Bonhoeffer's theology [2]

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  • Created by: ekenny5
  • Created on: 13-04-22 14:58
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  • Bonhoeffer's Theology [2] - the Cost of Discipleship
    • 'When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die ... Suffering then, is the badge of true discipleship'
    • Cheap Grace
      • theological idea meaning God's love and mercy, given freely
        • includes forgiveness of sins and the offer of eternal life
          • it is not earned by humans but a freely given gift
            • 'grace without price, grace without cost'
      • Being a Christian means 'picking up your cross' as Jesus did
        • BH was worried that Christians thought that as Jesus sacrificed himself for us, we did not have to do anything to receive his grace
      • it is effectively a lie, not the grace of God but the grace we give ourselves
      • easy Christianity is no Christianity at all
      • 'cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of living the Word of God'
    • Costly Grace
      • grace that is the 'treasure hidden in a field' that a person would sell everything to obtain. Matthew 13:44
        • something worth sacrificing everything for
      • 'it is costly because it costs a man his life'
      • in an unjust society, the Christian discipline is placed in a dangerous and precarious situation
      • God's grace cannot be brought about by ritual and ceremony - this is cheap grace
      • receiving grace means becoming subject to the absolute obedience of God
      • 'above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son'
    • Sacrifice and Suffering
      • 'whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me' Mark 8:34
      • suffering and sacrifice are inherent to discipleship
      • 'the disciple is only a disciple as far as he shares his Lord's suffering and rejection and crucifixion
      • the life of a Christian is a life of suffering for Christ
        • it is Christianity's engagement with the world
        • Christian life involves the burden of forgiveness - bearing the burden of the sins of others
      • God suffers in solidarity with us
      • Bonhoeffer realised he would have to pay the ultimate sacrifice for his actions
        • 'BH's resistance was essentially an expression of his theology' Von Klemperer
    • Solidarity
      • 'existence for others'
      • BH believed he had to experience the suffering that his people endured - he could have stayed away from Germany but chose not to
        • The German Christians failed at acting in solidarity
      • Jesus was a 'man for others' so we must be a 'Church for others'
      • 'I am afraid that Christians who dare to stand with only one leg on Earth stand with only one leg in heaven'
      • being there for others makes a Christian
        • the purpose of being a Christian was not to be 'religious' but to be in a relationship with God through living for others
      • Christian discipleship is participation with 'existence for others'
        • God makes a bond of suffering with humanity
        • Christians are called to live responsibly in the world
      • The church must question whether the state's actions are legitimate
        • must help victims of injustice of whatever faith or belief
          • 'not just to bandage the victims under the wheel but to put a spoke in the wheel itself'

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