books:

	The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer Touchstone, 1995 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 88 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."

The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.

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A manifesto of love from the beyond

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "The Cost of Discipleship" is the kind of book so fundamental to the daily challenges of our lives as followers of Christ that one might compare it to cold water in the long, winding desert of 21st century civilization.

Bonhoeffer knew that very few Christians actually knew what it meant to claim allegiance to God, or to Christian values: how unforgivingly opposed the world has been and always will be to true Christianity.
After all, it rejects social mores and the tenets of the world for selfless love, which seems unnatural on the face of it. His distinction between Cheap Grace and Costly Grace is perhaps the most vital part of the book, though the whole text is necessary down to the last letter. Being a Christian means sharing in Christ's life, not attending Church once or twice a week: it means opposing institutional evil--as Bonhoeffer did at the cost of his own basic human needs and eventually his own life in Nazi Germany--right down to one's last breath. This does not mean that the Christian can never have joy or relaxation, of course; it simply means that Christ's edict of love takes place over all else. The person new to theology may want to start with something else, however, as Bonhoeffer is speaking to those who have reached the point of Christ being pretty much the center of their lives. There's nothing that can be said about Bonhoeffer or this book which would match what it holds between it's covers. A must, must read!

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"The Cost of Discipleship" - Relevant as Ever

If Bonhoeffer were alive today and commenting on the American Church of 2008 instead of the German Church of the 1930s, all he would have to add is an appendix on the ascendancy of entertainment. Nothing -- nothing -- else would have to change. His scathing review of the complacency and spiritual poverty of the average Christian points a relevant finger at all of us, especially evangelicals who call themselves followers of The Way and live like followers of their appetites.


Cheap grace - same old heresy it always was

It is enlightening and encouraging that such a book could be penned by one of the great Lutherans of the 20th century. It goes counter to the common understanding of what is meant by "faith alone" among many Christians from Protestant traditions. Faith alone cannot be confused with what Bonhoeffer called "easy believism." If it is, then it is really no faith at all. The apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, uses the words obedience and faith as if synonymous (see Romans 1:5 and 16:26) . Faith alone that does not necessarily involve obedience is no faith at all - and so even the great Catholic theologian now Pope, Josef Ratzinger, can admire and quote the great Lutheran, Bonhoeffer as an example for all Christians. One is also reminded of a like mind in the American Evangelical, A. W. Tozer and his great work, I Call It Heresy. Given the works of Protestants such as Bonhoeffer and Tozer, one has to beg the question, why do we remain divided over "faith alone?" The differences are likely not so great as we might think. By the definition of "faith" provided by St. Paul, Bonhoeffer, and Tozer, one might include that Catholics and these Protestants agree that salvation is indeed by such "faith alone." Anything less is simply the same old heresy.

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Essential reading for Christians

This work deserves monumental status in the realm of Christian devotional literature. It challenges and redefines the popular notions of equating Christianity with being an adherent or church-goer. Bonhoeffer presents a very real, daunting picture of what a true Christian looks like. There are several haunting, powerful phrases and images in this book. The author's credibility is heightened by his own story of sacrifice, risk, danger and death (the introduction gives a beautiful summary). This book is sure to have a profound impact on all who take its words to heart. Highly recommended.

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Christianity without cost doesn't exist!

A Christian classic, The Cost of Discipleship is filled with countless gems of wisdom that run counter to the prevailing winds today that market the Christian life as one of ease and comfort. The book is not an easy read, but it is an encouraging and is probably more valuable for Christians today than even during Bonhoeffer's own time. The book is more than a call to costly discipleship, Bonhoeffer also dives into the Sermon on the Mount giving incredible insight in to the teachings of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew and also various aspects of the Christian life and the role of the Church. But the first couple of chapters of the book are worth the entire read. Bonhoeffer's radical discipleship can probably best be summarized in his famous line, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." We see far too little of Bonhoeffer's commitment and dedication to the denial of self, taking up one's cross and following Christ...The Cost of Discipleship reminds those who follow Christ that sharing in His sufferings is the mark of a believer!

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