“When Christ calls a man he bids
him come and die” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
The writings of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and pastor of the Confessing Church who was
executed by the Nazis at the end of the Second World War, appeal to a wide
cross-section of Christians. Those of a more conservative leaning generally tend
to prefer his earlier books related to church community and discipleship which
is captured in books like Act and Being and
Discipleship which reflect the
personal nature of our commitment to following Christ. Those of a more liberal leaning, on the
other hand, prefer his later writings which reflect his thoughts while
imprisoned by the Nazis in Tegel prison in Berlin collated in the book Letters and Papers from Prison which
reflect a more social and philosophical response to the Christian call to discipleship.
Whilst Bonhoeffer himself
conceded that he would have written Discipleship
differently in one of his letters from prison, the dichotomy between the personal and social dimensions of discipleship (which still persists in the
church today) is completely alien to Bonhoeffer’s understanding of following
Christ. The call and summons to personal
obedience and commitment to Christ is
both a call to ‘come and die’ (the only response to overcome the dominating
power of the ego) and to follow Christ into a suffering world to proclaim the
good news of God’s reign and to engage in acts of mercy and compassion. The development in his Christology and
Anthropology over this period from the strong to the weak Christ (whose
sufferings we are called to share in a world come of age) is also important and
reflects much of his own biography during a period of absolute crisis in
Germany and Europe.
Above all though, it is
Bonhoeffer’s personal shift from what can be described as an academic (or
phraseological) to a real faith based on his response to Jesus’ call for
single-minded obedience that enables
him to live out his Christian convictions in the contested and diminished
public space of Nazi Germany. Hence his
criticism of ‘cheap grace’ and call to costly obedience in following Christ in
the real world of politics and power disequilibria! Commenting on Bonhoeffer’s
understanding of faith and discipleship as obedience
leads Clifford Green in his informative book on Bonhoeffer to state:
‘This radical interpretation of faith
as obedience to the command of Christ had an obvious social impact, and it is
no wonder that Bonhoeffer was known during his lifetime as the author of
Discipleship. In the context of
Kirchenkampf and the life and death struggle with Nazism, it called Christians
out of ersatz religious mythology and into a critical engagement with the
demonic powers of that time. It was an uncompromising challenge to the church.
Bonhoeffer surely would have agreed with Albert Camus’ formulation: “Christians
should get away from abstraction and confront the blood-stained face history
has taken on today. The grouping we need is a grouping of men resolved to speak
out clearly and pay up personally.”’[1]
Someone else has referred to
discipleship as the long road of obedience and we urgently need to recapture an
understanding of both the personal and social dimensions of our call to be
Christ followers in the real world of UK culture and politics today!
[1]
Green, C., Bonhoeffer – A Theology of
Sociality, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Rev Ed. 1999, p. 161
