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Summary: These works will change your life
Review: Besides the Word of God (the bible), there are three other books every Christian should read, if he/she is serious about their faith.Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan; The Cost of Discipleship by D. Bonhoeffer, and this book, Life Together, by the same author. This book changed my perspective...totally, on how to live with 'my neighbour.' Think you really do love your neighbour? What about your brother and sister in the Lord? With so many church splits, arguments over trivial doctrinal issues, petty squabbles, and gossip justified as 'good ol' christian concern', this book is needed. It shows how we are REALLY to treat one another. Patterned after Christ, and based in scripture--this book is a must.
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Summary: A book that should have a dramatic impact in your life.
Review: Bonhoeffer hits home! Life Together is especially for the Reformers of today. This book deals with issues that we keep hidden for the sake of piety. I rarely use the word "hero" but Bonhoeffer certainly fits that category. Any young (or for that matter old) theologian needs to get a hold of this book and not let go!
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Summary: A Needed Message for the Church
Review: Bonhoeffer is brilliant in his understanding of the church's lifeblood, which is the cross. Where other ecclesiologies become distracted by secondary issues, Bonhoeffer cuts right to the foundational elements of life in Christ. The Church of today would do well to rediscover Bonhoeffer, and not only this book but his others as well. Sanctorum Communio takes a more theological look at these same issues, but Life Together is probably the best book to start with for someone wanting to break into Bonhoeffer's works. Its theme sets everything else that he writes into perspective.
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Summary: A thoughtful challenge to current views of Christianity
Review: Bonhoeffer stands in stark contrast to the Christian writers of today. In Life Together, he brings the power of a first class mind to the problem of how we may strengthen the power and meaning of Christian belief. His emphasis on community, on meaningful Christian interaction boldly stands out against the backdrop of modern Conservative and Evangelical thought. While we strive for a Christian experience that validates our emotions and tends to our individual needs, Bonhoeffer sets aside the individual to strike at the raw nerve of what we value and why. What are we willing to surrender to join in community with other Christians? A modern reading will suffer from Bonhoeffer's tone which is more authoritative and dogmatic than our sensibilites are attuned to. Once past this, the challenge he presents is clear and worth the effort.
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Summary: A thoughtful challenge to current views of Christianity
Review: Bonhoeffer stands in stark contrast to the Christian writers of today. In Life Together, he brings the power of a first class mind to the problem of how we may strengthen the power and meaning of Christian belief. His emphasis on community, on meaningful Christian interaction boldly stands out against the backdrop of modern Conservative and Evangelical thought. While we strive for a Christian experience that validates our emotions and tends to our individual needs, Bonhoeffer sets aside the individual to strike at the raw nerve of what we value and why. What are we willing to surrender to join in community with other Christians? A modern reading will suffer from Bonhoeffer's tone which is more authoritative and dogmatic than our sensibilites are attuned to. Once past this, the challenge he presents is clear and worth the effort.
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Summary: Excellent Read of a Famous Theologian
Review: Bonhoeffer talks about Christian fellowship. As a Lutheran, he doesn't fail but to let this talk of community revolve around anything else but the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. This for Bonhoeffer is the beginning and end of fellowship. This must be revolting and new for many who would call themselves Christians today, due to our wanting to be individuals who agree to unite around our diversities, rather than what Bonhoeffer writes from the Bible, our unity in Christ crucified. To call any other kind of intimacy close to this is unbiblical and un-Bonhoeffer. Evidence this quote: "It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and sacrament." Also, "All we can say, therefore, is: the community of Christians springs solely from the Biblical and Reformation message of the justification of man through grace alone; this alone is the basis of the longing of Christians for one another." "Without Christ there is discord between God and man and between man and man." Probably my favorite quote which will bring huge rewards for those that discern its truths: "We must center our attention on the Word alone and leave consequences to its action. For may it not be that God HImslef sends kus these hours of reproof and dryness that we may be brought again to expect everything from His Word? "Seek God, not happiness"--this is the fundamental rule of all meditation."
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Summary: Slim book, packed with great ideas
Review: Christain martyr Deitrich Bonhoeffer wrote this book to aid its Christian reader in Christian living through the miriad of daily activities. Although it's only about 100 pages, it's a whale of a helpful book. It takes a little reading to get used to Bonhoeffer's style (prose), but once you can read "Life Together" fluidly, it hits you like a machine gun: practical advice followed by rationalle; practical advice followed by rationalle; etc. Among the topics covered are components to daily, family devotions, the relationship between work and worship; a new way of looking at Psalms and hymns; the importance of daily showing love through your actions so that you can spread the word of Christ; ways to guard against conflict in a church (as if there is ever conflict at voters meetings. Ha!) This book won't take you very long at all to read, but the thoughts you take away from it will churn in your head for weeks. You'll find yourself turning back to the book re-read a section or two. You'll kick yourself for not reading it sooner. I know I have. HIGHLY recommended.
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Summary: Slim book, packed with great ideas
Review: Christain martyr Deitrich Bonhoeffer wrote this book to aid its Christian reader in Christian living through the miriad of daily activities. Although it's only about 100 pages, it's a whale of a helpful book. It takes a little reading to get used to Bonhoeffer's style (prose), but once you can read "Life Together" fluidly, it hits you like a machine gun: practical advice followed by rationalle; practical advice followed by rationalle; etc. Among the topics covered are components to daily, family devotions, the relationship between work and worship; a new way of looking at Psalms and hymns; the importance of daily showing love through your actions so that you can spread the word of Christ; ways to guard against conflict in a church (as if there is ever conflict at voters meetings. Ha!) This book won't take you very long at all to read, but the thoughts you take away from it will churn in your head for weeks. You'll find yourself turning back to the book re-read a section or two. You'll kick yourself for not reading it sooner. I know I have. HIGHLY recommended.
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Summary: We need more of this for the Church
Review: I am reading 2 Timothy as I read this book and it really brings out some of the really important elements of Christian life and the church. Both Paul and Bonhoeffer are writing from the perspective of someone who is imprisoned, who is never sure when their life may end. If fact, both are probably sure that life will end very soon. So when they write, they are writing what is truly on their hearts, bringing to their reader exhortations that they hope to leave with them that will most strengthen their faith and respective communities. This book talks about very simple things: singing together, living together, reading together. It touches little on how to overcome politics or proper forms of leadership. What he wants most is to make sure that, of all things, we learn how to be true brothers and sisters, which can ONLY be done through Christ. Without him and His will, we can do nothing. The Christocentric nature of his writing is alomost startling, yet, like Karl Barth, is essential to understanding Bonhoeffer. I was most affected by the chapter about reading the Bible. He refers to booklets (writeen by the Moravians in his time) that focus only on a few verses. He challenges us to read whole chapters, whole books, of the entire Bible. This is so very true today. If we even take the time to read the Bible, we don't take part in the great narrative of God's grace, in Israel's crossing of the Red Sea, of thier crying out to God for help. When God rebukes them, he also rebukes us. Perhaps some aspects of the book are somewhat anachronistic. The part about singing is a bit opinionated. I understand his desire for true unison singing - that it captures the symbol of all God's people joining as one in Christ. But singing also can reflect diversity, the diversity of the people in our congregation joined by the words but diverse in HOW it is sung. That is how I see it. And I find his rebuke of "unmusical" singers a little elitist. What would he think of current contemporary music with instruments, a leading band, and multiple melodies? On the one hand he DOES give us necessary pause for thought - we cannot succumb to the desire to be "current" while compromising the gospel; on the other hand I think he is a bit stuffy in his comments. What makes this a classic is that it is not just a list of exhortations, but a THEOLOGICAL work, not a take on business models for the church, or sociological ana;yses. It is a book steeped in Scripture and that is very good.
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Summary: Fantastic book that gets better each time you read it!
Review: If anyone's earned the right to be heard, it's Bonhoeffer. I've read this book twice now and it's better the second time. This would be a great book to read as a married couple or a family. Bonhoeffer writes about living in community from both his own experience and from an incredibly biblical perspective. And, typical of his writing, you'll probably have to stop after a page or two to absorb all the truth he packs into each line!
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