Renate Bethge was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s niece as well as the wife of the late Bonhoeffer friend and biographer, Eberhard Bethge.  Her Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Brief Life is a wonderful and brief little introduction to Bonhoeffer’s life that would be an ideal book for anybody who knows very little about Bonhoeffer but would like to begin to understand the life and thought of this tremendous Lutheran theologian.

The book is slender with some wonderful photographs and some helpful quotations from Bonhoeffer’s letters to family and Christian leaders as well as quotations from their letters to him.  Some of the interactions between Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth that are quoted in this book are very interesting.

Bethge writes as only a family member can.  Her insights are intriguing and insightful.  The writing is simple and straightforward.

Highly recommended as an easy introduction to the life and thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.