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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
Extremely boring at first. Took a hot sec to get into this book. But once we got there, I was BLOWN AWAY. This is one of the greatest theological books that I’ve read. Towards the end, I started highlighting full sections. So much beauty and truth in the writing. Scripture was baked into and formed the entirety of the book. Major focus on the Sermon on the Mount.
Some (of the many) highlighted goodies:
pg. 55 “It is becoming clearer every day that the most urgent problem besetting our Church is this: How can we live the Christian life in the modern world?”
pg. 64 “For faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.”
pg. “Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey.”
pg. “Only by knowing Christ as the Giver and Fulfiller of the law can we attain to a true knowledge of the law.”
pg. 166 “God’s names, God’s kingdom, God’s will must be the primary object or Christian prayer”
pg 176 “We are confronted by an “either—or”: either we love God, or we love earthly goods. If we love God, we hate the world, and if we love the world, we hate God.”
Some (of the many) highlighted goodies:
pg. 55 “It is becoming clearer every day that the most urgent problem besetting our Church is this: How can we live the Christian life in the modern world?”
pg. 64 “For faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.”
pg. “Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey.”
pg. “Only by knowing Christ as the Giver and Fulfiller of the law can we attain to a true knowledge of the law.”
pg. 166 “God’s names, God’s kingdom, God’s will must be the primary object or Christian prayer”
pg 176 “We are confronted by an “either—or”: either we love God, or we love earthly goods. If we love God, we hate the world, and if we love the world, we hate God.”
One of the most fantastic works of Theology for the layperson I've ever read. Bonhoeffer distinctly distinguishes the Church of Jesus Christ from the world - Suffering, quiet endurance of hardship, purity, holiness, meekness, prayer, sins of judging, pride, covetousness, etc...Bonhoeffer brings his readers along paths of the fundamentals a Christian must confess. But after that, he just goes deeper, and deeper, and deeper. He does open his book a comparison between cheap Grace and costly Grace that just hits you in the face. His message isn't soft. Sadly, what he wrote about cheap Grace is currently happening in so many churches now.
Dying to the world to be alive in Jesus Christ. Dying to the world to find freedom in being a slave to Jesus Christ. Anything holy and pure that we aspire, think, and act comes only from God. We are nothing. God's Grace is everything. Jesus Christ dying on the Cross means everything to me - whether in studies, in my social life, in my church life - everything. We, members of the Church, thus the Body of Jesus Christ will and must always wage war against the world. But we will have no victory over this war save for the peculiar exercise of Love, of which God bestowed upon us, that we may be the salt and light of the Earth, not pointing to our own virtuous piety, but pointing everything back to Jesus Christ. He is and can be the only Rock on which we stand on.
This book has really revealed to me so many hidden wondrous secrets of Christ's words. Ultimately, we, humans, in all our pride and glory that we think we are, are nothing. Only when we really by Jesus Christ crucify ourselves to the world, and the world to us, can we be true disciples of God.
"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” That is the true cost of discipleship.
Dying to the world to be alive in Jesus Christ. Dying to the world to find freedom in being a slave to Jesus Christ. Anything holy and pure that we aspire, think, and act comes only from God. We are nothing. God's Grace is everything. Jesus Christ dying on the Cross means everything to me - whether in studies, in my social life, in my church life - everything. We, members of the Church, thus the Body of Jesus Christ will and must always wage war against the world. But we will have no victory over this war save for the peculiar exercise of Love, of which God bestowed upon us, that we may be the salt and light of the Earth, not pointing to our own virtuous piety, but pointing everything back to Jesus Christ. He is and can be the only Rock on which we stand on.
This book has really revealed to me so many hidden wondrous secrets of Christ's words. Ultimately, we, humans, in all our pride and glory that we think we are, are nothing. Only when we really by Jesus Christ crucify ourselves to the world, and the world to us, can we be true disciples of God.
"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” That is the true cost of discipleship.
This is one of the classics by an important Christian theologian, and we're all 'supposed' to find it remarkable or insightful. I just found it difficult to read, because it seems to me that he is repeating himself an awful lot through it. If this was condensed to 1/6 of its size, I think I would have read it properly rather than skimming through it. Then I could have enjoyed an imaginary debate with him, as there are some things I agree with, and some things I don't.
Intrigued with his exposition of the Gospels and inversely repelled by his exposition of the Epistles.
Round to 3.5.
This book was heavy in its writing. Not an easy read. Many new words that I had to look up. It took me back to my SATs in high school, lol.
The later chapters seemed redundant at times. I was starting to get tired of the writing format, with the page long paragraphs in each chapter.
I’m new to philosophy and religion books. I’m interested in reading more books of this genre. But this book got really good reviews, which I didn’t necessarily share, which makes me nervous about dedicating time to another book of the same stalk.
This book was heavy in its writing. Not an easy read. Many new words that I had to look up. It took me back to my SATs in high school, lol.
The later chapters seemed redundant at times. I was starting to get tired of the writing format, with the page long paragraphs in each chapter.
I’m new to philosophy and religion books. I’m interested in reading more books of this genre. But this book got really good reviews, which I didn’t necessarily share, which makes me nervous about dedicating time to another book of the same stalk.
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
now it has taken me a HOT minute to finish this book. Even though i had it on audible! I would say overall this is a tremendously helpful resource to give tactical tools to this active pursuit of sanctification.
BUT at times it was hard to trudge through the complexities that Dietrich was presenting chapter by chapter.
I did enjoy this book overall & hope that one day I do read it again because this seems like a book that could be a continuous wealth of knowledge all the days of my life. But man am i happy to finally get to mark this book as read :)
“the disciple looks solely at his master but when a man follows Jesus Christ and bears the image of the incarnate crucified & risen Lord, when he has become the image of God: we may at last say that he has been called to be the imitator of God. The follower of Jesus is the imitator of God. ‘Be ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children ephesians 5:1’”