The Introduction explained that Bonhoeffer wrote Life Together while living in a secret, illegal seminary to teach young German pastors in Nazi Germany. He and the other teachers and about twenty-five seminary students all lived and worked together, and I'm sure his experiences there are what prompted him to write about how Christians should and shouldn't behave in daily life, both in Christian communities and in the world in general.
He focuses on the importance of being part of a community, on what a Christian's daily life can and will look like both when living with others and also when living alone, on different kinds of earthly ministries, and on the importance of confession and Holy Communion for believers. I found the last two sections to be the most interesting and enlightening.
The section on Ministry was divided up into small, useful segments of ways that we can serve God and our fellow human beings in our daily life through things like the Ministry of Holding One's Tongue, the Ministry of Meekness, the Ministry of Listening, and several others. This was good, practical, uplifting advice to anyone and everyone, and I will be rereading that section in the future, I am sure.
Bonhoeffer didn't pull any punches when talking about how important it is to truly repent of our sins and turn away from them, and how comforting it is to confess them to a fellow Christian such as a pastor and receive comforting reassurance that God forgives those sins for the sake of Jesus's suffering and death on the cross. We often reply on privately confessing our specific sins to God and publicly only confessing in a general way, during a worship service -- and those are important! But some sins can weigh so heavily on a Christian that we feel maybe we can't be forgiven for them, which can lead to despair and be very destructive of souls and hearts and minds, and that is where private confession can provide amazing comfort and relief. I've known that, in a vague way, for most of my life, but Bonhoeffer really explained it in such clear and relatable ways that it became much more real to me, somehow.
I think the one, single part of this book that was the most immediately helpful for me was this:
It is one of the particular difficulties of meditation that our thoughts are likely to wander and go their own way, toward other persons or to some events in our life. Much as this may distress and shame us again and again, we must not lose heart and become anxious, or even conclude that meditation is really not something for us. When this happens it is often a help not to snatch back our thoughts convulsively, but quite calmly to incorporate into our prayer the people and the events to which our thoughts keep straying and thus in all patience return to the starting point of the meditation (p. 85).
I often have this problem when I am reading the Bible and praying, and I love that extremely practical and solid advice.
This is a really short book, but so meaty and wise!
Particularly Good Bits:
The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer (p. 19).
By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth (p. 27).
In the Christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things...We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious. We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts (p. 29).
Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake; spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake (p. 34).
The Old Testament day begins at evening and ends with the going down of the sun. It is the time of expectation. The day of the New Testament church begins with the break of day and ends with the dawning light of the next morning. It is the time of fulfillment, the resurrection of the Lord. At night, Christ was born, a light in darkness; noonday turned to night when Christ suffered and died on the Cross. But in the dawn of Easter morning Christ rose in victory from the grave (p. 40).
Here we learn, first, what prayer means. It means praying according to the Word of God, on the basis of promises. Christian prayer takes its stand on the solid ground of the revealed Word and has nothing to do with vague, self-seeking vagaries (p. 47).
Why do Christians sing when they are together? The reason is, quite simply, because in singing together it is possible for them to speak and pray the same Word at the same time; in other words, because here they can unite in the Word. All devotion, all attention should be concentrated upon the Word in the hymn (p. 59).
"Seek God, not happiness" -- this is the fundamental rule of all meditation. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness: that is its [meditation's] promise (p. 84).
Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words (p. 91).
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps -- reading the Bible. When we do that we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that, not our way, but God's way must be done (p. 99).
Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person (p. 112).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G. This is good and godly stuff, though younger people may not understand it thoroughly. I didn't understand all of it myself on just one reading.
This is my 44th book read and reviewed for my 4th Classics Club list. Only six to go to finish this list!