This lunchtime, as I sat under a weak sun munching on peanut butter and jam sandwiches, I finished the final passages of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, 'Life Together'. My conclusions are thus:
a. He's a pretty smart bloke
b. It's a beautifully Christo-centric look at life, community and growth
c. This sphere of thinking has greatly inflenced my sub-family within the Christian Church
Reading Bonheoffer's words brought into sharp focus the reasoning behind many values and aspirations I'm very familiar with. (Not that we have perfectly attained them!) It's a book I have imediately decided I want to share and re-read. I love how he considers community life, and keeps it firmly focussed on living for Jesus and serving each other. His words, though first published around 60 years ago, are incredibly relevant and challenging to the individualistic and self-gratifying culture we live in.
I highly recommend reading this short but meaty text; it's written with a wonderful heart even if the translation and contextualisation of some of his ideas made me smile. I've ordered a copy of his other famous work 'The Cost of Discipleship' so it's likely he'll be making another appearance in my great reading challenge of 2011. (Speaking of which, I'm slowly catching up with my target - hurrah!)