''The Cost of Discipleship'' is a book by the German theologian
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have ...
, considered to be a classic of Christian thought. The original German title is simply ("the act of following"). It is centered on an exposition of the
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is ...
, in which Bonhoeffer spells out what he believes it means to follow Christ. The book was first published in 1937, when the rise of the
Nazi regime
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
was underway in Germany. It was against this background that Bonhoeffer's theology of costly discipleship developed, which ultimately led to his death.
Summary
One of the most quoted parts of the book deals with the distinction which Bonhoeffer makes between "cheap" and "costly"
grace
Grace may refer to:
Places United States
* Grace, Idaho, a city
* Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois
* Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office
* Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...
. According to Bonhoeffer,
Cheap grace, Bonhoeffer says, is to hear the gospel preached as follows: "Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship. In contrast to costly grace,
Bonhoeffer argues that as
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
spread, the Church became more "secularised", accommodating the demands of obedience to
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
to the requirements of society. In this way, "the world was Christianised, and grace became its common property." But the hazard of this was that the
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
was cheapened, and obedience to the living Christ was gradually lost beneath formula and ritual, so that in the end, grace could literally be sold for monetary gain.
But all the time, within the church, there had been a living protest against this process: the
monastic
Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...
movement. This served as a "place where the older vision was kept alive." Unfortunately, "monasticism was represented as an individual achievement which the mass of the laity could not be expected to emulate"; the commandments of Jesus were limited to "a restricted group of specialists" and a double standard arose: "a maximum and a minimum standard of church obedience." This was dangerous, Bonhoeffer says, because whenever the church was accused of being too worldly, it could always point to monasticism as "the opportunity of a higher standard within the fold - and thus justify the other possibility of a lower standard for others." So the monastic movement, instead of serving as a pointer for all Christians, became a justification for the status quo.
Bonhoeffer remarks how this was rectified by
Luther
Luther may refer to:
People
* Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement
* Luther (give ...
at the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
, when he brought Christianity "out of the cloister." However, he thinks that subsequent generations have again cheapened the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, and this has seriously weakened the
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
: "The price we are having to pay today in the shape of the collapse of the organised church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost. We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale, we baptised, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation without condition. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving... But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard."
Influence
Eberhard Bethge
Eberhard Bethge (August 28, 1909 – March 18, 2000) was a German theologian and pastor, best known for being the close friend and biographer of the theologian and anti-Nazi Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Early life
Bethge was born in Rosenau (Branden ...
has argued that Bonhoeffer's writings, which culminated in the ''Ethics'' and ''Letters and Papers from Prison'', form a seamless continuity, stretching back at least as far as ''The Cost of Discipleship''.
Unlike Bonhoeffer's later writings, ''The Cost of Discipleship'' has been widely read by both conservative and liberal Christians and is still read and quoted today.
The term "cheap grace" was coined by The
Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., then-pastor of
Abyssinian Baptist Church
The Abyssinian Baptist Church is a Baptist megachurch located at 132 West 138th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, affiliated with the National Baptist Conv ...
in Harlem, NY. Bonhoeffer attended the church when at
Union Theological Seminary, and for a season taught Sunday School there. Bonhoeffer benefited from the protest culture of the African American church and gleaned from it social gospel elements that he would take with him back to Germany. The anti-temporal power ethic would aid him to resist the Nazi regime.
The notion of cheap grace has been used by
Mike Lofgren Mike Lofgren is an American author and a former Republican U.S. Congressional aide. He retired in May 2011 after 28 years as a Congressional staff member. His writings, critical of politics in the United States, particularly the Republican Party, w ...
to criticize the increasing dominance of the
Christian right
The Christian right, or the religious right, are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with t ...
over the
Republican Party coupled with what he saw as an increasing disregard within the party for other values:
Similarly, Katelyn Beaty of ''
Christianity Today
''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evange ...
'' warned against the Christian use of cheap grace in excusing powerful men guilty of sexual assault.
[Beaty, Katelyn.]
"The Mistake Christians Made in Defending Bill O’Reilly."
''New York Times''. 2 May 2017. 2 May 2017.
References
Bibliography
* Bethge, Eberhard. ''Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Man of Vision, Man of Courage.'' New York: Harper & Row, 1970. BX 4827.B57B43
* Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. ''The Cost of Discipleship.'' New York: Macmillan, 1966. BT 380.B66 1966
* Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Eberhard Bethge, ed. ''Ethics.'' New York: Macmillan, 1955. BJ 1253.B615 1955a
* Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Eberhard Bethge ed. ''Letters and Papers from Prison.'' New York: Macmillan, 1972, c1971. BX 4827.B57A43 1972a
* De Gruchy, John W. ''The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.'' New York: Cambridge University press, 1999. BX4827.B57C36 1999
* Feil, Ernst. ''The Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.'' Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985. BX 4827.B57F4413 1985
* Floyd, Wayne Whitson Jr., ed. ''Theology and the Practice of Responsibility: Essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.'' Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1994. BX 4827.B57T47 1994
* Woelfel, James W. ''Bonhoeffer’s Theology: Classical and Revolutionary.'' Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970. BX 4827.B57W6 1970
* Clingan, Ralph Garlin. "Against Cheap Grace in a World Come of Age." Peter Lang Publishing Co. 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cost of Discipleship, The
1937 books
Christian radicalism
Christian theology books
Works by Dietrich Bonhoeffer