Dodson’s insightful and persuasive work brings welcome and much needed clarification to our understanding of Bonhoeffer’s vision of the church and its sacramental practices in connection with the important theological critique of religion he also advanced. Careful theological studies of this calibre are essential if the church and its teachings are to continue to benefit aright from Bonhoeffer’s legacy.
-- Phillip G. Zeigler, University of Aberdeen
You might have thought there was nothing left to say about "religionless Christianity," the phrase from Bonhoeffer’s prison letters that sparked the first Bonhoeffer boom in the 1960s. Chris Dodson shows otherwise in this welcome book by situating religionlessness in the context of Bonhoeffer’s sacramentology, and his sacramentology in the context of the Lutheran tradition. The payoff is a fresh interpretation of Bonhoeffer’s late theology where the sacraments are re-read not as dead weight in a religionless age but as the very catalysts of religionless faith.
-- Michael P. DeJonge, University of South Florida
In this rich and careful book, Chris Dodson provides the first systematic and sustained treatment of the role of the sacraments in Bonhoeffer’s theology. In particular, he provides a compelling reading of Bonhoeffer’s sacramentology as at once deeply Lutheran and distinctively modern. On this basis Dodson revisits and reframes Bonhoeffer’s late theology, providing fresh insights into "religionless Christianity." This is an outstanding book that makes an important contribution to Bonhoeffer scholarship.
-- Michael Mawson, Charles Sturt University
This book offers a fascinating investigation into the connections between Bonhoeffer’s exciting suggestion of a "religionless Christianity" and his commitment to sacraments. Any scholar of Bonhoeffer, or anyone interested in sacramentology would be wise to read this important work.
-- Tom Greggs, FRSE, Marischal Chair (1616) and Head of Divinity, University of Aberdeen
