| Title | : | Sanctorum Communio: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 1 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0800683013 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780800683016 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 392 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1930 |
Here is offered the complete text in translation, annotated by the German and American editors. The historical context is explained and textual commentary is provided in a Foreword and Afterword.
Sanctorum Communio: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 1 Reviews
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I wrote in my review of Bonhoeffer's Ethics that it would probably take another reading to be able to fully grasp what he was trying to say in the book. The same is true for Sanctorum Communio but instead of needing one reread, I think it might take two or three.
It's a challenging book to be sure, especially in its early chapters, but it's also more than worth it. Bonhoeffer writes with a high ecclesiology, something that many Christians today lack. For a book that's 80+ years old, it's shocking how relevant this is. For any Christian who is asking why church matters, Bonhoeffer's book provides essential answers. Highly recommended -
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an important figure within the Confessing Church in Germany during the time of the Nazi regime of the 1930s. Many of his works are well known to include The Cost of Discipleship and Ethics. Fortress Press has released a collection of the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer beginning with his dissertation on the role of the believer in society as well as within the church. This particular work is titled Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church.
Originally completed by Bonhoeffer in 1927 and published in 1930, this work provides the reader with valuable insight into the perspective of Bonhoeffer on a number of subjects related to sin, death, collective guilt and spirit as well as how the Holy Spirit works within the church. All of these topic are addressed within the framework of what those subjects mean in relation to issues of authority, eschatology, freedom, and church functions.
There is much to enjoy in the pages of this dissertation but one must be aware that it is a scholarly work and thus reads as such. Those not familiar with reading dissertations might be a bit taken aback by the voluminous amount of footnotes. With that said, the footnotes in a scholarly style work often contain just as much if not more valuable information to read and study than the text itself. In the case of this particular dissertation, I submit that is truly the case and it speaks to the amount of study and effort Bonhoeffer put into this work.
For Bonhoeffer, there was no such thing as a believer living outside the bounds of Christian community. He rightly claims “the nature of the church can only be understood from within, cum ira et studio [with passionate zeal], never by nonparticipants. Only those who take the claim of the church seriously – not relativizing it in relation to other similar claims of their own rationality, but viewing it from the standpoint of the gospel – can possibly glimpse something of its true nature.” It is this underlying concept of community and how it shapes the believers role within the church and society as a whole for which Bonhoeffer spend this work unpacking.
I truly appreciated the extent to which Bonhoeffer expressed the need to understand the church within the confines of community and relationship. In order to drive home that point, Bonhoeffer first outlined the opposing viewpoints as understood within the systems of Greek philosophy. For instance, Bonhoeffer deftly explains the Epicurean belief and its belief in the individual spirit, specifically the approach taken by that belief system that “there are no essential or meaningful relations between human beings that are grounded in the human spirit…One person is fundamentally alien to the other.” In contradistinction to that approach is the Christian understanding of the person in which “The formal and general concept of person should be thought of as fulfilled by positive Christian content, i.e., established by God and oriented towards God…community with God is completed in love and truth. The miracle of the Christian concept of community is that love for God involves submission, but that God’s love, in ruling, serves.”
Another valuable aspect of Bonhoeffer’s dissertation is his treatment of sin and the reality that we live in broken community. The original creation as noted by Bonhoeffer was rooted in perfect love and relationship between Creator and the creation. The impact of sin “replaced love with selfishness. This gave rise to the break in immediate community with God, and likewise in human community.” This rise in selfish and self oriented behavior has permeated society. Thus it is the role of the Christian community to demonstrate what true love is about and where the solution to this broken community can be found, namely in the cross of Christ. Bonhoeffer engages in great detail the theological truth of the doctrine of original sin, aptly noting “The culpability of the individual and the universality of sin should be understood together; that is, the individual culpable act and the culpability of the human race must be connected conceptually.” For Bonhoeffer, the actions of the individual impact the reality of the human community. Thus, the individual cannot exist in a vacuum as their actions and in this case the sinful actions of a fallen humanity impact the greater whole. This concept is important in a day and age when so many claim that their individual sin has no impact on society at large, such as with homosexuality or abortion. So-called individual rights, which in reality are merely the efforts of the individual to continue to sin under the guise that their individual sin does no harm to society is something Bonhoeffer rejects and rightly so. He avers “Every deed is at once an individual act and one that reawakens the total sin of humanity. This, then, establishes the universality of sin as necessarily posited along with, and in, individual sin.”
Bonhoeffer also does an excellent job of explaining that the Christian concept of ecclesia (church) finds its roots in the Jewish concept of assembly. In that concept is rooted the idea that it is God who calls a people to Himself to both glorify His name and for that people to live together in community. This community of believers is being ever changed through the work of the Holy Spirit into a spotless bride. The reality of sin, as noted by Bonhoeffer, “places the individual in a state of utmost solitude, a state of radical separation from God and other human beings…But the reality of sin places the individual at the same time, both subjectively and objectively, into the deepest, most immediate bond with humanity, precisely because everybody has become guilty.” Since all have sinned, we can rightly say that we all need a solution to this sin problem which of course is found in Christ. The church according to Bonhoeffer is a symbol of what right community and relationship with God looks like at least in part with the ultimate focus and hope through this community rooted in the knowledge that this imperfect community will one day become the perfect community as it was originally intended when Christ fully and finally sets this broken human condition back in order.
This is an excellent dissertation on the biblical concept of community, how that community was broken by sin, how the church is to be an example of what community looks like to a world that only knows brokenness, and how Christ is the center of the communion of saints. For anyone desiring an in-depth study on the topic of biblical community and what that looks like within the church and in daily life, I highly recommend this book. There is so much information to be gleaned from the pages of this work, I know it will be a resource I will return to time and again.
I received this book for free from Fortress Press for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” -
An absolutely brilliant treatment on the church. Bonhoeffer's conceptions of the I-You relationship, vicarious representative action, Christ existing as church-community, and ethical personhood presented and outlined here are essential to understand his later work. This is the architecture on which Bonhoeffer builds for the rest of his life.
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A complex read but well worth the trouble for those interested in reflecting on ecclesiology. Bonhoeffer’s reflections on the church-community both challenge and inspire and, as a church leader have given me much to reflect on. Having read it for an essay, I am looking forward to returning to this txt and being able to take my time with it.
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If you loved Life Together, you'll appreciate Bonhoeffer's foundational work, Sanctorum Communio.
Lots of incredible insights into the social nature of the Church that I need to work through with a fine-tooth comb. -
It reads exactly like you’d expect a dissertation from 1920’s Germany to read (i.e. scrupulous, dense), but an important work in the Bonhoeffer corpus nonetheless. In some respects, this work is the seedbed for Discipleship and Life Together.
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An astounding piece of scholarship, Bonhoeffer's dissertation, which he wrote at the age of 21, explains how you get from theories focusing on the individual to theories focusing on communities. I use "theories" to refer to the different sociological, theological and even psychological approaches that Bonhoeffer adopts to come to a sociological understanding of the church (in the sense of the protestant church). Bonhoeffer begins with the I-thou opposition which is the field in which one's will operates. At a rudimentary level, the book is about the will and the spirit. An individual has a will and a spirit. So does a community. If there were no clashes between the wills, there would be no wills, period, but, on the other hand, the wills need a common ground, what Bonhoeffer calls the "objective spirit", in which they can interact and, yes, perhaps eventually even clash.
Christian community, that is the church, is different from other communities and in particular from society at large, because of its realization of the intertwining of one's individual sin and the collective sin: one person can stand for the entire group, eventually the entire human race, which was the case with Adam and Jesus. The church is also different because of the presence and operation of the Holy Spirit, which is especially important in drawing the line between Protestantism and the "canonization of the past" of the Roman Catholic Church.
Bonhoeffer's ultimate concern in this work is to make the church relevant, which at that time meant making it relevant for the proletariat. The church did not force people to become equal but required them to form a unity in diversity.
The prose tends to get serpentine especially at the beginning of the work, but Bonhoeffer's argument is solid enough to get us to the conclusion without too much trouble. It is the theoretical portion at the beginning of the work that feels so fresh despite its difficulty. It gets a lot easier towards the end. As a whole, I had not had expected anyone to be able to probe into the sociology of the communion of the saints with so much insight. -
Boy. This was a heady read. although I only understood about 40% of what Bonhoeffer was getting at, that 40% was ASTOUNDING. The language he puts to articulating an ecclesiology of the church being the physical manifestation of Christ on earth is breath taking. The dichotomy of God judging us as distinct individuals but yet are a part of a collective entity as church-community was definitely a mind bender, but so good. But above all, my favorite of Bonhoeffer’s thoughts in this foundational work is how God’s Holy Spirit strictly works through the Church. In a world today that thinks they can be a Christian and not be a part of the Church, Bonhoeffer’s words ring truer than ever.
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I read this because I was told Bonhoeffer was a great theologian, but at this point he was just a kid with a dregree, trying to find philosophical excuses for lutheran ortodoxy.
I read this because I was told it was about community, but it turned out to be about churches. You will get the difference when Bonhoeffer praises big congregations where nobody knows each other as the greatest expression of Agape.
It is a good thesis, but unremarkable. -
If you want to understand the sociology of church and your role in such, this is excellent! I love how eloquently Bonhoeffer explains Christ is the Church. This is Bonhoeffer's first writings, difficult to digest, but worth every minute. The man was brilliant!
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"Bonhoeffer begins his “theological study of the sociology of the church” by constructing an anthropology and then articulating what a church is sociologically" ??
How did I miss this when reading for my thesis? -
This book is excellent, though a very tough read. It is amazing how well written it is, especially since Bonhoeffer was in his early 20s when writing it. If you find yourself asking, 'Why does church matter?," I invite you to read this publication.
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wonderful!!! A must read........a different perspective for us brits and Americans
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Easily the most important book on the subject of the church that I've ever read. Maybe that I will ever read. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's doctoral thesis, written at age 21 or so, is the foundation for much of his later work such as Life Together the latter section of Discipleship. There's also some pretty fascinating resemblance to Martin Buber's I And Thou, published a few years before, but I don't know if Bonhoeffer was aware of Buber's work.
I'm happy to report that Sanctorum Communio is not as dense and impenetrable as his second dissertation, Act and Being, that short but daunting volume of which I understood about 15% (still rated it 5 stars because what I did understand was hugely profound). Surprisingly readable, Sanctorum Communio's central idea is an explanation of "Christ existing as church-community;" or 'theological sociology.' He explores the startling idea of an "individual collective" and how communities function and are seen by God as a single person, with each individual member bearing out the responsibility of the whole in some way, yet never losing their identity or accountability as individual persons.
Under the subheading "Major themes in the New Testament view of the church," Bonhoeffer makes these points, which probably provide the best summary of the book:
1. The Christian concept of ekklesia [church] is the fulfillment of the Jewish concept of [assembly].
2. The church community exists through Christ's action...It has been created in a real sense only by the death of Christ.
3. Paul repeatedly identifies Christ and the church-community.
4. Connected with this thought [#3] is the idea of the church-community as a collective personality, which again can be called Christ.
5. The church is the presence of Christ in the same way that Christ is the presence of God. The New Testament knows a form of revelation, 'Christ existing as church-community'.
6. This is the meaning of Paul's indicative "you are the body of Christ," which refers to the concrete, individual congregation.
7. The church is visible as a corporate social body in worship and working-for-each-other.
8. (paraphrasing) Key passages in 1 Cor 12 and Rom 12 speak of Christ's church as if it "exists only through Christ 'above' and 'before' all individuals."
Bonhoeffer is careful not to speak of 'Jesus Christ' and 'Christ as church-community' as coterminous (covering the exact same ground or meaning), but he goes much, much farther in identifying the church with Christ than most moderns are comfortable with, or even aware is possible. It's really quite breathtaking. When I discovered this idea in Discipleship (in Part 2, after the point where most people quit, including me on my first two readings), it fairly blew my mind. It's nowhere near what most of us are used to. It's got phenomenal implications for how churches function in the world, starting with their self-understanding.
I would really love to find a Bonhoeffer interpreter in the present who takes this matter up and explores it a bit more, given that Bonhoeffer's life was cut short. A lot of scholars and biographers seem to be most interested in his intensity of commitment and obedience, his imprisonment, his participation in the plot to kill Hitler, and his martyrdom. All fascinating stuff, but ultimately I find his ecclesiology the most important and compelling thing about Bonhoeffer, and the thing the world (and church) needs most from him right now. Sanctorum Communio should be required reading for anyone interested in this subject- the nature and purpose of the church. -
Reading this book was one of the richest theological experiences I've had in a long time. Full disclosure: it's not an easy book to read, even for people with some experience in philosophy/theology, but if you stick with it & pay attention to Bonhoeffer's summary statements in each section, you'll get the gist of it. Simplistically, his point is: "Christ exist[s] as church-community", &, as Joachim von Soosten notes in the Afterword: "...the question as to how the reality of God becomes concrete in the here and now of this world", and "...also the question of the permanent becoming into which everyone is drawn who dare to address this question." That last question von Soosten explains by saying, "Bonhoeffer...subscribed to [Martin] Luther's phrase that Christians prove their identity not in what they have become, but by always remaining in the process of becoming."
This is the first volume of the ongoing English translation of Bonhoeffer's Works, previously available only in German. -
One of the most exciting theology books I‘ve read in the past 10 years. Written almost 100 years ago but reads as fresh and timely.
This was Bonhoeffers dissertation, and one would guess it is painfully theoretical and overly technical. Although it is a bit technical, especially with regards to the use of some Hegelian concepts like objective spirit, it is, as a whole, very readable. He writes in a clear and linear manner (in contrast to Karl Barth). His thoughts are always well reasoned.
He begins with a look as what is the Christian concept of a person. One can‘t understand a community without knowing what a person is. Main point is that a person doens‘t exist without a relationship. There is only an `I` if there is a `You`. And a Christian understanding of a person must grapple with the broken state of history. Things are not as they should be.
Then he moves on to the community. He derives the concept of a collective person. The person of the community, i.e. the community is a person with its own will and `spirit`. Not in the sense that the individual is lost in the community. The individual and the community live in dialectic. The individual only exists in community, but the community only exists with individual members.
He then distinguishes a community from a mass. A community has an intent, and a relatively unified communal will. A mass can have individuals with the same intent, but without social bonding. Only in a community is the will for each other, not just for the purpose. Communities have reciprocally. Communities have conflict of wills which results in cooperation of wills. A mass can create a powerful experience of unity, but in a mass individuality is lost. He also distinguishes a community from a society in that a community has a personal character whereas as society does not.
He then goes on to describe how sin impairs the community. The communal sin, the original sin in which we all participate as humanity corrupts how humans relate to one another.
He notes two basic errors in viewing the church: 1) as a religious community and 2) as the kingdom of God. A religious community is individuals choosing to work together for some goal. The church in contrast is chosen by God. The second failure ignore the empirical historical nature of the church. It is bound to history. In essence, the church is a historical community established by God.
Unique among religions, the idea of community is integral to Christianity. And this community can only be understood through revelation. The New Testament show that the church is where Christ is. He dislikes using the concept of organism for the Church as it tends to subsume the individuals. The church is individuals serving one another.
The Holy Spirit establishes and maintains the church. He works to establish the new humanity that the church works toward. He notes that Jesus didn‘t found the church, it was founded by the Holy Spirit. The disciples were not a church. Jesus is the foundation of the church, the historical reality that gave birth to the church. The church is not the kingdom, but aims toward it.
The Word is the key binder of the church. The Spirit is tied to the word and the community not to atomistic individuals. Unmediated spirit would dissolve the church. The spirit works only through the church and there is no relation to the spirit apart from the church. Yet the spirit leads each individual. Everyone in the church has the whole entire Spirit for themselves.
The spirit enable a person to see other members not as a duty or claim but as a gift. We know love solely from God‘s love manifested in Christ. Christian love is not humanitarianism, it demands we give up all claims on God and our neighbour. Love does not help for any other end but need.
The community exists fundamentally for God‘s sake. God desires the community. The community touched by God‘s spirit radiate love and grace. Members exist with each other and for each other. We belong to the church, we owe our life to it. The community of saint (communion sanctorum) lives out in service to each other, work for the neighbour, prayer and forgiving sin in God‘s name. If you are a member of the church, your prayer is necessary for all members. And it is a mistake to rely only on ones own prayer. To the extent that we doubt the value of others intercession, we are filled with self righteousness. The church bears each other’s burdens.
A Christian comes into being and exists only in Christ‘s church community. One body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, but not one theology, not one kind of conduct and one opinion on all matters. Unity is not unification.
The church exists in history and is at the center of world history, but the community of saints is also a community of sinners and will remain so. The character of the church can be different in a different historical time. Historical context matters. As God revelation takes place in history and thus has hidden elements. The empirical, historical church always has dead members, but also is the womb for the realm of God.
The church is the means of faith, it is where we receive faith, it is where the Sprit dispense his gifts. It is not a community of kindred spirits like an affinity club. The church binds together the stranger with the Love of God which sustains the community. Through it I can have confidence in God‘s grace. Confidence of faith does not arise in solitude. And only in faith is the church perceived. “Our age is not short on experiences, but on faith. But only faith creates a genuine experience of the church“
The Church is not opposed to the world, the struggle for good and evil runs through both. The realm of God includes not only the church the the entire world.
That is just a quick summary that doesn‘t begin to do justice to this fantastic work the examines the sociology and theology of the church. -
This is the first book in the DB series, and I must be honest it a tough read. However, it is very interesting to see a young theologian exploring his thinking. It's also interesting to see the issues that he was concerned about in 1920's Germany. The quote below is worth sharing.
"Comparing Bonhoeffer's dissertation with his later writings discloses the tendency of Sanctorum Communio toward over-systematization. This makes certain parts of it very difficult to understand, but later this systematizing cleary decreases and the content of Bonhoeffer's arguments come to the fore. I Nthe later writings Bonhoeffer's language becomes more simple, dense, and concise; with the power of succinct expressions, Bonhoeffer skillfully carries his thoughts into the center of a given theological debate." pp. 300-301. -
Best treatment of DB’s philosophical foundation to everything that comes after. A must-read (and likely re-read) for anyone who truly wants to understand him.
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Difficult read, but well worth it. Important for understanding his later work.
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Sanctorum Communio is Bonhoeffer’s doctoral dissertation and his first published work. Sanctorum Communio is an ethnography of the church in service to and under the discipline of theology, as it deals with the Christian understanding of person, sin, community and revelation. In Sanctorum Communio Bonhoeffer argues that the church challenges sin that isolates, by uniting humanity into a collective person, or ‘personality’ that is Christ.
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Bonhoeffer's first dissertation is notoriously difficult to read. It's nowhere near as clear as his later works, but there are still some very good bits in there. It seems this is the far more complicated prelude to Life Together, which is much more concise. Still worth the read after the first two chapters.
