Bonhoeffer Dietrich - Seven men: and the secret of their greatness

PRAISE FOR SEVEN MEN

This is a book to read, to read aloud to others, and then read again. In a day when children are growing up stunted because of our diet of empty-headed celebrities and contemptible villains, true heroism and manliness needs special nourishment. Eric Metaxas has done it again, and again we are in his debt.

Os Guinness, author of A Free

Peoples Suicide

One of my favorite authors is Eric Metaxas. His biographies of William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are compelling and his weekly Breakpoint commentaries are powerful and thought provoking. His latest effort, Seven Men, is designed to provide men, and those becoming men, with positive role models that practically illustrate what manhood is all about. He does this by focusing on seven men who have lived and served well. We all need great examples; we need to understand what it means to be a man and what God intends men to be; and we need to be inspired. Thats what Eric does. I highly recommend this very readable book.

Denny Rydberg, president of

Young Life

What is true manhood? And what makes a man in our 21st century? These are vital questions that my friend Eric Metaxas helps us wrestle with in this great new book. In looking back to seven outstanding men of history, Eric helps us understand the essential elements of manhood in any age. This is a superb workand I highly recommend it.

The Hon. Gregory W. Slayton,

author of national bestseller Be a

Better Dad Today

PRAISE FOR NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
BONHOEFFER: PASTOR, MARTYR, PROPHET, SPY

This is an important book and I hope many people will read it.

President George W. Bush

Eric Metaxas has created a biography of uncommon powerintelligent, moving, well researched, vividly written, and rich in implication for our own lives.

Archbishop Charles Chaput, First

Things

[A] beautifully constructed biography.... Throughout his book, but especially toward the end, Metaxas turns this erudite and at times abstruse theologian into a living and tragic human being.

Alan Wolfe, New Republic

Eric Metaxas clears up many misconceptions, giving priority to Bonhoeffers own words and actions, in a massive and masterful new biography, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.

Christianity Today

Eric Metaxas tells Bonhoeffers story with passion and theological sophistication, often challenging revisionist accounts that make Bonhoeffer out to be a humanist or ethicist for whom religious doctrine was easily disposable....

Wall Street Journal

Insightful and illuminating, this tome makes a powerful contribution to biography, history and theology.

Publishers Weekly

Eric Metaxas is claiming his place as the preeminent biographer of Christianitys most courageous figures.

Martin Doblmeier, filmmaker,

Bonhoeffer

Clearly the definitive work [on Bonhoeffer]... One of the greatest biographies Ive ever read.

Charles Colson, founder,

Prison Fellowship; founder and

chairman, The Wilberforce Forum

[D]efinitive and incredibly detailed... a powerful, powerful book... Highly recommended!

Mike Huckabee, The Huckabee

Report

One of the finest and most moving biographies I have ever read. Eric Metaxas responds to a great life with a great book.

Cal Thomas, Americas No. 1

nationally syndicated columnist

Riveting....

John Ortberg Jr., senior pastor,

Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

Metaxass Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is a modern-day classic that should be on best of lists for the decade....

Relevant

Who is Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Hes a guy that you should know. This is a book that you should read.

Glenn Beck

PRAISE FOR BESTSELLER AMAZING GRACE

Magnificent... Metaxass work will stand as a living landmark.

The Rev. Floyd Flake, from the

Foreword

A superb history of the British campaign against slavery... Amazing Grace will prove to you how great a human effort abolition demanded.

Stanley Crouch, from the New

York Daily News

Metaxas tells Wilberforces story with a charm and energy reminiscent of a favorite history professor, painting a captivating picture of this era of social reform that revolutionized the world.

Bookpage

The little-known story of the lifelong struggle of a member of the British Parliament to abolish slavery in the British Empire.

USA Today

A fine and important book.

Chicago Sun-Times

A crackling bonfire of truth and clarity... Metaxas... is an irresistible writer. [He tells this story] with such a sharp eye and ready wit and moral passion that we are caught up in the momentum of it and blown away.

John Wilson, Books & Culture

[A] spirited, moving account of Wilberforces life.

Rich Lowry, National Review

Online

SEVEN MEN

Publishers note: Highly offensive racial slurs occur in Chapter 5. As this language is an integral part of Jackie Robinsons story, the publisher has decided to let the language stand, contrary to our general policy. If the reader finds the language uncomfortable, that is as it should be.

2013 by Eric Metaxas

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version and are in the public domain.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

Scripture quotations marked PHILLIPS are from J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition. J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Chapter opening photo credits: Wilberforce and Washington, Library of Congress; Liddell and Robinson, Alamy; Bonhoeffer, Art Resource; Colson, Colson Center; Pope John Paul II, Getty Images

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013931701

ISBN: 978-1-59555-469-7

ISBN: 978-1-4002-7605-9 (IE)

Printed in the United States of America

13 14 15 16 17 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
TO MY FATHER, NICHOLAS METAXAS.

Contents

A s most people would concur, the idea of manhood has fallen into some confusion in the last decades. This book hopes to help correct some of that by asking and answering two vitally important questions: First, what is a man? And second, what makes a man great?