Emphasis Preaching Journal

Just as Jeremiah was called by God to speak a reforming word to the people of his day who were living through the Babylonian horror, so too was Dietrich Bonhoeffer called. At age 14, he knew he wanted to become a pastor-theologian. His family members were not thrilled, being non-religious, quite secular in their orientation toward life. They criticized the church, as they saw it as "self-serving and cowardly" (in the words of Bonhoeffer scholar Geffrey B. Kelly).