?If the earth was made worthy to bear the man Jesus Christ, if a man like Jesus lived, then and only then is there any meaning in life for human beings= (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, August 1944). The decisive response to the world crises of his time& fascism, world war and Shoah& lay for Bonhoeffer not in private religiosity or service for the church, but in a reformulation of the speech of Jesus Christ as the ground of all ?reality= and as ?God in human form=. We live today in a Christ-forgetful culture. Is the speech of Jesus Christ not also becoming formulaic in the churches? What inspirations does Bonhoeffer=s speech about Jesus Christ offer us& not only for the church or for Christians, but for alert and thoughtful contemporaries? The minister and Bonhoeffer expert Bernd Vogel presents these in this volume.

Dr. Bernd Vogel is a parish minister and works in adult education. He is a chairman of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Association, a member of the International Bonhoeffer Society and co-initiator of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lehrhaus e.V.