Introduction Summary and Analysis

Dietrich Bonhoeffer receives a call in 1935 to take charge of an illegal, secret seminary for the training of young pastors in Finkenwalde, Germany. He is living in England at the time to avoid continuing conflict as a Christian pastor and theologian with his homeland Germany's Nazi government. He previously broadcasts public criticism of the German people in 1933 for following Hitler. Despite the risk of persecution, he accepts the position and returns to Germany in 1935. Bonhoeffer becomes the director of the seminary where he leads the seminarians in life together as a Christian community of fellowship. The common life they share provides the spiritual content and context for Life Together, which is the English translation of the German text Gemeinsames Leben, written by him in 1938. This non-fiction account occurs within the historical context of Nazi Germany during the period of 1935 to1945. The...