Has Anybody Read Books By Bonhoeffer ?

[Scott Hutchinson]

Has anybody here ever read The Cost Of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer ?
Or anything else that he wrote ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voy-9IK56CA

[Jeffrey]

No, but one of his is on my list.

[missourimary]

Listened to one about him on Focus on the Family radio a few years ago. It was sad but good.

[Michael The Disciple]

Yes I read it back in the mid 70's. I was enjoying it as I recall till he got to the teaching of election then I tuned out. Looking back I see I was just not ready for it.

[Jeffrey]

Did his actions conflict with Romans 13?

[TalkLady]

Here is a great site with many quotes and links related to Bonhoeffer.

http://www.crossroad.to/Persecution/Bonhoffer.html

[Sister Alvear]

sounds like he lived what he believed....

[pelathais]

"Creation and Fall" is an interesting read. It is from a series of lectures that he gave just before the outbreak of WW2 and his imprisonment. Most writers have said that he commends Darwinism and biological evolution here. In my opinion he seems to just be saying that while Darwinism is true scientifically, it really doesn't have a great deal of bearing on the Gospel.

At least that's what I came away with from the English translation. Perhaps those who read German were better able to come to grips with what he was saying. Either way, he was a remarkable man and left a tremendous Christian witness.

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

Did his actions conflict with Romans 13?

I suspect you're being somewhat coy here, Jeffrey. Technically, in an ultra-fundamentalist interpretation of Romans 13 - Yes, he did resist "the powers that be." That's why we esteem his memory so highly.

Romans 13, is something of an ellipses - a figure of speech that is a bit less than complete, though the ellipses is really a couple of paragraphs rather than a simple sentence.

El-lips'-is; or, Omission When a gap is purposely left in a sentence through the omission of some word or words.
* From the Companion Study Bible, E. W. Bullinger

When reading his works, keep in mind that, like all great grammarians, Bullinger would occasionally descend into a baffling eccentricity at times.

Romans 13, doesn't come right out and say that there are exceptions to the rule being stated. It omits this detail as a deliberate part of the rhetoric. However, Romans 13:3-4, cannot be ignored when it describes the purpose of government - to be a "terror to the evil doer..."

When a government itself becomes the "evil doer," then it is incumbent upon the people to resist and to seek to overthrow the evil and replace it with good government.

[Sister Alvear]

I only read what he wrote about grace...