Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works: Volume 1: Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church / November 01, 1998

The 16-volume Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works is also available.

Sanctorum Communio was Bonhoeffer’s dissertation, completed in 1927 and first published in 1930. In it he attempts to work out a theology of the person in society, and then, particularly, in the church. Along with enlightening us about his early positions on sin, evil, solidarity, collective spirit, and collective guilt, the volume unfolds a systematic theology of the Spirit at work in the church and what this implies for questions of authority, freedom, ritual, and eschatology.

Here is offered the complete text in translation, annotated by the German and American editors. The historical context is explained and textual commentary is provided in a Foreword and Afterword.

Sanctorum Communio is now more readily usable for teaching and scholarship. The work, available in this series for the first time in its entirety in English, includes all material omitted from the original 1930 German publication. Bonhoeffer’s doctoral dissertation sets out the theology of sociality that informed all his work, engaging social philosophy and sociology to interpret the church as “Christ existing as church-community.” Here are the roots of his commitment to the Confessing church and the ecumenical movement, and of his actions in the resistance movement for the sake of peace and Germany’s future.