ok, i picked this book up becuase i've already read about half of it from hand-outs in my ethics class... the there's an issue, the forward, memoirs and intro combine into a huge unit... the memoirs are written by a friend of Bonhoeffer's because this man never reached a ripe old age, he was put to death in Germany by the Nazis at 39 years old. he was killed, without trial, for 2 things: potting to assassinate Adolf Hitler and for teaching things that were contrary to the Nazi Regime's 'Church'...
i'm thoroughly loving this book, but there's one thing wrong: the forwards and intro and such are too long, they begin to get into Bonhoeffer's ideas before the compilation in the book is offered, but you can't get into Bonhoeffer's ideas without understanding why he's writing and the desperate state of Germany, German Christians, and the underground Lutherans that Bonhoeffer was a part of.
One of the ideas central to Bonhoeffer is the church as a community... some people would interpret this as "the church as a social institution" but that's not quite what he means... he means Christians, living together, doing things in Christ-like ways, in order to better the world, and these people work with each other, they seek forgiveness from one another and they offer grace, not excuses, to those around them, in order that the Body of Christ might look more like the historical Jesus and his teachings.
neat concept, huh? i'll rather enjoy this book this break.
06 December 2009
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