I've been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's magisterial, moving Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works)
. It is, so I think, his best book. No need, however, to debate what is neither provable nor non-falsifiable. What is worth discussing is his incredible set of statements about the expectations we bring to the church and that we expect of the church and how our expectations, when they encounter the realities, are dashed to the ground.
In our 4th Yr Seminar, we are reading 4 pages per day to begin class from this great book. Those who can read Bonhoeffer's life (and death) and not grieve what we lost have not come to terms with this great man's life and thought.
Here are my favorite lines, lines that follow on from his important claim that Christian fellowship is "through" and "in" Jesus Christ:
This dismisses at the outset every unhappy desire for something more. Those who want more than what Christ has established between us do not want Christian community. They are looking for some extraordinary experiences of community... Such people are bringing confsused and tainted desires into the Christian community. Precisely at this point Christian community is most often threatened from the very outset by the greatest danger ... the danger of confusing Christian community with some wishful image of pious community, the danger of blending the devout heart's natural desire for community with the spiritual reality of Christian community.Now here this:
Only that community which enters into the experience of this great disillusionment with all its unpleasant and evil appearances begins to be what it is should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it.And this:
Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.
Those who dreams of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves.
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Don (22), Bonhoeffer breaks through religious romanticism at -every- level, much like Kierkegaard.
Wayne (21), I think you are spot-on about the power of institutional self-preservation. And I think Jesus represents freedom from these religious motivations and patterns. But I would disagree with Bonhoeffer as "martyr." I know that's an unpopular opinion, but my reading of his imprisonment shows far more political motivation that spiritual altruism. I cannot seamlessly connect the two, nor, ultimately, I think, did he.
Bill (15), I can't disagree with you. But don't you see a paradox here? Loving others as Jesus loved us is, in practice, perhaps the most difficult and challenging bit of idealism ever thrust upon mere humanity. The reality is - we often don't love others as Jesus loved us. Our ideals and daily reality are often far apart. And I think this is -exactly- the kind of paradox and dualism Bonhoeffer was addressing here and elsewhere in his work.
23 John
I think we are close on this. But I don't see that anything Jesus commanded us to do is in any way idealistic or some form of divine idealism.
If we define idealism as "the cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, purposes, goals", why would Jesus command? If He knows we can't obey, He's cruel. If He knows we won't ever obey, He's wasting His breath. I don't think Jesus laid out the ideal. He laid out the real. Our choice to not love one another or have ideals about what the church should be is based on an idea which we think is better than God's command. The apostle I think commands us to pursue love (1 Co 13 and 14) which is a divine reality and connects us with the love of the Trinity, not an ideal.
Is this your mandate Scot to write on modern ecclesiology?
In an age that is all about pursuing "community" as, yes, an IDEAL, Bonhoeffer is more important than ever. Community--true, Spirit-wrought community--only comes as a result of the gathering pursuing Jesus together, and being pursued by Him in Word & Sacrament. Incidentally, my Seminary (Concordia, St. Louis) is doing a "Seminary reads" thing this year with Life Together as our text. Bonhoeffer was, we are wont to remind Evangelicals who would claim him as their own, an emphatically Lutheran pastor...but I digress. ;)
Yes, Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran, and we're happy to share him with others! There is wisdom for all followers of Christ.
Meanwhile, we Lutherans also confess our complicity with Nazi Germany and the Final Solution.
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