Inside: It is my opinion, next to the Bible, this is one of the most important books you could ever read to understand what’s happening in America today.
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Today we are starting a new series called Recommended Reads. Occasionally we will be sharing book reviews of books that we frequently share with our students in class. These are books that we have read that do not include revisionist history. We are very selective in what we recommend to our students and readers. We hope you enjoy this series.
Why Patriot’s Hope Likes It
Bonhoeffer is one of the most important books written about the past to teach us where the United States is headed. It is a clarion call to wake up, speak up, and act before it’s too late. I (RaShell) read this book for the first time in 2022. I kept thinking how easy it is to write a book about the events of 2020 by intentionally making it look like there were remarkable parallels to today…. until I realized that Mr. Metaxas wrote this book in 2011! This book could have been used as the playbook for the government overreach during the Covid lockdowns. God has blessed Mr. Metaxas with the ability to see and understand past issues and how they relate to today. In my opinion, next to the Bible, this is one of the most important books you could ever read to understand what is happening in America today.
Description
Who better to face the greatest evil of the 20th century than a humble man of faith?
As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and author. In his blockbuster New York Times bestselling biography, Eric Metaxas takes both strands of Bonhoeffer’s life—the theologian and the spy—and draws them together to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil. Metaxas presents the fullest accounting of Bonhoeffer’s heart-wrenching decision to leave the safe haven of America to return to Hitler’s Germany, and sheds new light on Bonhoeffer’s involvement in the famous Valkyrie plot and in “Operation 7,” the effort to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland. In a deeply moving narrative, Metaxas uses previously unavailable documents including personal letters, detailed journal entries, and firsthand personal accounts to reveal dimensions of Bonhoeffer’s life and theology never before seen.
For more information on Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy please visit the following site…
student edition
There is also a student edition that my boys and I are enjoying as a read aloud. There are fun charts, maps, and even the secret code that the Bonhoeffer family used to communicate while Dietrich was in prison. I need to do a full review on this
For more book recommendations, please visit our Recommend Reading page.
Please drop us a comment below and let us know if you have read this book. What are your thoughts? Do you have any suggestions of books you would like us to review?
I read this book based on your recommendation when I took your Constitution course earlier in the year. It added more to my education on World War II than the entirety of my high school history curriculum. Very well-researched and an interesting retelling of Bonhoeffer’s life. Though a lengthy book, the writing and content kept me engaged throughout. Highly recommend this book for every American to read as a part of their historical education.
I’m glad you found the book worth reading. I am thankful that we have this resource available. It is an eye-opening account of all the years of activity that lead to the “overnight” take over.
I appreciate this post. I have greatly appreciated you making me aware of this amazing young man and Eric’s book about his unwavering determination. I can’t read too much at one time because I get very overwhelmed by the situation and reflect on what I saw during movie night “Letter to the American Church” and then think about how open hate is here in America today. Yes, I was a small child in the 1960s and I think that plays into my becoming overwhelmed. I didn’t understand what was going on, Mom wouldn’t let Dad watch the news when my brother and I were around because the entire mess was too hard to explain to children ages four- and five-years-old. All my brother and I knew we couldn’t go to Detroit to see Santa like we had once done and see the amazing Christmas decorations all because it wasn’t safe.
When I think about what everyone as taught me through your classes, Patriot Academy, and WallBuilders America has been descending for my entire lifetime. Yet, there have been times of reprieve. It seems we’ve had an eight-month reprieve and now the battle it fired up again.
I had a college professor for American History who was an older gentleman but spiritually wise (Olivet Nazarene University) that would frequently tell us, “never forget our past” those founders paid dearly for our freedoms.
Thank you for sharing this post – “we can never forget” because as President Eisenhower said, “then history repeats itself”. Our spiritual enemy never has a new plan because the old one works as good today as it did in the Garden of Eden.
Amen! RaShell wrote this post based on her reading of the book. Now I am trying to get through the audiobook. Lots of parallels to the fights we have seen in our society. May we learn from what he, and all of Germany, endured in the 1930s and stand up for what is right and avoid that kind of thing in our nation! Thank you for your comment!