BradTaylor

Bonhoeffer: Chapter 8

The eighth chapter chronicles Bonhoeffer’s return to Berlin and his time there as a lecturer. Formative events occurred during this season, including Bonhoeffer’s introduction to Karl Barth, who would become a friend. Bonhoeffer also wrote prophetically during this time that he felt [the Germans] were standing at a tremendous turning point in world history,” that something was about to happen. Indeed, Hitler would ultimately be running for president (even though he was born in Austria and was legally ineligible), and the world was about to change drastically.

This chapter also details a significant change in Bonhoeffer’s life, what some believe may have been his salvation experience. He began teaching memorable about studying the Bible, not just as a theology student, but as a disciple of Jesus. Some of his teachings:

• Once one saw clearly what the Word of God said, one would have to act on it and its implications, such as they were.
• When you read the Bible, you must think that here and now God is speaking with me
• Read the Bible as though it were directed at you, as the Word of God directly to you
• Jesus did not only communicate ideas and concepts and rules and principles for living. He lived!
• To be a Christian, one must live with Christians. (This would be the concept that would form into his terrific book Life Together.)
• Every day I consider a text which I have chosen for the whole week, and try to sink deeply into it, so as to really hear what it is saying. I know that without this I could not properly live any longer.

Do you apply any of these principles to your Bible study?