The Ministry of Listening (Or: Just Listen)

(This is a re-blog from January 2010) Among the countless other excellent passages in Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer is his section under "Ministry" (Christian Service; p. 97-99).  I'm especially thinking of his notes on how Christians should listen to one another.  This piggybacks from what Adam McHugh noted (in Introverts in the Church) about …

Bonhoeffer On the Christian Life: A Review

I recently found out about (and read) Stephen Nichols’ book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and theology called Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, for the World (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013).  At just over 200 pages, it is quite a bit shorter and more accessible than Metaxas’ similar book.  In fact, there is a lot …

Bonhoeffer and Barth

 Sections like this in Bonhoeffer’s writings always make me wonder how much Barth influenced him; they also make me hesitate to think of and speak of Bonhoeffer as an evangelical in the present day sense of the term.  Here’s the section found on pages 194 & 197 of his Ethics: “The Christian ethic speaks in …

Quotes on Listening (II)

 This is a slightly edited repost from November, 2010. Studying James 1.19-25 this week led me to think long and hard about the virtue of good listening - specifically listening to God's Word (1:22; cf Ecc. 5.1-2, Prov 10.19, etc).  It is so hard to be a good listener in our noisy and entertainment-driven culture …

Bonhoeffer and Biography

 A short while ago, here on this blog, I posted a few fairly critical comments of Eric Metaxas' bibliography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (HERE and HERE).  My main criticism of Metaxas' work is that it casts Bonhoeffer in an American, conservative, patriotic, evangelical mold.  A secondary critique I have is that Metaxas isn't exactly accurate in …