April 9 is marked for the memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his death in a Nazi concentration camp.
The followers of Christ have been called to peace. And they must not only have peace but also make it. Christ's disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. In so doing they overcome evil with good and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate.
Showing posts with label Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Show all posts
Saturday, 10 April 2010
Thursday, 18 February 2010
What if the Church were Christian?
What if the Church were Christian? A question asked most pointedly by the leader writer for The Independent newspaper in Britain contemplating the debates at the General Synod of the Church of England.
The leader writer closed the editorial with the observation that:
Simon Barrow framed his observations with reference to the following quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
"Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The leader writer closed the editorial with the observation that:
The Church ought to stand as a sign of contradiction in a consumerist culture whose focus constantly and unquestioningly narrows on ever-greater individualism and self-interest. But where it ignores the lessons which secular society has to teach it about its own gospel message, and does so with such shrill intolerance, it has only itself to blame if the rest of us dismiss it as a foolish pageant.
(c) Independent 2010
Simon Barrow framed his observations with reference to the following quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
"Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Remembering Bonhoeffer
Today the Christian church throughout the world remembers the life and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This year the day falls on the eve of Good Friday. The closing verses of his poem "Stages on the Way to Freedom' are an appropriate text for reflecting on the significance of Jesus's final journey on Good Friday.
Wondrous is the change. The strong active hands are bound now.
Powerless and alone, you see the end of your action.
Yet you breathe a sigh of relief and lay it aside quietly trusting to stronger hands and are content.
Only for a moment did you touch the bliss of freedom, then you gave it back to God that he might gloriously fulfil it.
Come now, highest feast on the way to everlasting freedom,
death. Lay waste the burdens of chains and walls which confine our earthly bodies and blinded souls, that we may see at last what here we could not see.
Freedom, we sought you long in discipline, action and suffering.
Dying, we recognize you now in the face of God.
Wondrous is the change. The strong active hands are bound now.
Powerless and alone, you see the end of your action.
Yet you breathe a sigh of relief and lay it aside quietly trusting to stronger hands and are content.
Only for a moment did you touch the bliss of freedom, then you gave it back to God that he might gloriously fulfil it.
Come now, highest feast on the way to everlasting freedom,
death. Lay waste the burdens of chains and walls which confine our earthly bodies and blinded souls, that we may see at last what here we could not see.
Freedom, we sought you long in discipline, action and suffering.
Dying, we recognize you now in the face of God.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
The degradation of language
In the 1940's in a discussion on Telling the Truth Bonhoeffer commented:
In place of genuine words we now have chatter. Words no longer have any weight. There is too much talk. When the boundaries of various words are erased, however, when words become rootless and homeless, then the word loses truth, and this almost necessarily gives rise to the lie. When the various conventions of life are no longer mutually observed, then words become untrue. (Collected Works Vol 16 pp.624-625)
What would he say to day in the world of talkback and spin?
In place of genuine words we now have chatter. Words no longer have any weight. There is too much talk. When the boundaries of various words are erased, however, when words become rootless and homeless, then the word loses truth, and this almost necessarily gives rise to the lie. When the various conventions of life are no longer mutually observed, then words become untrue. (Collected Works Vol 16 pp.624-625)
What would he say to day in the world of talkback and spin?
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Reading bonhoeffer - God is no stopgap
Reading Bonhoeffer I have to remind myself again and again that much of his writing was in the context of a totalitarian regime and that in his writing he is attempting a profound critique of the regime and the way the church was responding without spelling out that specific context, an that for perfectly obvious reasons when you stop and think about it.
Much of his reflections about responsibility, for example, were about the ethical underpinning to his approach to the plot against Hitler. If we forget that we will read his writings as a purely academic discourse separate from the context in which he found himself. To do that is to fundamentally misread him and to miss the full stretch and challenge that he was making to theological and intellectual heritage hat he was brought up in.
And in the end he keeps gong with his refrain of the inextricable worldliness of Christianity.
God is no stopgap. God must be known not at the boundaries of our possibilities but in the midst of life, in life and not just in dying, in health and strength and not just in suffering. God wants to be known in action and not just in sin. The reason for this lies in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. He is in the midst of life. Seen from the midst of life certain questions disappear and so do the answers to such questions. (p.253 I want to Spend These Days with You.
Much of his reflections about responsibility, for example, were about the ethical underpinning to his approach to the plot against Hitler. If we forget that we will read his writings as a purely academic discourse separate from the context in which he found himself. To do that is to fundamentally misread him and to miss the full stretch and challenge that he was making to theological and intellectual heritage hat he was brought up in.
And in the end he keeps gong with his refrain of the inextricable worldliness of Christianity.
God is no stopgap. God must be known not at the boundaries of our possibilities but in the midst of life, in life and not just in dying, in health and strength and not just in suffering. God wants to be known in action and not just in sin. The reason for this lies in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. He is in the midst of life. Seen from the midst of life certain questions disappear and so do the answers to such questions. (p.253 I want to Spend These Days with You.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Church, World and Religion
The Bonhoeffer daily reader, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: I Want to Live These Days with You in its readings in June focuses on the Unity of the Church - interestingly many of the extracts deal with a theology of the relationship of the church and world and why it is not all about individual religious experience and meeting the spiritual needs of humans as consumers.
Bonhoeffer deconstruct's a Christendom mentality that is committed to top down institutional power and forces our attention back again and again to Jesus Christ as the key to our practice of community witness and humanity.
June 13:
When God in Jesus Christ claims space in the world - even if only in a stable "because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) - then at the same time God summarizes in this small space the whole reality of the world and reveals its ultimate foundation. So also the church of Jesus Christ is the place - that is the space - in the world in which the lordship of Jesus Christ is witnessed and proclaimed over all the world ...
The space of the church is not there to make a piece of the world controversial. but precisely to attest to the world that it remains the world, specifically the world loved and reconciled by God. The church does not desire more space than it needs in order to serve the world with its witness to Jesus Christ and to the world's reconciliation with God through Christ. Also the church can defend its own space only by fighting not for it but for the salvation of the world. Otherwise the church becomes the "society of religion" that fights for its own cause and thereby ceases to be the church of God in the world. The first instruction to those who belong to the church is not, therefore, to do something for themselves - say create a religious organisation, or lead a pious life - but be witnesses of Jesus Christ to the world.
June 15:
The church is the humanity that was incarnate, condemned and raised to new life in Christ. Thus to begin with it has essentially nothing at all to do with the so-0called religious functions of human beings; it has to do rather with the whole of human kind in its existence in the world and in all its relationships.
What the church is all about is not religion but the form of Christ and Christ taking shape among a group of human beings.
Bonhoeffer deconstruct's a Christendom mentality that is committed to top down institutional power and forces our attention back again and again to Jesus Christ as the key to our practice of community witness and humanity.
June 13:
When God in Jesus Christ claims space in the world - even if only in a stable "because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) - then at the same time God summarizes in this small space the whole reality of the world and reveals its ultimate foundation. So also the church of Jesus Christ is the place - that is the space - in the world in which the lordship of Jesus Christ is witnessed and proclaimed over all the world ...
The space of the church is not there to make a piece of the world controversial. but precisely to attest to the world that it remains the world, specifically the world loved and reconciled by God. The church does not desire more space than it needs in order to serve the world with its witness to Jesus Christ and to the world's reconciliation with God through Christ. Also the church can defend its own space only by fighting not for it but for the salvation of the world. Otherwise the church becomes the "society of religion" that fights for its own cause and thereby ceases to be the church of God in the world. The first instruction to those who belong to the church is not, therefore, to do something for themselves - say create a religious organisation, or lead a pious life - but be witnesses of Jesus Christ to the world.
June 15:
The church is the humanity that was incarnate, condemned and raised to new life in Christ. Thus to begin with it has essentially nothing at all to do with the so-0called religious functions of human beings; it has to do rather with the whole of human kind in its existence in the world and in all its relationships.
What the church is all about is not religion but the form of Christ and Christ taking shape among a group of human beings.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Counter-intuitive?
If you want the eternal, hold on to the temporal. If you want God, hold on to the world.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer: I Want to Live These Days with You - A year of Daily Devotions, WJKP, 2007)
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer: I Want to Live These Days with You - A year of Daily Devotions, WJKP, 2007)
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Engaging the world
Recent readings from the daily readings from Bonhoeffer I Want to Live these Days with You bring into view an understanding of what it is to be a Christian that was more than academic.
Those who affirm the resurrection of Christ in faith can no longer withdraw from the world, nor can they become slaves to the world, for in the midst of the old creation they know God's new creation. (April 23, p.118)
Unlike believers in the myths of redemption Christians do not have a last escape from earthly tasks and difficulties into the eternal. Rather they must completely and fully enjoy earthly life as Christ did. Only when they do this will the crucified and resurrected One be with them. Only when they do this will they be crucified and resurrected with Christ. The present age must not be prematurely abolished. In this Old Testament and New Testament remain united. Myths of redemption arise from human boundary experiences. But Christ meets human beings in the middle of their lives. (April 24, p.119)
Those who affirm the resurrection of Christ in faith can no longer withdraw from the world, nor can they become slaves to the world, for in the midst of the old creation they know God's new creation. (April 23, p.118)
Unlike believers in the myths of redemption Christians do not have a last escape from earthly tasks and difficulties into the eternal. Rather they must completely and fully enjoy earthly life as Christ did. Only when they do this will the crucified and resurrected One be with them. Only when they do this will they be crucified and resurrected with Christ. The present age must not be prematurely abolished. In this Old Testament and New Testament remain united. Myths of redemption arise from human boundary experiences. But Christ meets human beings in the middle of their lives. (April 24, p.119)
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Kevin Rudd and Tibet
Anyone who had assumed that Kevin Rudd was a cautious technocratic politician despite his article proclaiming his admiration for Dietrich Bonhoeffer might now be given some pause for thought by the following news story on the ABC website.
Senior Chinese Government officials have publicly attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over his comments on Tibet.
In Washington, Mr Rudd said it was clear that human rights abuses were being committed in Tibet, and today he repeated those claims during a speech at a university in Beijing. Mr Rudd says he will not be backing away from his plan to raise his concerns with the Chinese leadership.
"It's important, as I said in my speech earlier today, to have a relationship that is capable of handling a disagreement and putting views in a straight-forward fashion," he said.
"That's what I said I'd be doing in my remarks earlier today, and that's what I will be doing. I stand by the comments I made earlier on this matter."
He has also supported Australians' right to turn their back on the Olympic flame.
"You know one thing about Australia [is], it's a robust democracy. We live in a free country - people can express their point of view in any manner that they choose," he said.
...
In a speech earlier today to Beijing University students, Mr Rudd said he did not support a boycott of the Olympics, but he risked increasing Beijing's ire by talking about other human rights issues and controversies.
"There are still many problems in China. Problems of poverty, problems of uneven development, problems of pollution. Problems of broader human rights," he said.
"It is important to recognise that China's change is having a great impact, not just on China, but also the world."
Mr Rudd described China's social transformation as "unprecedented in human history", but warned his audience that its rise was causing anxiety overseas.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/09/2212467.htm
There is something appropriate in the fact that this speech was given on 9 April, the date on which Dietrich Bonhoeffer is remembered in the Anglican calendar of saints and martyrs.
Senior Chinese Government officials have publicly attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over his comments on Tibet.
In Washington, Mr Rudd said it was clear that human rights abuses were being committed in Tibet, and today he repeated those claims during a speech at a university in Beijing. Mr Rudd says he will not be backing away from his plan to raise his concerns with the Chinese leadership.
"It's important, as I said in my speech earlier today, to have a relationship that is capable of handling a disagreement and putting views in a straight-forward fashion," he said.
"That's what I said I'd be doing in my remarks earlier today, and that's what I will be doing. I stand by the comments I made earlier on this matter."
He has also supported Australians' right to turn their back on the Olympic flame.
"You know one thing about Australia [is], it's a robust democracy. We live in a free country - people can express their point of view in any manner that they choose," he said.
...
In a speech earlier today to Beijing University students, Mr Rudd said he did not support a boycott of the Olympics, but he risked increasing Beijing's ire by talking about other human rights issues and controversies.
"There are still many problems in China. Problems of poverty, problems of uneven development, problems of pollution. Problems of broader human rights," he said.
"It is important to recognise that China's change is having a great impact, not just on China, but also the world."
Mr Rudd described China's social transformation as "unprecedented in human history", but warned his audience that its rise was causing anxiety overseas.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/09/2212467.htm
There is something appropriate in the fact that this speech was given on 9 April, the date on which Dietrich Bonhoeffer is remembered in the Anglican calendar of saints and martyrs.
Monday, 17 March 2008
Bonhoeffer and the importance of fragments
Coments from Simon Barrow Faithin Society blog - one of my must read blogs
Sunday, March 16, 2008
DISTURBING THE PEACE
As the world around him descended further into chaos in 1944, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "The important thing today is that we should be able to discern from the fragment of our life how the whole was arranged and planned, and what material it consists of. For really, there are some fragments that are only worth throwing into the dustbin . . . and others whose importance lasts for centuries, because their completion can only be a matter for God, and so they are fragments that must be fragments.
Teresa Berger http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3116 comments: "In the end, Bonhoeffer’s own life became a fragment, abruptly broken off yet pointing to wholeness. As Bonhoeffer had understood in his prison cell, if brokenness and crisis were to become 'that edge where change is possible,' this crisis would have to be sustained by something stronger than the human. In a world whose systems of meaning do not bring life and flourishing, the crisis brought by the fire of the burning bush might just constitute good news. [The] gospel calls us... to the crisis that is God’s consuming and compelling presence. Life cannot flourish without this crisis."
http://faithinsociety.blogspot.com/
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