I first encountered the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer when I came across a battered paperback copy of his “Letters and Papers from Prison” when I was teaching at Kafue Secondary School back in my twenties. All I knew about him then was that he was put to death by the Nazi regime at the end of the Second World War and so I was intrigued to know what he had written. I understood little of what I read back then and was even disturbed by some of it. What kept me going was the integrity of his life and so I read and re-read that slim volume until it became a part of me.
I offer you this reflection on the 72rd anniversary of his martyrdom. I could offer one or two minor factual corrections to what is written here but the essence is correct. I am even more certain now than when I first encountered Bonhoeffer that what he has to offer is vital to the life and faith of the church and the future of humankind. I offer this here in the hope that some of my readers may get to know him too.