Friday, December 3, 2010

No joke, this was my waking thought -

That Dietrich Bonhoeffer's tirade against 'cheap' grace, and love of 'costly' grace, is more a reflection on Bonhoeffer's typically german character than it is an insight into the truth of Christianity. I mean, come on, Germans love order, discipline and sacrifice so much. Bonhoeffer just directed these desires towards his religion.
So, you can keep all that Diets, cause the truth is, grace is kind of cheap. free even.

4 comments:

Mark said...

Maybe I have a Teutonic theological bent myself, but it seems to me that Bonhoeffer, a preacher not an evangelist, is speaking the truth established Christians need to hear, whereas you are speaking the truth non-Christians need to hear.

Also, I'm scandalously ill-read in DB, so I can't claim to really understand the cheap grace/costly grace dichotomy.

Ben Jefferies said...

yes - the point of 'who was his audience' is a very important one. As always (damn you!) i concede that I have over-spoken and mis-represented the case.

haha. every time.
can you post something so I can criticize? pleeeaaasse?

ps. my favorite DB anecdote, which Zac pointed out to me one time - is that, in his collected letters, he often signs off with some pauline benediction (you know - 'grace and peace be with you all' etc) and then adds, 'ps. please send more cigarettes'.
love it.

Ben Jefferies said...

also - nice use of 'teutonic'

Zac said...

. . . and please, for the love of God, send more cigarettes.