Abstract
In a polarized world, Christian leaders find themselves caught in the middle of ideological and theological struggles. Not only in US churches but in other places as well, a fine line seems to exist between evangelical and mainline voices in terms of what they value most as Christians. The priority for evangelicals is, among other things, given to a scripture-based piety, while for mainliners the priority is an action for social justice. In the meantime, churches and seminaries have been in decline not only in size, but also in influence in their surroundings. They are looking for ways to sustain themselves in this challenging world. What then do Christian leaders do? Does any book remind Christians that piety and action for social justice cannot be two separate things, but rather are inseparable for Christian life?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together can be one book for those pastors, seminarians, and seminary teachers to read or read again. This old book helps readers examine and reconsider what it really means to be living a Christian life in the twenty-first-century world and what should be the core elements of the church as an authentic community.
Bonhoeffer wrote this book in 1938 as a reflection on his monastic communal life among his anti-Nazi Confessing Church leaders and his teaching at the secret seminary in Finkenwalde that was shut down in 1937. The introduction by translator John W. Doberstein offers a good overview of Bonhoeffer’s life, along with his theological and pastoral work during Nazi rule in Germany. The introduction also contains a brief analysis of the book. The fact that this 1954 English translation has been reprinted more than two dozen times in the United States proves its value as a modern classic that needs the attention of faith leaders that want to envision a strong Christian community in their ministries.
For Bonhoeffer, Christianity was an action of responsible disciples of Jesus Christ in real life situations. What makes this book stand out is the radicalness of Christian life as a community laid out in simple and straightforward fashion. Christian community is nothing but a Christ-centered “life together under the Word” (p. 17), and it sustains itself through practices such as scripture reading, prayer, singing, fellowship, sharing the word, and caring for others. Heavily indebted to Reformation theology, the author says that in Scripture “we learn to know our own history” in light of what God has done in Jesus Christ, and reading Scripture is the “first and foremost” (p. 54) basis for decision-making to be “an evangelical Christian” (p. 55). Drawing upon the doctrine of grace alone, this book considers the practice of intercession prayer “the pulsing heart” of the community in which the author says, “I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much troubles he causes me” (p. 86) and a sinning sibling is a blessing to remind its members they are under the Word (p. 28). Some of this language may sound too traditional to the twenty-first-century eye, but it is provocative in that Bonhoeffer does not suggest the words as academic theories, but as required practices for Christians to be filled with hope. The author did not only write this book. He lived it “in the thick of foes” (p. 17) and was martyred by the Gestapo years after its publication.
As a pastor, I know what makes church the church: the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood in the community. I also know as a seminary teacher how theological discourses can be hollow when they are distant from concrete life situations. Christian communities that are filled with hope, in the midst of challenges, based on the biblical teachings of genuine love, forgiving grace, and action for justice in this world are what I envision in Life Together.