Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Touchstone Publishers, 1959
This book has been quietly sitting in my bookshelf for years. I used to have the habit of sketching (in pencil) the month and year I purchased a book on the inside cover (I really should do that again), but this book either missed that wave or got forgotten in some burp of the mind. Both are highly possible.
I must’ve read through at least the first few chapters of it when I first purchased the book, because I typically mark in the margins and make notes within the lines with pencil, and there are some residual circlings and underlinings from that time. Now, looking back and re-reading the back cover reminded me of my initial impressions of the book when I first got it: popular, but potentially “nothing new.” The summary from the publishers promised to answer certain “timeless questions” by providing a “seminal reading of the dichotomy between “cheap grace” and “costly grace.”"
Nothing new, right? Apparently, I thought so because I stopped reading. Recently, I had a chance to pick it up again and read it with a good friend of mine whose stick-to-it-iveness when it comes to finishing books came in very handy towards the latter part of the book.
Discipleship is divided into four sections: I: Grace and Discipleship, II; The Sermon on the Mount; III: The Messengers; IV: The Church of Jesus Christ and the Life of Discipleship. There is also a Memoir and an Introduction that serve as a preface to the book, which I readily consented to read and would recommend going through. I think re-reading the memoir will help me gain some more perspective now that I’ve finished the book.
Part I, Grace and Discipleship, seems like the groundwork section. There is a lot of defining, and there were some stipulations that made me think a little deeper about the meaning of discipleship. It’s better read as a devotional than as a handbook, however, and I found it helpful to constantly refer back to my personal experience. Bonhoeffer also makes bold statements that is sometimes surprising, and perhaps is a result of (1) a deep experiential encounter with persecution and (2) his personal theological beliefs. There are many points which, granted, is “nothing new,” but there is something in the voice of Bonhoeffer’s writing that allowed me to let it ring truer for me. I loved many of the points made in some of these chapters. They resonated with my soul.
The second section of this book, The Sermon on the Mount, is basically an exposition on the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. Towards the end of the section, there are chapters with titles like, The Hidden Righteousness, The Hiddenness of Prayer, The Hiddenness of the Devout Life, and The Simplicity of the Carefree Life. I particularly liked some passages within these chapters. There is a familiarity with which Bonhoeffer speaks of the deep things of a devout life that awakens the soul to desire it, or at the very least to desire to have more of it. And in some cases, to know that it is not within one’s possession.
The last section is one I struggled with the most. It sounds more doctrinal and the author discusses topics such as baptism, the body of Christ, communion, etc. Of all the sections, this is the one where Bonhoeffer’s Lutheran background expresses itself in a more foreground kind of way. There are discussions about certain sacraments which Bonhoeffer seems to feel strongly about. Again, possibly a section I would have stopped reading at had I not been held accountable. All in all, a worthwhile section.
Ultimately, the consensus is this: sometimes we know what discipleship is. We know what the cost is. Some of us have lived it, done it, and are continuing to do it. This book often speaks like a soft-spoken pastor, gentle and chiding, but often very fatherly. There is something in what he writes that my soul recognizes, and in him I found community and conversation that I might not get in my everyday discussions within my social circles. I’d recommend this read, not only because it’s a “seminal book” that everyone thinks everyone should have read, but because it’s worth it. Carry a pencil and write in it.
JS
