Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)

This is a six-star book. Heck, call it eleven stars. Absolutely classic.

Life Together was young Dietrich Bonhoeffer's manifesto about the Christian community, written as he was leading an underground seminary for the confessing church under Nazi German rule. The members of the seminary knew that they would be executed if they were found; Bonhoeffer was martyred in the process.

Still, the book deals with the everyday nature of conflict and falling short between one person and another; it show more drives us into deeper relationship and forgiveness and community.

I'll teach from this book in academic and lay coursework around spiritual formation in communities and networks. It's a bit Lutheran and liturgical in some spots for some readers, but it's overwhelmingly powerful throughout. show less

A book written with the authority of a man who not only spent much time in thoughtful community, but also died a martyr to his beliefs at the hands of the Nazi regime. He begins this book with a description of what a community is not. It is not the wish dream of a visionary, but rather the functioning of a group that centers on the truth of God's Word in the realistic setting of a broken world. He maintains, "Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian show more fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world." He proceeds to our need to give the other person in the community the freedom of being who he was by God created to be and not what we may construct as our ideal for him to be. Judgmentalism is immediately flagged as crucial. "There is no time to lose here, for from the first moment when a man meets another person he is looking for a strategic position he can assume and hold over against that person." Other points for life in a fellowship include the ministry of holding one's tongue, meekness, listening, helpfulness, bearing, proclaiming and authority. The book ends with a very important chapter on confession. Bonhoeffer explains, "He who is alone with his sin in utterly alone...Sin demands to have a man by himself. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disatrous is his isolation. It shuns the light." A book of profound power brought from the life of a man dedicated to the truth even unto death. 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

Having heard the author quoted by various prominent preachers from John MacArthur to John Piper I had heard much said about the book’s power, and I desired to experience that for myself. After finishing it, I can see why “Cost of Discipleship” has challenged so many in their walk with Christ. The book’s major theme centers on what it really means to be a disciple of Christ. This is summed up by Bonhoeffer’s statement “that when Christ calls a man he bids he to come and die.” show more Christ wants all of us - nothing is to be held back. One is either a disciple of Christ, or they are not. There is no middle ground. The true disciple is dying to his life as a whole, and their old life is being replaced with the life of Christ.

Bonhoeffer constantly refers to Biblical passages to make his points, and he does not resort to storytelling or even personal anecdotes. Even though “Cost of Discipleship” was published in 1937, every page in this book counters the “easy believism” and license that tempt and seduce many Christians today. Bonhoeffer attacks “cheap grace” and demands a steadfast, deep loyalty to Christ. However, I did have a couple of minor issues with the book. It is somewhat densely written, and therefore may be daunting to the average layreader. Bonhoeffer was a highly educated theologian, and it shows in his writing style. In addition, Bonhoeffer tends to neglect grace in favor of emphasizing absolute holiness and commitment. His moralistic leanings have the danger of encouraging legalism and asceticism if a reader is inclined toward those pitfalls. I’m sure this was not his intent, since it was Bonhoeffer’s genuine love for Christ that motivated his passion and perseverance.

Bonhoeffer was a person of limitless courage and faith. Born 1906 in Breslau, Germany to a prosperous family Bonhoeffer studied theology and completed his doctoral thesis when he was 21. He rose to some measure of fame in the 1930s by virtue of his writings and radio sermons.

As is set out in the introductory memoir in this edition, Bonhoeffer understood immediately that Hitler and his national socialist ideology represented a grave threat to Germans, to Christianity, and to western civilization. In a radio adress he gave in February, 1933 Bonhoeffer denounced Hitler and denounced his fellow Germans for accepting a corrupt and inhumane leader and system as its idol. Although Bonhoeffer spent a great deal of time living in England, safe from harm, he understood that he could not in good conscience “participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.” Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1939 to take up the struggle against Nazi-ism. He had to have known that his return would lead to his death but he knew he could not do otherwise. He was called and he obeyed that call without question. Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 after being caught assisting the escape of a number of Jews from Germany. On April 8, 1945, with Allied troops only days from liberating his prison, Bonhoeffer was executed on the orders of Hitler by the S.S. Black Guards. One cannot read the Cost of Discipleship without an acute understanding that his writings on sacrifice, on obedience, and on the cost of grace were mirrored by his actions.

The Cost of Discipleship is one of those rare works of classical Christian writing that points the reader to what it means to be a true follower of Christ. I use the word “true” because in today’s modern church the false doctines of “decisionism” and/or “acceptionism” have taken hold; meaning one “makes a decision to accept Jesus” or one “accepts Christ.” But “from the beginning it was not so.” Both Jesus and John the Baptist preached a doctrine of repentance. This remarkable young Lutheran Pastor makes a compelling statement of what the difference is between the “cheap grace” that is all too prevalent in so-called christendom and true Bible-based “costly-Grace.” Bonhoeffer uses the term “costly” because Jesus Himself demands our all; “If any man will follow me, let him deny himself daily and follow me.”

It is enlightening and encouraging that such a book could be penned by one of the great Lutherans of the 20th century. The subject of this book is grace - too often, in Bonhoeffer’s day and our own, people seem to look at grace as something free, instead of something freely offered.

The exposition of the Sermon on the Mount is fantastic. Boenhoeffer is straight-forward and leaves you no wiggle room in terms of conviction. He has a gift for communicating our thought processes as we try to justify sin in our lives, and I was amazed that his insight was written decades ago in a different country, because they perfectly described the way I think today. It is by faith alone that we are saved, but that faith is never alone. As Bonhoeffer said, “Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey”

Bonhoeffer begins his classic commentary with a discussion of what it means to be a follower of Christ. He contrasts the cheap grace (to just believe) with the costly grace by which we are saved, if we continue in obedience to Christ. He brings the reader to the Cross of Christ and takes the Sermon on the Mount as a command rather than an ideal. In conclusion he applies his teaching within the context of the greater community of Christ that is found in the Church.

He `counted’ the cost of discipleship and found Grace a Costly Truth. Cheap Grace, as he called it, is grace bestowed on ourselves, preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, eliminating self denial and the death of self life. Cheap Grace is grace without Discipleship. He states that “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. The sacraments, the foreignness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices.” He attempts to demonstrate how the church along with the gospel ha s been diluted by this teaching. See it in his own words “We …..have gathered like eagles round the carcase of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison which has killed the life of following Christ.” He implores Germany Christianity that they have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence. Also that if the German Church refuses to face the stern reality of sin, it will gain no credence when it talks of forgiveness.

This book will drive home the important Truth that GRACE is NOT LISENCE to sin. It is the Power of God to transform a sinful soul into Newness of Life. Although one would have only a limited vision of Bonhoeffer’s work if one read only the Cost of Discipleship, this is an excellent first Bonhoeffer book to read. Then in which I greatly advise to follow with reading Letters and Papers from prison. Staggering in its theological depth and its unflinching call for the crucifixion of self, “The Cost of Discipleship” is a true classic, an essential book for any Christian library. show less