Chapter 5, “Discipleship and the Individual”
Beginning from Luke 14;26, bonhoeffer describes Jesus’ call. He maintains that Jesus’ call to deny our families indicates we come to Jesus as individuals. We are called individually, not in community, so we are isolated in order to fix our eyes solely on Jesus. This makes a radical change in life and cuts the ties to this world. We need Jesus as our mediator and cannot look to anything in our world as a substitute. Our relationship with God the Father and with other people, then, is mediated by Jesus.
Bonhoeffer admits that not all people leave all their goods behind. he alleges Abraham as a rare and unusual case, because he left everything behind when God called him.
Do we live out the Christian life alone? Bonhoeffer says we don’t as we are given the church as our visible brotherhood.
I continue to get a mixed signal from Bonhoeffer. It seems here we are to leave all community, yet at the same time embrace the community of the Church. One wonders what he thinks serves as a means to call people to faith in Christ.
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