He desired to form a “communion of saints” marked by their unity, refusal to conform, and passion for Christ. It was within this context of widespread compromise, oppression, and increased hostility towards religious dissent that Bonhoeffer wrote his book Life Together. By that time, 27 of his former students were imprisoned. His work would continue until the Gestapo shut down the entirety of the Brethren’s operations in late 1937. Bonhoeffer objected to Christians succumbing to the political pressures of the day, arguing that there “must be in the end a break with theological backing for restraint against state action.” In 1935, this sentiment compelled Bonhoeffer to take a directorship role of the preacher’s seminary at a small Confessing Church, “the Council of Brethren.” Here he lived in community with dozens of pastoral candidates, working, living, and teaching them in preparation for their existence as leaders of the underground church. In 1933, German Protestants began to build a new church “in the new state of Adolf Hitler.” One of their first steps towards this direction was to pass the Aryan Paragraph at the General Synod, legitimatizing Anti-Semitism for the entire Evangelic Church of the old-Prussian Union. His first doctoral thesis was titled Sanctorum Communio, a work considered by Karl Barth to be a “theological miracle.” In it he combined a sociological and philosophical understanding of ecclesiology to interpret the church as “Christ existing as church-community.” His work gained him much respect within academia.īonhoeffer demonstrated throughout the course of his life that the sincerity of his commitments laid not only the intellectual, but the practical as well. A natural theologian, Bonhoeffer was passionate about the church and the Gospel. Life Together is widely considered to be a classic on the subject.Īlthough Bonhoeffer is most commonly known as the German pastor who was hanged for his role in a conspiracy to assassinate Adolph Hitler, he was no radical activist. In an age where social capital is on the decline, individualism dominates, and consumerism is the norm, understanding the essence of Christian community is important now more than ever.
For many, including myself, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community has contributed meaningfully towards a fuller understanding of what it means to biblically approach the broader subject of community.
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