Reflecting With Bonhoeffer: Learning to Be #TrulyHuman from the Son of God
What do you think? Dietrich Bonhoeffer once asked another pastor what he wanted to do with his life – the young Frenchman parson said – “I wish to become a saint.” At first Bonhoeffer was impressed with this answer, but came to question it later. The tendency of Christians seeking enlightenment, holiness, growth – even sainthood – is to withdraw, to become inward, to transcend the world to achieve deeper communion with the God in heaven. + In 1944, Bonhoeffer sat in prison pondering this conversation that happened a decade earlier in his life. The question about what it means to be a Christian continued to preoccupy his thoughts, and common Christian answers (e.g., being more “religious”) came to disturb him more and more. When Christians seek to be “religious,” they are open to the temptation of arrogance, Bonhoeffer comments in his letters to his friend Eberhard Bethge. Or, religiosity leads to despair when one fails, he adds. + As Bonhoeffer ...