International Bonhoeffer Society Centennial Fund

International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section a 501(C)3 nonprofit, ecumenical-and-interfaith, scholarly-and educational organization
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DBWE Centennial Fund	DIETRICH BONHOEFFER WORKS ENGLISH EDITION 7301 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19119 December 10, 2006 To Bonhoeffer Society members, and friends All over the world -- England, Poland, Germany, Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, Canada, the United States -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s hundredth birthday has been celebrated throughout 2006 with conferences, lectures, publications, and services of worship. Last month the Editorial Board of the Bonhoeffer Works English Edition and the Board of Directors of the Bonhoeffer Society met in Washington D.C. We decided to wrap up this commemorative year by launching the Bonhoeffer Centennial Fund. The idea was simple: invite all who were grateful for the life and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to write a check for $100.00 in support of the final volumes of the English Edition of Bonhoeffer s Works. Board members immediately began writing checks on the spot! In this giving season we invite you to contribute to the Bonhoeffer Centennial Fund. All contributions are tax-deductible and will be officially acknowledged. And all donors to the Bonhoeffer Centennial Fund will be listed in the CD of Bonhoeffer’s Complete Works that will be produced with the final volume, the classic Letters and Papers from Prison. With the publication this year of volume 16, Conspiracy and Imprisonment: 1940-1945, the DBWE series has passed the half-way mark. In a recent review in the Christian Century, theologian Craig L. Nessan wrote that volume 16 represents “stellar work by a dedicated team of scholars whose contribution to future study is enormous.” Princeton Seminary professor George Hunsinger describes this volume as “an abundance of riches” offering “luminous detail” about the relationship between Bonhoeffer’s ethics and his political resistance. These words could apply to all the remaining volumes of this series. Volume 13, London: 1933-35, will appear this coming year. It chronicles the turbulent years of the early church struggle when Bonhoeffer, disturbed by his church’s passivity, left for London, where he led two German-speaking congregations into the Confessing Church. London: 1933-35 includes extensive correspondence with Karl Barth, George Bell, and others, as well as the text of Bonhoeffer’s famous 1934 “peace speech” given in Fanø, Denmark, and 23 sermons. Other forthcoming volumes contain the material from his important post-doctoral year at Union Seminary, New York, in 1930-31; his brief period as a professor in Berlin in 1933; his writings from the illegal seminary at Finkenwalde from 1935-1937 and from his underground teaching during 1937-1939; and the complete prison letters and papers. Most of this material has never appeared in English. These volumes include new archival material, discovered since the German publication of Bonhoeffer’s works, as well as over 70 powerful and moving sermons. The next few years, then, will see the completion of this great project with the publication of the seven remaining volumes. These volumes are long, averaging 750 pages, and the expenses of translating and editing are high. But they are critical to our full understanding of Bonhoeffer, and these new, annotated translations will provide an important and lasting resource for scholars, students, clergy and lay readers. The Editorial Board is most grateful to all those who, for more than a decade, have generously supported the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition, a project comparable to the translation of Luther’s Works and Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics. If you have already contributed this year to the Bonhoeffer Works, we thank you! If you can give more than $100.00, we thank you! If you can’t give $100.00 but can give something, we thank you! If you have not previously contributed to the Bonhoeffer Works English Edition, please consider contributing this year to the Bonhoeffer Centennial Fund. We also encourage you to present this appeal to your congregation, and to family and friends. Checks should be made out to “Bonhoeffer Works English Edition” and mailed to: Bonhoeffer Centennial Fund c/o Clifford Green 40 Battery Street, Apt 202 Boston, MA 02109 On behalf of the Editorial Board, thank you for your support, and our very best wishes to you in this Advent and Christmas season! Sincerely, Clifford Green Executive Director General Editor Victoria Barnett