No difference in the fare: Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the problem of racism

No difference in the fare: Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the problem of racism, by Josiah Ulysses Young III (Grand Rapids: Wrn. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998)-192pp; ISBN 0802844650.

In his foreword John Godsey characterises No difference in the fare as a book which "breaks new ground by demonstrating the pertinence of the martyred German theologian's thought for analyzing and addressing North America's most intractable social problem: racism". Indeed, the African-American theologian Josiah Ulysses Young 111, Professor of Systematic Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., offers not only a fresh and informed reading of Bonhoeffer's legacy in terms of racial injustice, but also brings those acute insights into dialogue with the work of several prominent African-American and African writers. The book is, therefore, not just another study about Bonhoeffer, but a profound and creative attempt-an AfricanAmerican rereading-to respond to the ongoing problem of racism in many parts of the world. Young's basic assumption is that Bonhoeffer's witness is a "denunciation of the racism that threatens to sabotage the possibilities for life together in the next century"(14).

The starting point of Young's discussion is the overwhelming experience of racial injustice by two assistant ministers in a Pentecostal church in New York. What follows is the intriguing attempt to understand how a "highly privileged", "chauvinistic", "anti -democratic" and at times "elitist" German theologian such as Bonhoeffer could have possibly become a comrade of the oppressed and a significant theological interlocutor for those struggling against racism. Looking at Bonhoeffer's life (chapter 1), specifically at his association with African-American culture (chapter 4: "The Cost of Discipleship and...