Dietrich Bonhoeffer defied Hitler at the cost of his life.
Decades after German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung on the grounds of a concentration camp by Nazi soldiers for collaborating in a plot to kill Hitler, his writings have continued to captivate people from all corners of the world. On Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 5:30 p.m., highly acclaimed author Charles Marsh will visit Elon University to speak about Bonhoeffer’s fascinating life and legacy.
The lecture takes place in the Isabella Cannon Room of the Center for the Arts and is sponsored by the Elon Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society, and the Department of Religious Studies.
Marsh’s 2014 book, “Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” has been reviewed in several prestigious venues, including the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Many scholars have been drawn to Marsh’s work because of the unique insight and controversy his book provides into Bonhoeffer’s life and death in the Nazi regime and its impact on such ideas as religionless Christianity and the world come of age.
Marsh received his Bachelor of Arts from Gordon College, his Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from University of Virginia. Author of numerous books on topics as diverse as race relations in America, the Christian Right’s support of George W. Bush, and Bonhoeffer, he is co-author with John M. Perkins, civil rights activist and lifelong friend, of “Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community.” Marsh is the recipient of a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Fellows in the Creative Arts and served in the spring of 2010 as the Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow at the American Academy of Berlin.
He is currently the Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.
Marsh’s lecture at Elon will provide further detail about Bonhoeffer’s life as he shares why Bonhoeffer continues to challenge us today as we struggle with how faith and politics intersect.