Bonhoeffer & Blankets

I don't know a lot about Dietrich Bonhoeffer beyond the basic story of him being a German theologian/pastor and being a part of an attempt to assassinate Hitler and dying for the cause. I have read Life Together more than once as part of Bible studies wanting to talk about community and wondered at the implications of taking such a strict view of community as he does... lifted from an Amazon review: ...community finds its origin and existence only in Christ and in what *Christ* has done to each believer. He emphasizes that Christian community is not an ideal to be worked towards, but rather a divine reality; which differentiates this work from most other works on community which focus on how to "make community happen."

This is the 100th anniversary of his birth, thus he's been in the news and neighborhood more recently e.g. nearby Union Theological Seminary is having a special celebration. I read an article this morning about him on Boundless (www.boundless.org) and was struck by the parts that were direct quotes from his writing. I think I'd like to read more...

On the response of the church to the German state:

[T]here are three possible ways in which the church can act toward the state: the first place, as has been said, it can ask the state whether its actions are legitimate and accordance with its character as state; i.e., it can throw the state back on its responsibility. Second, it can aid the victims of any ordering of society, even if they do not belong to Christian community — "Do good to all people." In both these courses of action, the church serves the free state in its free way, and at times when laws are changed the church may in no way withdraw itself from these two tasks. The third possibility is not just to bandage the victims under the wheel, but to jam a spoke in the wheel itself.

On marriage being not jut a personal thing:

Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal — it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As you gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.

Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher power, for it is God's holy ordinance, through which He wills to perpetuate the human race until the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to His glory, and calls into His kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and all mankind.

Something else I've read recently and really enjoyed (and as my friends know, I rave rarely...):



Blankets by Craig Thompson - It's about a teenager going through life, falling in love, and struggling with his place and faith. I just felt like it was a very honest, moving, amazing drawn graphic novel. While the author/main character doesn't stay with the faith, I appreciate the way the author (semi-autobiographical) portrays the role faith and scripture played in his life (makes you wish he was shown a more nuanced view of Christianity though).

My verse this week is Romans 8:28...I'm really starting to feel my level of stress increasing as I feel more and more pressed for time this semester trying to finish my dissertation, etc. It's a good reminder that even though I have to go through this that God will use it for his good purpose in my life and perhaps even in the lives of others.