Table of Contents
Foreword Charles Marsh ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Part 1 Exploring Bonhoeffer's American Reception
1 The Man, the Myth, the Battle 1
2 Rorschach Test: American Bonhoeffers from Cox to Koehn 11
Critical Patriot 12
Righteous Gentile 14
Moral Hero 20
3 Gradual Embrace: The Evangelical Bonhoeffer before Metaxas 24
Early Reservations 24
Bonhoeffer's Triumph in the Evangelical Heart 26
A Multifaceted Bonhoeffer 29
Part 2 Bonhoeffer and Homegrown Hitlers
4 Bonhoeffer, Bush, and the "War on Terror" 41
Hawk or Dove? 41
Professional Scholars Weigh In 44
Bush Becomes Hitler… Sort Of 47
5 Bonhoeffer, Obama, and the "Culture of Death" 55
Appropriating the German Church Struggle 58
Revisiting the American Holocaust 60
Updating the Nazi Analogy 62
The Metaxas Factor 65
6 The Metaxas Phenomenon 68
A Bonhoeffer Biography for the Age of Obama 68
Game-Changer 69
A Closer Look 70
"Fifty Years" of Misappropriation 72
Scholarly Backlash 73
Evangelical Reservations 74
The Metaxas Agenda 77
Metaxas's Bonhoeffer in Context 80
Part 3 Triumph of the Populist Bonhoeffer
7 Kairos: "A Bonhoeffer Moment in America" 85
The Southern Baptists Have Their Bonhoeffer Moment 88
Backgrounds of the Bonhoeffer Moment 91
The Bonhoeffer Moment Arrives… Sort Of 96
A Different Sort of Bonhoeffer Moment 97
8 Surprise: Bonhoeffer Gets Trumped 100
The Trump Factor 101
Bonhoeffer and the 2016 Campaign 103
Metaxas Doubles Down 107
Pushback 109
9 Aftermath: A "Bonhoeffer Moment" for Liberals 113
The Left Has Its Bonhoeffer Moment 115
Bonhoeffer Scholars Seize Their Moment 117
Evangelicals Join the Revolt 119
Searching for Solid Ground 121
Outrage Becomes Terror 123
10 The Battle for Bonhoeffer, circa 2018 127
Postscript
Your Bonhoeffer Moment: An Open Letter to Christians Who Love Bonhoeffer and (Still) Support Tramp 136
Notes 149
Bibliography 173
Index 191
