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The Cost Of Discipleship By Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Analysis

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Legalism and Liberty In this post-modern society, a prevailing school of thought is the idea of subjective truth. Every person has their own understanding of what they believe to be as true, and absolute truth does not exist. Regarding the concept of a “life rightly lived,” each individual may have a different interpretation of right and wrong according to their perspective. In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer portrays a very different version of the “life rightly lived.” He says that only those who follow the teachings of the Bible with the utmost obedience and surrender their lives to Jesus Christ may truly have a right life. Even in the setting of a Christian college, these strict interpretations of the Bible put me in a state of defiance. I …show more content…

He talks about how Jesus commanded his disciples to let their light shine before men while also taking care to “not let (their) left hand know what (their) right hand is doing” (English Standard Version, Matt. 6.3). He claims to resolve this apparent paradox by asserting that we must hide our righteousness not from men, but from ourselves (176). This “voluntary blindness” maintains that “all that the follower of Jesus has to do is to make sure that his obedience, following and love are entirely spontaneous and unpremeditated” (177). I understand how Bonhoeffer arrived at this conclusion. However, I find this idea of “spontaneous and unpremeditated” obedience to be quite absurd. I do not believe that this passage was meant to be taken so literally. The purpose of this teaching was to warn us against doing good solely for the feeling of piety rather than for the purpose of helping others. Furthermore, love and obedience are not spontaneous actions but learned cultivated over time. Unfortunately for Bonhoeffer, I do not believe that this doctrine is quite as clear-cut as he makes it out to

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Bonhoeffer in this chapter talks about the call to discipleship that is given to all believers, something that is irresistible from God himself. He breaks down Jesus’ talk with the rich young ruler, and talks about how the ruler instead follows in his own self-conceit instead of submitting to the will of the Christ himself. In doing this, he would not be fulfilling the law, but instead be obeying a direct call from Christ to come and follow him, something he will not do because of his great possessions. I love how Bonhoeffer explains this story, because he breaks down the true meaning of the rich young ruler, and gets to the heart of the problem that many lay people would not understand through reading the story and the immediate context. Bonhoeffer

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In this essay, two prominent voices are Socrates and Martin Luther King Jr. Socrates presents the law as a universal truth. King argues in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" that we have a moral duty to disobey unjust laws occasionally. This essay will delve into

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He wants the clergymen to understand that what they are allowing to happen to his people is something out of the "ordinary" and that they have a right and duty to act upon

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For instance, when he stated in paragraph 6 "Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the spirit of God upon your soul, all you that were never born again, and made new creatures and raised from dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light life, are in the hands of an angry God". This shows if you don't change when God is asking you to, you will never rise again because your being disobedient. God will crush you in the palm of his hands. Just like you crushed his harmless creature. The Sermon also informs the sinner that if you don't apply by God rules you will be death

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Kant’s notion of freedom connects to morality, which displays contrast between duty and inclination, explaining how only the motive of duty, doing the right thing for the right reason, confers moral worth of an action. Kant believes that everything in nature, including humans, “works in accordance with laws,” that all actions must be appointed by law, The formula of universal law that basically states how you should treat humanity as an end rather than as a means. He says we should only act upon the maxim, a principle that gives a reason for action, without contradiction. Davis claims that law is not always reliable when insuring justice; moreover, Kant can support

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These three rights are known as the unalienable rights. The significance behind having the right to life, is to feel like your life matters and you can breathe and function in our country without worrying about getting killed by another person. Having liberty and the pursuit of happiness is living free from restrictions of society and having the freedom to travel the journey to gain happiness and satisfaction. “I believe that within every soul lies the ability to reach for its own good... I believe in a system of government that places liberty at the center of its concerns...

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However, Schaffer’s call for Christians to be marked by love is one that all Christians have heard before. If anything, his emphasis on this mark of love, should not reiterate but stress its competition. Initially reading through this novel, one question rang loudly in my ear: How best do I show my neighbor love? For many, ideas of compassion and kindness are the first to appear; however, I’m come to realize that the best was to imitate quality of love God sets as our standard (Schaeffer 21), we must proclaim the beauty and sacrifice of the triune God.

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He reminded his followers that traditionally “The Christian Church in the past has taught us to do our work with our eyes fixed on another world and a life to come.” Here, he is basically saying that as amazing as heaven is we need to improve the world around us while we are here. He referred to the bible as having “social wealth”, meaning that the society at the time could find lessons and inspiration if they read the texts more carefully. The bible reads: “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts, 20:35)

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With regards to right versus wrong being created, we often listen to what the government suggests is “right” by following laws. People tend to act differently because they’re afraid of being punished. Nowadays we don’t really get to think for ourselves, we grow up with the people around us, distinguishing moral and immoral actions for us. However, what if those people, that we look up to and admire, are wrong about what’s “right”? Thoreau says “The mass

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Saint Thomas Aquinas and William Penn both explored the relationship between moral character and the rule of law. In the 13th century, Aquinas carefully considered the virtuous life of man and its aim at “the beatitude of heaven,” which is the “end to which his whole life and all his actions are ordered” (504, 491). Four centuries later, William Penn focused more on the ends of government than of man, but he does specify that God chose man as “his deputy” to rule the world (38). Despite this designation, Penn clarifies that government is only necessary because of the Fall when man strayed from the holy law. Penn presents two ends of government: “to terrify evil doers” and “to cherish those that do well” (38).

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How does Bonhoeffer speak to the opposite extreme? That is, what does the call to Christian community mean to the introverted anti-social Christian? Can a person live just as much of a fulfilled life for the Kingdom through engrossing one’s self into theological study and writing to inspire the populace without actually interacting with humanity? We can see in the epistles of the Bible that often the apostles took this position when they were isolated in exile from the community, proving that one need not be in the physical presence of others in order to foster a sense of community. However, the isolation of the church is the death of it.

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True freedom is commonly defined as absolute choice; whether it is in thought, actions or speech, freedom is an individual’s ability to take control of their lives and enables the human experience. Civilization views freedom as an ideal, yet the means of achieving it and whether or not freedom is truly achieved remains ambiguous. There are often individuals in civilized society who struggle and believe themselves to be free after a hard earned victory against oppression. Yet, the implications of maintaining a civilized social structure upon freedom is often overlooked. Many individuals view themselves as free from a subjective standpoint, although true freedom has an absolute meaning.

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