The Cost of Discipleship

This book really made me think about what it truly means to follow Christ. It’s not just about belief but about living with intention and being willing to make sacrifices. Some parts were tough to read, but that’s what made it so meaningful. I found myself reflecting on my own faith and actions after each chapter. It’s the kind of book that sticks with you long after you finish it and makes you want to apply its lessons in everyday life. Definitely a book I’ll be coming back to.

Fortunately, I could finally finished reading this book, which is called one of the most important theological books of the 20c, and a modern theological classic. It required approximately two months for me to finish because of my English ability and theological knowledge, but needless to say it was worth the time and cost to examine. Even in the terrible oppression under the Nazi German government, Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not give up his faith with no fear of being killed. He is apprised as an “Apostle of the modern era” and a “defender of Western civilization”. Through this book, I had been kept seeking his core theological source of conviction which enabled him to keep his faith so resiliently: Unfortunately, the conviction lead him to his death of the young age 39. From this book, I could successfully recognize Bonhoeffer’s rigid ideological foundation that made it possible for him to be killed by a capital death of hanging, as a martyr. I found that he thought it is not only the Christian’s right but duty to protest the government which is against God’s law, righteousness or providence. Needless to say, on the premise that he was a Lutheran pastor, his logic and ethics are elaborated with these words such as “only the Bible”, “Grace alone”, “faith alone”, “the mystery of Incarnation”, and the “theology of Cross”. However, I paid attention to the logical point that how theologically he could make possible to refuse the law of “the world”, the law “on the earth”. Even though those laws and the Nazi government itself had occurred legally in a democratic regime and had legitimacy, he could deny it because of the reason that God’s law is superior to laws “on the earth”. Bonhoeffer proved theologically the superiority of God’s law than the law of the world with criticism on “leagalism”, the concept of Christ as a “Mediator”, criticism on the Reformers who justify and admits nations’ the right of revenge, criticism on some Protestant denomination who has theology that confuse Christ’s love and patriotism (p.152). Bonhoeffer’s theology depends on fine exegesis or interpretation of scriptures. In fact, we can find at least some evidence that his theology is breaching Lutheran authentic “doctrine of two kingdoms”, i.e. the mutual non-aggression between religion and states. Although it would not be completely denied the doctrine of separation of religion and states, we are able to recognize these phrases as a clue to breach the doctrine: For instance, “The law must be broken for the sake of Jesus; it forfeits all rights if it acts as a barrier to discipleship (p.61)”, Bonhoeffer wrote, “No law of the world can interfere with this fellowship (p.257)”, “They live their own life under alien rulers and alien laws (p.296)”, “Jesus, the champion of the true law, must suffer at the hands of the champions of the false law (p.121)”. From this point of view, we can find the reason of “the evil law is not a law”, in other words, he breached the dogma that “a law is a law, however undesirable it may be”. Laws on the earth are valid only if those are not against the will of Jesus, that is to say God’s law. Jesus “alone understands the nature of the law as God’s law (p.122)”. Apparently this logic is the base what enables Bonhoeffer to protest Nazi Germany and its laws. Then, if that is the case, on what ethical ground or virtue should we human beings live “in the world”. In Bonhoeffer’s theology, the corner stone of ethics is based on the Lutheran notion of “Pecca fortiter”, i.e. Sin Boldly: Human beings must recognize deeply his weakness, incompleteness, and sinfulness, and then we may be compensated if we completely rely on Omnipotent Father God and Christ as the Mediator. According to Bonhoeffer, Christians need to follow Jesus’ life and death, and to obey his teaching, that means realization of God’s Word. And they should put “beatitudes” into practice in “the Body of Christ” namely in the Church, in the Christian community. When Christians take the Sermon on the mount into practice, they need to be the Beatitudes; the poor, the person who mourn, the meek, the person who suffer from hunger and thirst, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace makers, the person who are persecuted for righteous sake. Only through this practice, they can become disciples of Christ. If they could practice, simply to do this discipleship on the world, i.e. in daily life, with love of fellowship, they could be “salt of the earth” and they could be able to express their extraordinariness or peculiarity without intention. Bonhoeffer argues that this extraordinariness is the realization of the law of God, and Christian peculiarity will come out in their proclamation, which means manifest of God’s law. The righteousness of God can never be contributed back to “Justica Civils” i.e. laws of citizen, and therefore Christians shall be persecuted as strangers in the secular world. Nevertheless, just in the midst of the persecution, Christians must show the divinity of the righteousness of God. Therefore he wrote it down not only once that the death in martyrdom is the supreme grace for Christians who follows Jesus’ life and want to be imitative of Jesus’ death on the Cross. From above, we can confirm the base conceptions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: First, for Christian, God’s law exceeds law on the world. Second, Christians are separated from the secular world and must show their divinity and extraordinariness in the daily life by practicing beatitudes. Third, the death of s martyr is the supreme gift which a few of Christians are given. I guess if he had not these theological conceptions, Bonhoeffer could not get the triumph of martyrdom under the cruel Nazi government. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906. He learned theology in Tuebingen University and became a lecturer of the University of Berlin when he was only 24 years old. Then he studied at the Union theological Seminary in New York. Reckless of danger, in 1935 he started protesting against the German Christian Movement that spread rapidly in Germany together with the prosperity of Nazional Sozialisms. He accused it as an Antichrist ideology. He reported to his friends in Britain and the US the truth and facts of German Church Struggle between the Deutchen Kristen and the Confession Church, and as a leader of the Confession Church movement, he also taught underground at an illegal Church Training College. When the assassination plan for Adolf Hitler comes to surface, Bonhoeffer was arrested by Gestapo, as one of the suspects on April 5th in 1943. On April 9th in 1945, he was killed by hanging through SS chief Heinlich Himmler’s order. It was only few weeks before the day when Berlin was freed by the Soviet Union Red Army.

Quite simply, The Cost of Discipleship is a timeless, treasured, and an elite book that stands head and shoulders above most of its peers. The book is a theologically rich yet practical exposition on discipleship and the Christian walk by a genuine suffering servant of Christ. (The author voluntarily returned to Nazi Germany from the United States to preach the good news, only to be executed for his beliefs). This book not only challenges your imagination to consider what discipleship truly means, but also reveals how costly that choice becomes in contemporary society. In Bonhoeffer’s own words, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” In contemplating what the words of Christ mean for believers in the 20th century, Bonhoeffer develops a gorgeous argument separated into four sections. Part I, “Grace and Discipleship” brings the reader back to the Biblical tradition to explore that grace cannot be separated from sin, and that genuine discipleship essentially means a rejection of one’s very life in pursuit of God. It is here that the author develops his profound idea of “costly grace.” In other words, “what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.” Part II, “The Sermon on the Mount” ends up being a wonderfully orchestrated exegesis of Christ’s words in Matthew chapters 5 through 7. Here, what discipleship actually means in our day-to-day lives is explored, and this further expands on Part I. Parts III and IV, “The Messengers” and “The Church of Jesus Christ and the Life of Discipleship,” expand into interpersonal and group dynamics of discipleship. The book concludes with the chapter “The Image of Christ” where we learn how to regain our humanity by relinquishing our individualism. The Cost of Discipleship is a gripping commentary on the demands of sacrifice and moral stability from a man whose life and reflections were idyllic articulations of Christ-centered leadership, driven by the force of committed Christian neighborliness and an imaginative sense of civic duty. In a modern world full of opinions, Bonhoeffer’s words written more than 50 years ago are as potent and powerful now as they were then. No longer are we fit to call ourselves “Christians” when we incessantly hop from branch to branch. As the author makes very plain, there are only two ways—Christ or the world—and to choose the latter invariably leads to death. This is a highly inspirational, intellectually stimulating and empowering masterpiece that should be on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to embrace what it truly means to be an imitator of Christ. Read it, take notes, reflect on it, cherish it, and then read it again. Prepare to be convicted.

I loved this book. Inspiring is an understatement. Bonhoeffer challenges every thought of the “why”. Why do I follow the Christ?

Awesome read

Gutes Buch.

Excellent and important read for Jesus followers

A quite fabulous book. A must have for any serious Christian. Hard in places, needing concentration, deep thought and much self-reflection. But a quite incredible real life journey into what it takes to be a true Christian. Grace is costly and it is very hard to achieve. If 1 Peter is helpful in how to align being a Christian with the workings of the Nation State, then this book is an encyclopaedia.

神学を学ぶには、必読書です。英語への翻訳もナカナカで評価が高いものです。