Chapters 5 and 6 Summary and Analysis

"Barcelona, 1928"

After a brief stop in Paris (where he saw, among other things, prostitutes at prayer, an incident which affected his beliefs about humanity's experience with God), Bonhoeffer arrived in Barcelona. There he found himself faced with a supervisor less intellectual, less eager, and less determined than Bonhoeffer to reach as many people as possible in as stimulating a way as possible. Also, the community of German expatriates to whom Bonhoeffer was ministering were "staid and conservative" and, for the most part, out of touch with what was going on politically and spiritually back in Germany. The author describes how despite those obstacles, Bonhoeffer proceeded with his goal of communicating with as many people as he could what he believed to be important truths about God and religion. These truths, the author further comments, were built upon the conservative...