace is {{em|costly}} because it calls us to follow, and it is {{em|grace}} because it calls us to follow {{em|Jesus Christ}}. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is {{em|costly}} because it cost God the life of his Son{{nbsp}}[...]<ref name=":0" />{{rp|47–8}}}}

Continuing with this idea, Bonhoeffer discusses the idea of simple obedience.<ref name=":0" /> He admonishes Christians who come too quickly to the conclusion that God could not possibly have meant his commands literally.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|88}} Bonhoeffer cites the example of the [[Jesus and the rich young man|rich man who asks Jesus how he can enter the kingdom of heaven]]. He writes that people often simply assume that Jesus did not mean literally to leave everything and follow him and that instead it was a matter of faith or a command to be inwardly detached.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|87–9}} Bonhoeffer writes that God says exactly what he means and that Christians need to follow simple obedience to him by following [[divine command theory|divine commands]] as they are written.<ref name=":0" /> He writes "only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes".<ref name=":0" />{{rp|69}}

Years after Bonhoeffer's death, some, such as  Protestant theologian Thomas Altizer and Jewish religious scholar [[Richard L. Rubenstein]], developed his critique into a thoroughgoing attack against traditional Christianity in the "[[Death of God theology|Death of God]]" movement, which briefly attracted the attention of the mainstream culture in the mid-1960s. However, some critics—such as [[Jacques Ellul]]—have charged that those radical interpretations of Bonhoeffer's insights amount to a grave distortion, that Bonhoeffer did not mean to say that God no longer had anything to do with humanity and had become a mere cultural artifact. More recent Bonhoeffer interpretations are more cautious in this regard, respecting the parameters of the [[neo-orthodox]] school to which he belonged.<ref>Hall, Douglas John (1998). [https://www.proquest.com/docview/211165641?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true ''Remembered Voices: Reclaiming the Legacy of Neo-Orthodoxy''], Westminster John Knox. Reviewed by Josef Solc (2001), ''Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society'', 44(3), [https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-82193870/remembered-voices-reclaiming-the-legacy-of-neo-orthodoxy p. 565.]{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231008094124/https://www.proquest.com/docview/211165641?fromopenview=true&pq-origsite=gscholar |archive-date=8 October 2023}}</ref> Bonhoeffer also influenced the [[Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus|Comboni missionary]] Father [[Ezechiele Ramin]].<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.giovaniemissione.it/categoria-testimoni/2174/ezechiele-ramin/#biografia
|title=La vita di Lele
|language=it
|publisher=Giovani e Missione
|access-date=19 August 2017}}</ref><ref name="Cori">{{cite web
 |url        = http://www.pieracori.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=307:ezechiele-ramin&catid=77:testimoni&Itemid=90
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120322032001/http://www.pieracori.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=307:ezechiele-ramin&catid=77:testimoni&Itemid=90
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-date = 22 March 2012
 |title      = Ezechiele Ramin
 |language   = it
 |author     = Piera Cori
 |publisher = Alla Tua Presenza
 |date       = 13 July 2010
 |access-date = 31 March 2011
}}</ref>