In a quote you shared
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.
It sounds like him, and it is everywhere. The general editor of his collected works in English says it doesn't appear anywhere in his writings.
Does this sound familiar?
Three places you meet Bonhoeffer
In a sermon about grace
That church preaches cheap grace.
The phrase is his. But he aimed it first at his own church, and in the same book he forbade using discipleship to attack others.
In a debate about politics
Bonhoeffer would be on our side.
Every side claims him. Few have read the prison letters, or the page where he tells disciples to love their political adversaries.
You don't need another Bonhoeffer poster. You need what he actually wrote, where scholars disagree, and the honesty to say which stories are not documented.
What's at stake
Getting Bonhoeffer wrong has a cost
A quote he never wrote
Warren Throckmorton found the famous "silence" sentences attributed to Bonhoeffer in a 1998 museum newsletter, and nowhere earlier. Repeating them puts words in a martyr's mouth.
Costly grace turned into a law
Bonhoeffer wrote that "it is faith which justifies, and not the act of obedience." Read without that line, the book produces anxious or harsh Christians.
Religionless Christianity as no church
In the same letters he read the Bible morning and evening, sang hymns, and proposed a "secret discipline" to guard the church's mysteries.
A hero made into a weapon
Scholars warn against using his story to name a "symbolic Nazi." He carried no bomb, and his book tells disciples to love "political" adversaries.
A different way to read him
One question runs through everything he wrote.
In April 1944, in a prison cell in Berlin, Bonhoeffer wrote to his closest friend about the question that would not leave him alone.
The kit is built on that question. Each core reads one of his answers: Christ as the Word, as the one who calls, in a disciple's life, in the letters from prison, and in the church. Every topic asks what he actually wrote, what scholars say, and where the kit's reading stops.
What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today.
Try it now
Pick a situation and read the kit's answer
These answers are copied word for word from the Quick-Answer Index. In the kit, each one takes you to the page where it is explained with its sources.
“Someone posted the ‘silence in the face of evil’ quote”
Answer
The sentence has not been found in his writings; Barnett said it "doesn't appear anywhere." Quote "After Ten Years" instead.
Core 3 · §4.01 · p. 27Core 3 · §3.05 · p. 23
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The index covers 48 situations like these.
The kit's method
Three questions on every topic
The framework, the question Bonhoeffer asked from prison, is the kit's own way of ordering his writings. Every paragraph is also labeled as documented fact, interpretation, or opinion.
What did Bonhoeffer actually write?
His words from named English editions, with letter dates, each quotation checked word for word before layout.
All five coresWhat do the scholars say?
Marsh, DeJonge, Barnett, Larsen, and others, including where they disagree, with the museum's record of his life.
All five coresWhere does the kit's reading stop?
Applications are marked as interpretation or opinion, disputes are left open, and no present-day party is named as Nazi.
Cores 3, 4, and 5
Core 2 · §2.07 · a complete item, exactly as it appears in the kit
What about Luther's "Sin boldly"?
Short answer
Bonhoeffer asks the question himself, and answers that the words are “the consolation for one whose attempts to follow Christ had taught him that he can never become sinless.” Taken as a premise, they justify sin. Taken as Luther's last word to a troubled disciple, they testify “to the costliness of grace.”
Documented factBonhoeffer quotes Luther: “Pecca fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo (‘Sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ more boldly still’).”
Documented factHe explains that for Luther “sin boldly” “could only be his very last refuge, the consolation for one whose attempts to follow Christ had taught him that he can never become sinless.”
Documented factHe concludes: “Interpreted in this way, these words of Luther become a testimony to the costliness of grace, the only genuine kind of grace there is.”
OpinionWhether a word of comfort heals or harms depends on who hears it. “Sin boldly” is medicine for the conscience that is crushed, and poison for the conscience that is careless.
Source: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R. H. Fuller, rev. Irmgard Booth (SCM Press, 1959), with the full reference in the Core 2 sources.
Anatomy of an item
How all 166 items are written
The short answerThe essentials in a few lines, ready when you need them.
Every paragraph labeledDocumented fact, interpretation, or opinion: you always know which is which.
His own words, in contextThe sentence around the famous phrase, so no line is quoted against its meaning.
What to do with itA recommendation, labeled as opinion, so you can weigh it.
The sourceEvery quotation checked word for word, with the edition named.
What's inside
Five cores, one question
Core 143 pages
Bonhoeffer and Barth
The friendship, the Barmen Declaration, Act and Being, the prison charge of "positivism of revelation," and the Lutheran roots
- Why Barth told him to come home "by the next ship"
- What Barmen confessed, and what it left out
- God "free not from human beings but for them"
Core 240 pages
Cheap Grace and Costly Grace
His definitions, Peter and Luther, faith and obedience, the Sermon on the Mount, and what he said about the book from prison
- "The grace we bestow on ourselves"
- "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die"
- A self-examination without legalism
Core 341 pages
The Documented Life and the Myths
From Breslau to Flossenbürg in the museum's record and Marsh's biography, and seven popular claims checked
- What his 1933 essay on the Jews said, and did not say
- The quote, the last words, and the gallows scene
- Why scholars warn against making him a weapon
Core 440 pages
Letters from Tegel: Religionless Christianity
The letters to Bethge on religion, God at the centre, the suffering God, and "the man for others"
- What he meant by "religion"
- "Before God and with God we live without God"
- How the letters were misused, and read well
Core 540 pages
Life Together and the Church
Community as God's gift, the day together and alone, listening and bearing, confession, the Supper, and the church of Peter
- The "wish dream" that destroys community
- "He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone"
- His own safeguards against spiritual domination
Quick-Answer Index48 situations · 11 pages
Glossary48 terms · 19 pages
Workbook40 questions · 10 scenarios · 31 pages
Five visual piecesUS Letter landscape · PDF and image
Complete navigable edition275 pages · 864 links
Look inside
Real pages from the kit
Tap an image to see it larger.
Swipe to see more pages →
The difference
What changes when you have the Companion
Posts, films, and quote graphics
With the Companion
Finding the answer
Remember which video it was in
Find the situation in an index of 48 and go to the exact page
Bonhoeffer quotations
Graphics without a source
Every quotation checked word for word, with the edition named
His life
One heroic story, told confidently
The documented record, what is uncertain, and seven myths checked
Religionless Christianity
A slogan
The letters, with their dates and what he kept
Where scholars disagree
One side only
Both sides, with who says what
Proof of rigor
Built to be quoted with confidence
Bonhoeffer is quoted from named English editions of his books, letters, and sermons, beside scholarship from Oxford University Press, Knopf, and InterVarsity Press, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Every quotation was checked word for word by script before each build.
562footnoted claims checked against their sources before layout
166items with a short answer across the five cores
17sources cited, from his own books to the Holocaust Memorial Museum
864internal links checked in the complete edition
Common mistakes the kit corrects
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil" has not been found in Bonhoeffer's writings.
Bonhoeffer was not arrested for the plots against Hitler; the charges included conspiring to rescue Jews.
The Barmen Declaration did not mention the Jews or the Aryan paragraph.
In the letters on "religionless Christianity," Bonhoeffer kept daily Bible reading, hymns, and a "secret discipline."
Honestly
Is it for you?
It's for you if…
- you love Bonhoeffer and want to read him accurately
- you want his own words, not quote graphics
- you want to know where scholars disagree
- you want a costly faith without legalism
It's not for you if…
- you want Bonhoeffer enlisted for your political side
- you want a heroic story with no uncertainties
- you are looking for his complete works rather than a study kit
Before you decide
The usual questions
"I've read The Cost of Discipleship already."
This kit reads it with the prison letters, Life Together, Act and Being, and his sermons, and shows what he later said about the book's dangers.
"I'm not a theologian."
Every item begins with a short answer in plain English, and the glossary defines 48 terms with their most common misuse.
"I watch the channel's videos for free."
The videos raise questions. The kit is the reference work: the source for every claim and the exact page when you need it.
"Is this a conservative or a liberal reading?"
Neither. It quotes Bonhoeffer and the scholars on several sides, reports their disagreements, and names no present-day party as Nazi.
"Isn't Bonhoeffer dangerous theology?"
Some evangelical critics say so. Core 1 reports them and their answerers, and every chapter shows what he wrote so you can judge.
"Does it include his Ethics?"
No. Ethics is not quoted; the kit says so and relies on the books and letters it could verify.
"What if I don't like it?"
You have 7 days to ask Hotmart for a refund, as set out below.
Guarantee
7 days to decide at your own pace
If the kit isn’t right for you, ask for a refund within 7 days of purchase and you get 100% of your money back, even if you’ve already downloaded the PDFs. No reason needed.
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Your complete Companion
Thirteen pieces you consult, not just read.
Open the index, find your situation, read the answer, and tap the reference: you land on the page with the full discussion and its sources. If you prefer to read in order, the workbook's diagnostic suggests a path.
Everything you get
The Costly Grace Companion
- Core 1 · Bonhoeffer and Barth43 pages
- Core 2 · Cheap Grace and Costly Grace40 pages
- Core 3 · The Documented Life and the Myths41 pages
- Core 4 · Letters from Tegel: Religionless Christianity40 pages
- Core 5 · Life Together and the Church40 pages
- Quick-Answer Index48 situations
- Glossary48 terms
- Workbook40 questions · 10 scenarios
- Five visual piecesPDF and image
- Complete navigable edition275 pages
$49.90271 pages in 13 pieces: about 18 cents a page.
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Digital product in PDF. An independent study kit, not an edition of Bonhoeffer's works.
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Frequently asked questions
Good to know
What format is it?
Thirteen PDF pieces in US Letter size (the visual pieces in landscape, also as images) and a complete edition that brings them together in one 275-page PDF.
Can I print it?
Yes. It is a US Letter PDF, and the workbook's lines are meant for notes on paper or on a tablet.
Which editions of Bonhoeffer are quoted?
The Cost of Discipleship (trans. R. H. Fuller, rev. Irmgard Booth), Letters and Papers from Prison (Enlarged Edition), Life Together (trans. John W. Doberstein), Act and Being (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 2), and The Collected Sermons (ed. Isabel Best), in brief quotations.
Is it affiliated with the Bonhoeffer Society or a publisher?
No. It is an independent work, not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Bonhoeffer Society, the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works editorial board, Fortress Press, SCM Press, or any institution devoted to Bonhoeffer.
Does it take a political side?
No. It reports what Bonhoeffer wrote and what historians document, labels scholars' political judgments as theirs, and never equates a present-day party with the Nazis.
Is the 2024 film accurate?
Core 3 reports a scholarly review that calls the film "sincere but problematic," and checks the claim that he was an assassin.
How do I get the kit?
As soon as your payment is confirmed, Hotmart emails you access to download the PDFs. They also stay in My Purchases in your Hotmart account.
What if it isn’t right for me?
You have 7 days from purchase to ask for a full refund, with no reason needed, even if you’ve already downloaded the files. Ask on Hotmart or by email; the details are in the Refund Policy.
How do I contact support?
Email contact@ottodigitalmedia.com from the address you used to buy. We reply by email.
The next time someone quotes Bonhoeffer, you'll know what he wrote.
His own words, the scholars' debates, and the myths checked, in 13 pieces.
Get the Companion — $49.90Navigable PDF · 13 pieces · 271 pages