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tigerkin310's review against another edition
4.0
Very dense and Germanic, even in a well-annotated contemporary translation. It will take one and probably several more readings to begin to fully understand BONHOEFFER's thinking.
reinhardt's review against another edition
5.0
One of the most exciting theology books I‘ve read in the past 10 years. Written almost 100 years ago but reads as fresh and timely.
This was Bonhoeffers dissertation, and one would guess it is painfully theoretical and overly technical. Although it is a bit technical, especially with regards to the use of some Hegelian concepts like objective spirit, it is, as a whole, very readable. He writes in a clear and linear manner (in contrast to Karl Barth). His thoughts are always well reasoned.
He begins with a look as what is the Christian concept of a person. One can‘t understand a community without knowing what a person is. Main point is that a person doens‘t exist without a relationship. There is only an `I` if there is a `You`. And a Christian understanding of a person must grapple with the broken state of history. Things are not as they should be.
Then he moves on to the community. He derives the concept of a collective person. The person of the community, i.e. the community is a person with its own will and `spirit`. Not in the sense that the individual is lost in the community. The individual and the community live in dialectic. The individual only exists in community, but the community only exists with individual members.
He then distinguishes a community from a mass. A community has an intent, and a relatively unified communal will. A mass can have individuals with the same intent, but without social bonding. Only in a community is the will for each other, not just for the purpose. Communities have reciprocally. Communities have conflict of wills which results in cooperation of wills. A mass can create a powerful experience of unity, but in a mass individuality is lost. He also distinguishes a community from a society in that a community has a personal character whereas as society does not.
He then goes on to describe how sin impairs the community. The communal sin, the original sin in which we all participate as humanity corrupts how humans relate to one another.
He notes two basic errors in viewing the church: 1) as a religious community and 2) as the kingdom of God. A religious community is individuals choosing to work together for some goal. The church in contrast is chosen by God. The second failure ignore the empirical historical nature of the church. It is bound to history. In essence, the church is a historical community established by God.
Unique among religions, the idea of community is integral to Christianity. And this community can only be understood through revelation. The New Testament show that the church is where Christ is. He dislikes using the concept of organism for the Church as it tends to subsume the individuals. The church is individuals serving one another.
The Holy Spirit establishes and maintains the church. He works to establish the new humanity that the church works toward. He notes that Jesus didn‘t found the church, it was founded by the Holy Spirit. The disciples were not a church. Jesus is the foundation of the church, the historical reality that gave birth to the church. The church is not the kingdom, but aims toward it.
The Word is the key binder of the church. The Spirit is tied to the word and the community not to atomistic individuals. Unmediated spirit would dissolve the church. The spirit works only through the church and there is no relation to the spirit apart from the church. Yet the spirit leads each individual. Everyone in the church has the whole entire Spirit for themselves.
The spirit enable a person to see other members not as a duty or claim but as a gift. We know love solely from God‘s love manifested in Christ. Christian love is not humanitarianism, it demands we give up all claims on God and our neighbour. Love does not help for any other end but need.
The community exists fundamentally for God‘s sake. God desires the community. The community touched by God‘s spirit radiate love and grace. Members exist with each other and for each other. We belong to the church, we owe our life to it. The community of saint (communion sanctorum) lives out in service to each other, work for the neighbour, prayer and forgiving sin in God‘s name. If you are a member of the church, your prayer is necessary for all members. And it is a mistake to rely only on ones own prayer. To the extent that we doubt the value of others intercession, we are filled with self righteousness. The church bears each other’s burdens.
A Christian comes into being and exists only in Christ‘s church community. One body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, but not one theology, not one kind of conduct and one opinion on all matters. Unity is not unification.
The church exists in history and is at the center of world history, but the community of saints is also a community of sinners and will remain so. The character of the church can be different in a different historical time. Historical context matters. As God revelation takes place in history and thus has hidden elements. The empirical, historical church always has dead members, but also is the womb for the realm of God.
The church is the means of faith, it is where we receive faith, it is where the Sprit dispense his gifts. It is not a community of kindred spirits like an affinity club. The church binds together the stranger with the Love of God which sustains the community. Through it I can have confidence in God‘s grace. Confidence of faith does not arise in solitude. And only in faith is the church perceived. “Our age is not short on experiences, but on faith. But only faith creates a genuine experience of the church“
The Church is not opposed to the world, the struggle for good and evil runs through both. The realm of God includes not only the church the the entire world.
That is just a quick summary that doesn‘t begin to do justice to this fantastic work the examines the sociology and theology of the church.
This was Bonhoeffers dissertation, and one would guess it is painfully theoretical and overly technical. Although it is a bit technical, especially with regards to the use of some Hegelian concepts like objective spirit, it is, as a whole, very readable. He writes in a clear and linear manner (in contrast to Karl Barth). His thoughts are always well reasoned.
He begins with a look as what is the Christian concept of a person. One can‘t understand a community without knowing what a person is. Main point is that a person doens‘t exist without a relationship. There is only an `I` if there is a `You`. And a Christian understanding of a person must grapple with the broken state of history. Things are not as they should be.
Then he moves on to the community. He derives the concept of a collective person. The person of the community, i.e. the community is a person with its own will and `spirit`. Not in the sense that the individual is lost in the community. The individual and the community live in dialectic. The individual only exists in community, but the community only exists with individual members.
He then distinguishes a community from a mass. A community has an intent, and a relatively unified communal will. A mass can have individuals with the same intent, but without social bonding. Only in a community is the will for each other, not just for the purpose. Communities have reciprocally. Communities have conflict of wills which results in cooperation of wills. A mass can create a powerful experience of unity, but in a mass individuality is lost. He also distinguishes a community from a society in that a community has a personal character whereas as society does not.
He then goes on to describe how sin impairs the community. The communal sin, the original sin in which we all participate as humanity corrupts how humans relate to one another.
He notes two basic errors in viewing the church: 1) as a religious community and 2) as the kingdom of God. A religious community is individuals choosing to work together for some goal. The church in contrast is chosen by God. The second failure ignore the empirical historical nature of the church. It is bound to history. In essence, the church is a historical community established by God.
Unique among religions, the idea of community is integral to Christianity. And this community can only be understood through revelation. The New Testament show that the church is where Christ is. He dislikes using the concept of organism for the Church as it tends to subsume the individuals. The church is individuals serving one another.
The Holy Spirit establishes and maintains the church. He works to establish the new humanity that the church works toward. He notes that Jesus didn‘t found the church, it was founded by the Holy Spirit. The disciples were not a church. Jesus is the foundation of the church, the historical reality that gave birth to the church. The church is not the kingdom, but aims toward it.
The Word is the key binder of the church. The Spirit is tied to the word and the community not to atomistic individuals. Unmediated spirit would dissolve the church. The spirit works only through the church and there is no relation to the spirit apart from the church. Yet the spirit leads each individual. Everyone in the church has the whole entire Spirit for themselves.
The spirit enable a person to see other members not as a duty or claim but as a gift. We know love solely from God‘s love manifested in Christ. Christian love is not humanitarianism, it demands we give up all claims on God and our neighbour. Love does not help for any other end but need.
The community exists fundamentally for God‘s sake. God desires the community. The community touched by God‘s spirit radiate love and grace. Members exist with each other and for each other. We belong to the church, we owe our life to it. The community of saint (communion sanctorum) lives out in service to each other, work for the neighbour, prayer and forgiving sin in God‘s name. If you are a member of the church, your prayer is necessary for all members. And it is a mistake to rely only on ones own prayer. To the extent that we doubt the value of others intercession, we are filled with self righteousness. The church bears each other’s burdens.
A Christian comes into being and exists only in Christ‘s church community. One body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, but not one theology, not one kind of conduct and one opinion on all matters. Unity is not unification.
The church exists in history and is at the center of world history, but the community of saints is also a community of sinners and will remain so. The character of the church can be different in a different historical time. Historical context matters. As God revelation takes place in history and thus has hidden elements. The empirical, historical church always has dead members, but also is the womb for the realm of God.
The church is the means of faith, it is where we receive faith, it is where the Sprit dispense his gifts. It is not a community of kindred spirits like an affinity club. The church binds together the stranger with the Love of God which sustains the community. Through it I can have confidence in God‘s grace. Confidence of faith does not arise in solitude. And only in faith is the church perceived. “Our age is not short on experiences, but on faith. But only faith creates a genuine experience of the church“
The Church is not opposed to the world, the struggle for good and evil runs through both. The realm of God includes not only the church the the entire world.
That is just a quick summary that doesn‘t begin to do justice to this fantastic work the examines the sociology and theology of the church.
jakethurston's review against another edition
4.0
Boy. This was a heady read. although I only understood about 40% of what Bonhoeffer was getting at, that 40% was ASTOUNDING. The language he puts to articulating an ecclesiology of the church being the physical manifestation of Christ on earth is breath taking. The dichotomy of God judging us as distinct individuals but yet are a part of a collective entity as church-community was definitely a mind bender, but so good. But above all, my favorite of Bonhoeffer’s thoughts in this foundational work is how God’s Holy Spirit strictly works through the Church. In a world today that thinks they can be a Christian and not be a part of the Church, Bonhoeffer’s words ring truer than ever.
nate_s's review against another edition
5.0
Easily the most important book on the subject of the church that I've ever read. Maybe that I will ever read. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's doctoral thesis, written at age 21 or so, is the foundation for much of his later work such as Life Together the latter section of Discipleship. There's also some pretty fascinating resemblance to Martin Buber's I And Thou, published a few years before, but I don't know if Bonhoeffer was aware of Buber's work.
I'm happy to report that Sanctorum Communio is not as dense and impenetrable as his second dissertation, Act and Being, that short but daunting volume of which I understood about 15% (still rated it 5 stars because what I did understand was hugely profound). Surprisingly readable, Sanctorum Communio's central idea is an explanation of "Christ existing as church-community;" or 'theological sociology.' He explores the startling idea of an "individual collective" and how communities function and are seen by God as a single person, with each individual member bearing out the responsibility of the whole in some way, yet never losing their identity or accountability as individual persons.
Under the subheading "Major themes in the New Testament view of the church," Bonhoeffer makes these points, which probably provide the best summary of the book:
1. The Christian concept of ekklesia [church] is the fulfillment of the Jewish concept of [assembly].
2. The church community exists through Christ's action...It has been created in a real sense only by the death of Christ.
3. Paul repeatedly identifies Christ and the church-community.
4. Connected with this thought [#3] is the idea of the church-community as a collective personality, which again can be called Christ.
5. The church is the presence of Christ in the same way that Christ is the presence of God. The New Testament knows a form of revelation, 'Christ existing as church-community'.
6. This is the meaning of Paul's indicative "you are the body of Christ," which refers to the concrete, individual congregation.
7. The church is visible as a corporate social body in worship and working-for-each-other.
8. (paraphrasing) Key passages in 1 Cor 12 and Rom 12 speak of Christ's church as if it "exists only through Christ 'above' and 'before' all individuals."
Bonhoeffer is careful not to speak of 'Jesus Christ' and 'Christ as church-community' as coterminous (covering the exact same ground or meaning), but he goes much, much farther in identifying the church with Christ than most moderns are comfortable with, or even aware is possible. It's really quite breathtaking. When I discovered this idea in Discipleship (in Part 2, after the point where most people quit, including me on my first two readings), it fairly blew my mind. It's nowhere near what most of us are used to. It's got phenomenal implications for how churches function in the world, starting with their self-understanding.
I would really love to find a Bonhoeffer interpreter in the present who takes this matter up and explores it a bit more, given that Bonhoeffer's life was cut short. A lot of scholars and biographers seem to be most interested in his intensity of commitment and obedience, his imprisonment, his participation in the plot to kill Hitler, and his martyrdom. All fascinating stuff, but ultimately I find his ecclesiology the most important and compelling thing about Bonhoeffer, and the thing the world (and church) needs most from him right now. Sanctorum Communio should be required reading for anyone interested in this subject- the nature and purpose of the church.
I'm happy to report that Sanctorum Communio is not as dense and impenetrable as his second dissertation, Act and Being, that short but daunting volume of which I understood about 15% (still rated it 5 stars because what I did understand was hugely profound). Surprisingly readable, Sanctorum Communio's central idea is an explanation of "Christ existing as church-community;" or 'theological sociology.' He explores the startling idea of an "individual collective" and how communities function and are seen by God as a single person, with each individual member bearing out the responsibility of the whole in some way, yet never losing their identity or accountability as individual persons.
Under the subheading "Major themes in the New Testament view of the church," Bonhoeffer makes these points, which probably provide the best summary of the book:
1. The Christian concept of ekklesia [church] is the fulfillment of the Jewish concept of [assembly].
2. The church community exists through Christ's action...It has been created in a real sense only by the death of Christ.
3. Paul repeatedly identifies Christ and the church-community.
4. Connected with this thought [#3] is the idea of the church-community as a collective personality, which again can be called Christ.
5. The church is the presence of Christ in the same way that Christ is the presence of God. The New Testament knows a form of revelation, 'Christ existing as church-community'.
6. This is the meaning of Paul's indicative "you are the body of Christ," which refers to the concrete, individual congregation.
7. The church is visible as a corporate social body in worship and working-for-each-other.
8. (paraphrasing) Key passages in 1 Cor 12 and Rom 12 speak of Christ's church as if it "exists only through Christ 'above' and 'before' all individuals."
Bonhoeffer is careful not to speak of 'Jesus Christ' and 'Christ as church-community' as coterminous (covering the exact same ground or meaning), but he goes much, much farther in identifying the church with Christ than most moderns are comfortable with, or even aware is possible. It's really quite breathtaking. When I discovered this idea in Discipleship (in Part 2, after the point where most people quit, including me on my first two readings), it fairly blew my mind. It's nowhere near what most of us are used to. It's got phenomenal implications for how churches function in the world, starting with their self-understanding.
I would really love to find a Bonhoeffer interpreter in the present who takes this matter up and explores it a bit more, given that Bonhoeffer's life was cut short. A lot of scholars and biographers seem to be most interested in his intensity of commitment and obedience, his imprisonment, his participation in the plot to kill Hitler, and his martyrdom. All fascinating stuff, but ultimately I find his ecclesiology the most important and compelling thing about Bonhoeffer, and the thing the world (and church) needs most from him right now. Sanctorum Communio should be required reading for anyone interested in this subject- the nature and purpose of the church.
gingerhelen's review against another edition
4.0
A complex read but well worth the trouble for those interested in reflecting on ecclesiology. Bonhoeffer’s reflections on the church-community both challenge and inspire and, as a church leader have given me much to reflect on. Having read it for an essay, I am looking forward to returning to this txt and being able to take my time with it.
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