Meditating on the Word

“Daily, quiet reflection on the Word of God as it applies to me becomes for me a point of crystallization for everything that gives interior and exterior order to my life,” wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his colleagues at the warfront in the winter of 1942. Now back in print after a decade, this collection of Bonhoeffer’s writings, sermons, and letters on meditation—including his unfinished meditation on Psalm 119—reveals his deep love for the Bible as a focus for his prayer life and a support in his courageous political life. “Why do I meditate?” asks Bonhoeffer. “Because I am a Christian. Therefore, every day in which I do not penetrate more deeply into the knowledge of God’s Word in Holy Scripture is a lost day for me.”

Now back in print, this collection of Bonhoeffer's writings, sermons, and letters on meditation reveals his deep love for the Bible as a focus for his prayer life and a support in his courageous political life.

Currents in Theology and Mission

These meditations are for a time when the balance between social action and evangelical piety is in danger of being lost--which is to say, they are for always.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER was a Lutheran pastor in the German Confessing Church during the Nazi years under Adolf Hitler. Books like The Cost of Discipleship, Life Together, and Letters and Papers from Prison reveal the depths of his immersion in Scripture and how it called him to work against tyranny and political injustice. In 1945, at the age of thirty-nine, Bonhoeffer was executed for his role in the plot to assassinate Hitler. DAVID McI. GRACIE is an Episcopal priest who has served as a college chaplain at Temple University and a staff officer at the American Friends Service committee. He is currently on the staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.