Bonhoeffer wrote Life Together
in one month in 1938. It puts into written form the principles and practices that guided his time at Zingst and Finkenwalde, the underground seminaries of pious Lutherans who opposed Hitler's ever-encroaching power in the Church and Germany.It is one of the seeds expressing what led to his arrest, imprisonment at Tegel (the picture to the right is from Tegel), constant interrogations and eventually, sadly, to his hanging at Flossenburg, not long before the concentration camp was freed.
Bonhoeffer's idea of seminary was that it was both the formation of mind and spirit/soul or spiritual life. So, he taught about discipleship and he taught about living in community, which he practiced in a more intense form with some of the students. That more intense form is found in Life Together.
What constitutes our fellowship and our unity?
This is no light question. Many are tempted today to think we are united by mission or by program or by goal or by vision; others think our common ideas or practices unify; yet others think of unity created by the spiritual gifts. Bonhoeffer digs deeper.
For Bonhoeffer our unity is "in" and "through" Jesus Christ -- and that's it. It's the whole unity and there is nothing else that can genuinely unify us. He makes three major points:
1. Christians need others for the sake of Jesus Christ.
2. Christians come to each other only through Jesus Christ.
3. Christians have been chosen in eternity, accepted in time, and united in eternity in Jesus Christ.
"The Christ in their own hearts is weaker than the Christ in the word of other Christians" (32).
Christian community is only Christian to the degree that it is Jesus Christ creating and sustaining that unity. Any other form of unity will be shattered by time.
It's all in and through Jesus Christ. "There is no Christian community that is more than this, and none that is less than this" (31).
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I think our initial impulse after reading Bonhoeffer is to use his descriptions as a template. How can we have "community" like that? Ironically, this attempt flies in the face of what Bonhoeffer has written. If community is from Christ, in Christ and through Christ, then Christ must be our focus and we must be in submission to His work of building his church. We end up idealizing Bonhoeffer and our very idealization of community as Bonhoeffer warns, will destroy for us (and others) what Christ is compelled to do.
To continue comment #15, I would suggest that we can no more create Christian community than we could create light by saying, "Let there be light!" There is a blazingly supernatural origin to Christian community and we will flounder trying house church, emerging church, small group church, Bonhoeffer template, simple church, organic church models. The Spirit of Jesus alone creates Christian community. Salvation is a hands off experience. God does it. Since community is a spend out of salvation, it, too, is a God-creation ex nihilo.
@JohnWFrye #15-16 (First, I enjoy your blog) I think I agree with your point (if I understand correctly) of destroying community if we attempt to model it from any idealistic tenet. I understand Bonhoeffer’s point and principle to purpose spiritual love (agape) as it is enacted “in and through” Christ as the fuel for community; and more specifically for any group (small or large, cloistered or corporate, local or global) doing Life Together. I do have trouble reconciling “Salvation is a hands off experience” though. Without God, salvation is impossible; this I believe is true. Without humanity salvation is not needed; I also believe this is true. Isn’t there something to humans being willing partners in the God-man relationship? Maybe it is over my head from a philosophical understanding, but I do not fully grasp the concept of salvation and community created out of nothing. No sarcasm or wise guy intent here…I’m trying to work through all the implications.
I think @RobertGelinas (#7) (Loved your contribution at Renovare’ SA BTW) is on to something with the jazz reference. If I understand the parallel, community can be, and often is, chaotic, eclectic, seemingly disorganized, and still exist in beautiful harmony…all at the same time. I like that imagery; it seems to work from my own experiential perspective.
Scot- I love this book. You are right in that so often we seek unity in many of other places besides where D. Bonhoeffer began (and ended). Unity is found in Christ. So often, Christ receives a polite nod of the head while endeavor to find unity in numerous other areas. Yet, no matter how hard we try to find unity based upon our agreement of an issue, we will never experience the dynamic of unity which is present only in Christ.
The section on pp. 29-30 (I think) was super formative for me. Bonhoeffer, in true Lutheran fashion, insists that Christians are people who live or die by God's Word, not theirs. Whether they feel it or not, they accept God's verdict of "guilty" and "not righteous" (Law). And yet in confessing their sin, Christians accept the Word that they are righteous and justified in Christ (Gospel). But since that is a revealed truth about a righteousness that belongs to Christ and not our own, we need that word from others--the Word of Law and Gospel. It is categorically impossible to forgive ourselves; we need to hear that Word from a brother, especially when our own hearts are wracked with doubt. Hence the quote mentioned above, that the Christ in our brother's words is stronger than the Christ in our own.
If you've never read this book, go out and buy it. I've read it four times, and every time it is super challenging for me and really focuses a laser beam on my desire to live by the truth of God's Word in the real church, not by my emotions or feelings or desires. Bonhoeffer is masterful, though I think you need to understand Lutheran theology to really get what he is saying and understand where he's coming from.
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