Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)

Probably more than you really need, and the first few hundred pages are mostly quite dull reading ('Dear Mum, please send chocolate and volume three of seventeen of Schneergartenwiegrunde's 'Systematic Theory'), and then you feel bad for finding it dull because you remember that he's literally in a Nazi prison for trying to kill Hitler, and perhaps *you* are the problem? The theology is lovely, and fascinating, though, and well worth reading. The edition is handsome and readable, and I don't show more think most people will miss the extra 800 pages of notes from the critical, non-reader's edition, unless you need to know who Schneergartenwiegrunde was, and don't have access to DuckDuckGo. show less

Bonhoeffer is simple and genuine as he paints a picture of the fellowship to which God call His children in Christ. His chapters on community, ministry, and confession were particularly good, though there were valuable insights in all. His vision of Christian community as a divine reality created in Jesus in which we are invited to participate was brilliant, as was his point that Jesus stands between every lover and his loves. Bonhoeffer well argued that there is no fellowship nor love show more outside of Christ. His approach of working up to the obvious ministries (helpfulness, bearing, proclaiming) by first addressing the foundational ministries (holding one’s tongue, meekness, listening) was particularly good, as he secured the heart of ministry before working it out. And, I have never heard a better treatment of confession than what Bonhoeffer offers in this book. His frame of “breaking through” (to community, to the cross, to new life, and to certainty) was very helpful, and he placed it between the two extremes that we know to be unworkable – the Roman practice of the confessional and the evangelical practice of ignoring it altogether. For Bonhoeffer, confession is the natural practice of brothers and sisters under the cross who receive the bread and the wine together. show less

Wide is the gap between the “wishful image of pious community” and the church constituted by the great author of faith. So says Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his treatise on Christian community. Because the church is a real thing, it exists within a real context. Spatially, the church exists “in the midst of enemies.” Whether it is the Roman Empire or the Nazi government of Bonhoeffer’s day, the church expects opposition.

Chronologically, the church exists in a unique period of redemptive show more history. Though it tastes the first fruits, it awaits the final gathering at Christ’s return.

It is at this junction that Christians “find their mission.” Christ designates His church the “bringers of the message of salvation.” The evangelistic duty to the world flows from the heart of Christian community. Christian fellowship exists because “Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them.” As the appointed administrators of the Word, Christian community assumes a particular form and structure. It is a “divine reality.”

“Divine reality” characterizes “spiritual reality,” which emanates from the Holy Spirit, while “emotional reality” proceeds from the flesh. The difference between spiritual and emotional reality is twofold. The first distinction is in what binds the community together. Spiritual community attests to the adhesive quality of common faith. The community between two believers “consists solely in what Christ has done to both of [them.]” Two Christians may share many traits, but none compare to their union in Christ. In comparison, competition plagues emotional communities as each member projects his own ideals onto the community. “[T]he visionary ideal binds the people together,” not faith in Christ.

The activity of Christians living together reveals the second difference between spiritual and emotional reality. The manner in which Christians love one another is fundamental since it shapes all other enterprises. Because an emotional community exists only out of the “desire for community” itself, its love is egocentric. Just as Wormwood knew his “ravenously affectionate” Uncle Screwtape, so too does an emotional community only know “the complete intimate fusion of I and You.” It is a consuming love that only asks how others are serving one’s own needs. Love in the spiritual community, however, “comes from Jesus Christ,” and “serves him alone.”

Selfless love extends into all facets of life within the spiritual community. Each activity, though distinct in habit, proceeds from the Word to serve the common good of believers. By praying the Psalms, the church discovers what prayer is and how “to pray as a community.” In prayer, believers unite in the body of Christ and learn true selflessness. Scripture reading draws Christians into a redemptive story. The community “participates” in the stories together and “receives salvation in Jesus Christ.” The stories of God’s redemptive love spur the Christian community into worship. Worship is the “victory song” of the church and reminds God’s people of all that He has done and is still doing for them. Though vocations are often considered in individual terms, they too serve the community. Work, in the hand of God, is an instrument “for purification of Christians from all self-absorption and selfishness.” Work outside the sphere of one’s direct Christian community prepares him for the work inside it. Service to others defines a life spent within Christian community. Believers are always looking for opportunities to serve others in the body through “listening,” “active helpfulness,” and “supporting one another.”

Interestingly, a life of service unveils the paradox of Christian freedom. Bearing the burdens of others within the community frees all that is “human nature, individuality, and talent” to flourish. Ironically, a life of selfless service, born from faith, liberates the believer to become most fully himself. In this way, life within the church follows the ex contrario pattern of God’s grace.

Every community enterprise culminates in the Lord’s Supper. Communion acknowledges spiritual reality and unifies the Christian community across time and space. At the table, the Christian community “has reached its goal” and is “complete.”

The divine reality of the church has real implications for the present moment. Too many in self-appointed positions of authority castigate the actual church against their idealized version of it. They “love their dream of a Christian community” and not the Christian community which exists among them, full of deplorables and others lacking in social and cultural power (10). And no poll or data suggest that is going to change anytime soon. The church in the immediate future projects to be a small remnant, despised and rejected for its audacity to challenge liberal dogmas of life, sexuality, and gender. We will not make it out without friends. The Christian community has been sown together exactly for this purpose. May we join in hope, faith, and love and strengthen the body now for the blows that come in the future. show less

Preferring the other
Bearing one another’s burdens
It’s all about love
Great chapter on looking at your own sin as worse than others. Not judging others.
The chapter on confession is worth the price of the book alone.
He asks “why do we find it harder to go to another person, who is also sinful, and confess sin as opposed to a holy God. Surely it should be the other way around” he goes on to answer that perhaps we often instead of God been confessing our sins to our selves and granting show more absolution.
Showing weakness and confessing sins he says that after all our community and service we will be alone “though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners” there is an analogy with the guy who says to be ok being stupid. You have to be ok being a sinner.
Sin wants to remain unknown
I dare you to be a sinner. I dare you to be the sinner you are. Confess who you are!
I don’t think many writers have had the grasp and been able to articulate the core problem of sin and grace like Bonhoeffer. He finishes beautifully on communion. show less