Bonhoeffer (Abridged) - By Eric Metaxas

Having read the unabridged Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas I was interested to see that there was an abridged version and was curious to see how the abridged version would compare to the original.  It was a nice attempt, but it definitely isn't even half as good.  For one thing, it seemed choppy at parts, for instance, at one point, the Nazi party is a small minority party in the government and then all of a sudden Hitler is in power. As far as I can recollect, It didn't really talk about the growth of the Nazis like the other one did.  I understand that in order for it to be 'abridged' lots of things would have to be 'cut', but I thought that it should have had a little bit more of the background of what was going on politically in Germany just for clarities sake.  And another example of its 'choppiness' was where Bonhoeffer declares that he won't go to the 'Fano' conference if a particular 'Reich-church' leader went too, and then we find that Bonhoeffer goes to the conference, but I didn't notice any mention of whether or not that 'Reich-church' leader was there. 

This all just my opinion, and it may just be that my knowledge of what's missing biases me towards the fuller account.  You might want to look at a review by someone who hasn't read the original to see what they thought of it, it may not seem as choppy to them.  Ultimately, you get a pretty good overview of the events of his life, and I still have the same caution towards his view of Catholicism, like I mentioned in my review of the unabridged account of his life, it seems that he may have thought that the beliefs of Catholicism were accurate enough that the people who hold to them are saved.  It makes me a bit nervous of what he actually believed about the salvation of God.  If he actually loved Roman Catholics, then he would try to explain to them what God's word actually says about there being only one Mediator between us and God, and how our works will not save us, earn us any points before God, nor will the 'merits' of the saints give us any 'clout' before God.  God Himself provided us Righteousness in His Son Jesus Christ.   

All in all, I just felt that one didn't get 'acquainted' with Bonhoeffer in this abridgement, it was more like a recounting of events in his life rather than a look at what was going on in the man himself.  But again, some people may like summaries. 

 

I received a free review copy of this book from the Booklook blogger program in exchange for my review which did not have to be favorable.

 

This book may be purchased from Amazon and Thomas Nelson's site.