02 November 2006

Life Together

Our men's study group (which meets at the ungodly hour of 6:15 a.m. at the local greasy spoon) is in the process of studying through *Life Together* by Bonhoeffer. I was struck by a section of the reading for today:

Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both....God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his idea picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself. (pp. 27,28)

9 comments:

Chaz said...

Sure... do Bonhoeffer after I leave!

Hrumph!

William Weedon said...

Blame Fr. GeRue...

Anonymous said...

Sounds like he's responding to a certain Burning! trade mark of synodicratic idealization.

Josh

William Weedon said...

I could think of it applying in a number of ways to current situations - and that sure is one!

Anonymous said...

I'm aware of several men's study groups who are taking up the manly man's Big Old Book O'Lutheranism: the Book of Concord, and their edition of choice appears to be the Concordia edition, which has manly pictures in, featuring, for instance the painting by Cranach showing the priests of Baal getting hacked into pieces.

Cool stuff that.

William Weedon said...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We already did the Large Catechism out of said book - at least, we did the 10 commandments from the Large Catechism out of said book. We will no doubt return to using it. However, we are firmly committed to the FIRST edition of said book, not the revised one. : )

Anonymous said...

Does this mean that Bonhoeffer disapproves of 'synods of one'?
Whudda thunk ? 8>)

William Weedon said...

Fr. Hank,

I think that would be a safe bet, what?

Rev. Paul Beisel said...

I always liked Bonhoeffer's thing about taking a walk in the morning, contemplating the mysteries of God. It's been a long time since I've read it. I seem to remember coming across a few things that kind've made me go, "Huh?"