I pulled my copy of Bonhoeffer's Life Together from the shelf recently and began re-reading. It's a book that, sadly, is neglected by the conservatives who want to claim Bonhoeffer's Discipleship as their own, as well as the liberals who want to claim Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers as theirs.
That's because Life Together is a radical little book. In it, Bonhoeffer develops a pastoral christology that dethrones the ego and makes room for the other in Christian community, in Christ.
This passage stood out to me in my re-reading:
Therefore in the immediate context of the Seminary, such words, ideas and convictions as those expressed in this passage, were a call to the seminarians to live out a love that is respectful of the other as one for whom Christ died; more generally in a Germany wracked with pressures of social coercion, ideological bullying and physical intimidation ranging from ostracism to concentration camps (sound vaguely familiar to any Americans who have the ears to hear?!?), Bonhoeffer was constructing a theological anthropopology, rooted in a Christology, that preserved the worth of every human individual. That explicit Christological claim, Bonhoeffer opposed to all other claims, including and especially, the claims of National Socialism and Hitler as its demi-god. Life Together is a powerful, and pastoral theological rebuttal of all human claims on the human soul, and on the soul of his German compatriots.
Often enough Bonhoeffer's late theology is called revolutionary. The theological anthropology, incarnational Christology and divine ownership of the redeemed, which give Life Together its radical Christian demand are themselves entirely subversive of all forms of earthly claims to dominance. This is no wee book of monastic spirituality, which is sometimes the way it is read and praised today. It is a book about developing tough virtues, and Christlike love, and a faithful Christ enabled kenosis, nurtured in prayer and the Word, that is able to defy the seductions and oppressions of political and military power. It may be that Bonhoeffer's relevance for today lies as much in those demands for Christlike behavior and dispositions towards the other, as in the more obvious and overt challenges of the later letters to Bethge.
(By the way, for this way of reading Bonhoeffer's Life Together to make even more sense, consider that his lectures in Christ the Center on christology to the Seminary were composed at roughly the same time as his ideas about Christian community in Life Together. Both little books are a challenge the way in which those principalities and powers try to limit Christian community from redefining that it means to be a human in relationship, grounded in The Human Divine we see in Jesus Christ.)
That's because Life Together is a radical little book. In it, Bonhoeffer develops a pastoral christology that dethrones the ego and makes room for the other in Christian community, in Christ.
This passage stood out to me in my re-reading:
Because Christ stands between me and an other, I must not long for unmediated community with that person. As only Christ was able to speak to me in such a way that I was helped, so others too can only be helped by Christ alone. However, this means that I must release others from all my attempts to control, coerce, and dominate them with my love. In their freedom from me, other persons want to be loved for who they are, as those for whom Christ became a human being, died, and rose again, as those for whom Christ won the forgiveness of sins and prepared eternal life.The context within which Bonhoeffer wrote these lines makes them naive, idealistic, and the route to spiritual despair. Or so it seems. Except, Bonhoeffer had a profound grasp of the spiritual nature of the conflicts in which the Church was involved. He understood that Christians struggled not against flesh and blood, nor land and blood, but against spiritual wickedness, principalities and powers, in the high places. He self-consciously and with theological and ethical deliberation opposed ideological coercion with a way of seeing the other person that had roots in the eternal purposes of God in Christ. Christians love because Christ first loved us. The contrast between self love which dominates the other, and Christ love which allows the other to freely be what Christ calls them to be, could not be more absolute, final and non-negotiable; it is founded on the incarnation, atonement and resurrection events of God's saving purpose.
Because Christ has long since acted decisively for other Christians, before I could begin to act, I must allow them the freedom to be Christ's. They should encounter me only as the person they already are for Christ. This is the meaning of the claim that we can encounter others only through the mediation of Christ. Self centered love constructs its own image of other persons, about what they are and what they should become. It takes the life of the other person into its own hands. Spiritual love recognizes the true image of the other person as seen from the perspective of Jesus Christ. It is the image Jesus Christ has formed and wants to form in all people.
Therefore in the immediate context of the Seminary, such words, ideas and convictions as those expressed in this passage, were a call to the seminarians to live out a love that is respectful of the other as one for whom Christ died; more generally in a Germany wracked with pressures of social coercion, ideological bullying and physical intimidation ranging from ostracism to concentration camps (sound vaguely familiar to any Americans who have the ears to hear?!?), Bonhoeffer was constructing a theological anthropopology, rooted in a Christology, that preserved the worth of every human individual. That explicit Christological claim, Bonhoeffer opposed to all other claims, including and especially, the claims of National Socialism and Hitler as its demi-god. Life Together is a powerful, and pastoral theological rebuttal of all human claims on the human soul, and on the soul of his German compatriots.
Often enough Bonhoeffer's late theology is called revolutionary. The theological anthropology, incarnational Christology and divine ownership of the redeemed, which give Life Together its radical Christian demand are themselves entirely subversive of all forms of earthly claims to dominance. This is no wee book of monastic spirituality, which is sometimes the way it is read and praised today. It is a book about developing tough virtues, and Christlike love, and a faithful Christ enabled kenosis, nurtured in prayer and the Word, that is able to defy the seductions and oppressions of political and military power. It may be that Bonhoeffer's relevance for today lies as much in those demands for Christlike behavior and dispositions towards the other, as in the more obvious and overt challenges of the later letters to Bethge.
(By the way, for this way of reading Bonhoeffer's Life Together to make even more sense, consider that his lectures in Christ the Center on christology to the Seminary were composed at roughly the same time as his ideas about Christian community in Life Together. Both little books are a challenge the way in which those principalities and powers try to limit Christian community from redefining that it means to be a human in relationship, grounded in The Human Divine we see in Jesus Christ.)