The printed edition this companion is based on
This study companion is keyed to a specific printed edition of Bonhoeffer's book, whose title page and copyright page read as follows:
- Title: The Cost of Discipleship — Revised and Unabridged Edition, Containing Material Not Previously Translated
- Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Translated from the German Nachfolge (first published 1937, Chr. Kaiser Verlag, München) by R. H. Fuller, with revision by Irmgard Booth
- First English edition: 1949 · This revised edition: © SCM Press Ltd 1959
- Publisher of this printing: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York — Macmillan Paperbacks Edition, 1963 printing
- Foreword by Bishop G. K. A. Bell, late Bishop of Chichester · Memoir by G. Leibholz
Copyright
This translation is still under copyright. The copyright page states plainly: "All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher." Dietrich Bonhoeffer died in 1945, but the English translation by R. H. Fuller and Irmgard Booth is a separate, later copyrighted work in its own right, first published in 1949 and revised in 1959 — its copyright status does not depend on the age of Bonhoeffer's original 1937 German text.
Because of this, UECF.NET does not publish Bonhoeffer's text on this site. What you are reading in this web book is an original UECF.NET study companion: for each chapter, we provide the Scripture heading printed in the book (quoted here from the public-domain King James Version), and our own original summary, key points, related references and discussion questions. None of the summarising prose on these pages is Bonhoeffer's own wording — it is UECF.NET's paraphrase and analysis, written for this study companion, and should not be quoted as though it were a quotation from the book itself. Readers who want Bonhoeffer's actual words should read the book, which remains widely available from booksellers and libraries.
How this web edition was produced
UECF.NET was supplied with a scanned PDF copy of the printed edition described above. Our team read the book in full — its Foreword, Memoir, Introduction and all 32 numbered chapters across its four parts — to identify the book's chapter and part structure, its page numbers, and the Scripture passage each chapter is built around. That structural information (titles, page ranges, and the KJV Scripture headings) is factual and is presented accurately here. The explanatory content built around it on every page — the "at a glance" notes, summaries, key points and discussion questions — was then composed by UECF.NET specifically for this study companion.
UECF.NET is responsible for the web presentation, navigation, search and reading interface of this edition; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his translators, and the copyright holders of this translation are responsible for the book itself, which this companion is designed to send readers back to, not replace.
Scripture quotations
Scripture quoted on these pages is the King James Version (public domain), matching the translation used for chapter headings in this printed edition of the book. Bonhoeffer's own prose discussion of these passages is not reproduced; only UECF.NET's original discussion of them appears here.
Corrections
If you notice an inaccuracy in a chapter title, page reference, or Scripture citation on this site, please let us know at info@uecf.net, quoting the chapter and page number.
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