The popular conception of Bonhoeffer is as a radical theologian intent on doing away with the religious elements of the church and even with the church itself. Yet he was, and remained, a Lutheran and an orthodox churchman, and the paradox of such catch-phrases as "religionless Christianity" and "worldly holiness" can only be understood in terms of his thinking as a whole-and especially of his christology.
The lectures in this volume, given at the University of Berlin in 1933 and reconstructed from students' notes by
Eberhard Bethge, provide the basis of Bonhoeffer's thinking about Christ, and the key to his whole theology. Here we have Bonhoeffer himself lecturing on christology-not someone writing about Bonhoefier's contribution to christology. 'We ere brought very close to his mind as we realize that the question he is answering is not, "What do You think of Christ?”, a question he would have rejected; but, “How has Christ been understood and what is wrong with the classical concepts of christology?”