The Cross of Reality investigates Bonhoeffers interpretation and use of Luthers theology in shaping his Christology. In this essay, H. Gaylon Barker uses the theology of the cross as a key to understanding the characteristic elements that make up Bonhoeffers theology; he also shows how Bonhoeffers conversation with his teachers and contemporaries, Karl Holl and Karl Barth in particular, develops.

Bonhoeffers thought was indeed radical and revolutionary, but it was so precisely because of its adherence to the classical traditions of the church, especially Luthers theologia crucis. When his theology is understood in light of this tradition, his nonreligious interpretation, which he set out to describe in his theological letters from Tegel prison, is not a radical departure from his earlier theology, but is the mature expression of his theology of the cross.

Bonhoeffers Lutheran roots would not allow him to turn his back on the problems and tragedies of the world. In fact, because God had turned toward the world, had entered into the world and identified with suffering individuals, the only proper sphere for theological reflection was this world. Theology properly conceived, therefore, is very this-worldly. It is this worldly character that gives it its power to speak.