While only the first two chapters deal specifically with Bonhoeffer's life and thought, the themes that Hauerwas undeaths in Bonhoeffer are present throughout the book. Hauerwas's interpretation of Bonhoeffer, is (predictably) similar to John Howard Yoder and himself in terms of how Hauerwas sees Bonhoeffer's conception of the church and nonviolence. However, this is certainly not a demerit. Many would-be interpreters of Bonhoeffer focus on his alleged association with the botched (..) assasination at the expense of the total body of his writings when attempting to explicate Bonohoeffer's perspective on nonviolence. Hauerwas rightly surmises that it is wrong to assume a major shift between Bonhoeffer's work and his life. As such Hauerwas allows Bonhoeffer's work to speak on its own terms without making facil attempts to "harmonize" Bonhoeffer's life with his theology. ( )

If the cover and subtitle of this book lead readers to expect a sustained engagement with Bonhoeffer, they will be disappointed. For better or worse, Hauerwas is an occasional writer; and this is another collection of the occasional pieces for which he is known, this one organized around a cluster of issues related to pacifism and “pacifist” response to the events of 11 September 2001 and their aftermath. The collection does contain an engagement with Bonhoeffer, one that will prompt many readers to wish for a less contained, more sustained, engagement. Bonhoeffer and Hauerwas are natural allies on the matter of faithful performance; and the combination of Bonhoeffer, Hauerwas, and Yoder is a potentially revolutionary conversation. The conversation with Yoder has developed through many of Hauerwas’s occasional pieces. This collection (particularly the first part) is a tentative, fragmentary, and provocative beginning toward the inclusion of Bonhoeffer. Tentativeness, fragmentariness, and provocation are almost certainly what Hauerwas had in mind: they are consistent with his work, and they are certainly what readers familiar with it have come to expect.