The Cost Of Discipleship, By Bonhoeffer

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Passivity in Bonhoeffer’s “The Cost of Discipleship (Nachfolge)” –resistance through obedience

In this paper I survey that resistance and passivity can never be separated in Bonhoeffer’s “The Cost of Discipleship (Nachfolge)”. In this book Bonhoeffer regards that obedience to Christ means to leave “the world” and to reject all things except Jesus Christ. For him “the world” means demand for assimilation and totalization which destroy Christianity. These come from self-positing. So Christ compels a man to rise above himself. When a man is isolated from “the world”, he is entered into obedience to Christ, that is to say into the community with Christ. This community is church. In church each Christian is connected to Christ through his passion

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