The book itself was written as a retrospective on the several years during which Bonhoeffer organized and operated the Finkenwalde seminary. The seminary was founded in April 1935 elsewhere, and in June 1935 was moved to Finkenwalde. The seminary was a branch of the Bekennende Kirche, or the "Confessing Church" as it was known, a group of Lutheran Christians who had not followed the larger institutional church in attempting to appease or coexist with the Nazi government. The name of the group indicated that it was in statu confessionis, i.e., in a state of official protest. The Confessing Church could not go along with the larger national church because that larger body was failing to speak clearly against the Nazis; the Confessing Church, obviously, also could not go along with the Nazis, but understood its mission to be one of clearly exposing the Nazis as evil and working against them. The larger church, while privately understanding the Nazis to be evil, chose to focus instead on caring for the spiritual lives of individuals, which, however, it was less and less able to do as the Nazi government increasingly limited the church's activities.
As the Nazis progressively outlawed various Christian practices, Christianity became an underground movement, and Christians met in secret. The public and visible churches ceased to be Christian churches and instead became vehicles for Nazi propaganda.
The Finkenwalde seminary, then, was one of the last visible institutions of Christianity when the Gestapo closed it in mid-1937. Admittedly, churches continued to exist and function into the 1940's, but they were not Christian churches: they were anti-Christian churches, extensions of the Nazi party, which opposed, and sought to eradicate, Christianity.
The book Gemeinsames Leben was written to record the type of life that the Finkenwalde seminary sought to realize and largely succeeded in realizing. That community was not, as some might suppose, monastic. In fact, Life Together is anti-monastic, as Bonhoeffer reminds Christians that they are called to live "in the midst of their enemies" and "scattered among the nations," not cloistered.
To be sure, life in Finkenwalde was rich in prayer, singing, and Scripture reading, and much of that in a communal setting. But it was not done in a spirit of monkish isolation, but rather, to paraphrase authors Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, the seminarians were gathered in order to be scattered: their life, rich in devotional practices, was preparing them to be sent out to urban neighborhoods of factory workers, or to minister among the soldiers in the army.
In the chapter one of the book, Bonhoeffer gives some foundational thoughts concerning Christian community. The first is the call to avoid monastic isolation and live in the midst of the world as it is. He recalls Luther, who pointed out that Jesus did not live the life of a cloistered monk, but rather lived among those who opposed Him. We are called to do the same. Our Christian community, our common devotional life, is the base from which we are to minister to the world.
God's people are scattered around the world, yet united in Christ. Whatever form fellowship takes, Bonhoeffer tells us, it is a blessing, it is also necessary for our spiritual well-being, and it is easily taken for granted by those of us who have ready access to nearly limitless quantities of it. By contrast, those Christians who live among many people, but among no other followers of Jesus, recognize the value of fellowship precisely because it is not available to them.
This fellowship is a physical presence, Bonhoeffer emphasizes. Conversation, prayer, study: face-to-face, shoulder-to-shoulder. Looking into someone's eyes during conversation, shaking hands: these are not replaceable by long-distance communication. Although written in the 1930's, Gemeinsames Leben contains a reminder important for life nearly a century later: electronic connection is no substitute for fellowship, and preoccupation with cyberspace is disruptive to fellowship. Believers need to gather for study, meditation, prayer, and fellowship - physically in the same place at the same time, and not constantly interrupted by electronic communication.
Fellowship takes many forms, some of which are brief, passing, or sporadic; but Bonhoeffer is writing about sustained fellowship, about community, about Life Together. This can be a group of students at a seminary, a family, a neighborhood, or a congregation. But merely being in one of those situations does not automatically entail "life together" - he writes the book in order to show how such a communal sense might be achieved. Intentional effort is required.
Such a life is more than mere communication and cooperation. Bonhoeffer envisions something even better: a community made possible by, and gathered around, Jesus. This is possible only with Jesus:
Was heißt das? Es heißt erstens, dass ein Christ den anderen braucht, um Jesu Christi willen. Es heißt zweitens, dass ein Christ zum anderen nur durch Jesus Christus kommt. Es heißt drittens, dass wir in Jesus Christus von Ewigkeit her erwählt, in der Zeit angenommen und für die Ewigkeit vereinigt sind.
Christians need fellowship: Christianity is essentially a communal enterprise, and despite famous tales of desert hermits, is not designed to be lived out in isolation. Fellowship can be realized only because of, by the power of, Jesus.
God's Word sustains us: "man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3). We need God's Word, and in community, we present and supply that Word to each other: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:16). In both devotional practices and in practical physical work, such a life together is a mutual encouragement: "be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Ephesians 5:18-21, cf. Hebrews 10:24-25).
Any peace among men, any form of unity, is made possible only by Jesus (Ephesians 2:14). Even then, we are under no illusions that we are creating a little utopia. Humans by nature quarrel with each other. People inevitably disappoint each other. Bonhoeffer will address the brokenness which Christian community always experiences, because it is composed of broken humans in a broken world. The fallenness of the world pervades the Christian community.
Als Gottes Sohn Fleisch annahm, da hat er aus lauter Gnade unser Wesen, unsere Natur, uns selbst wahrhaftig und leibhaftig angenommen. So war es der ewige Ratschluss des dreieinigen Gottes. Nun sind wir in ihm. Wo er ist, trägt er unser Fleisch, trägt er uns. Wo er ist, dort sind wir auch, in der Menschwerdung, im Kreuz und in seiner Auferstehung. Wir gehören zu ihm, weil wir in ihm sind. Darum nennt uns die Schrift den Leib Christi. Sind wir aber, ehe wir es wissen und wollen konnten, mit der ganzen Gemeinde in Jesus Christus erwählt und angenommen, so gehören wir auch miteinander in Ewigkeit zu ihm. Die wir hier in seiner Gemeinschaft leben, werden einst in ewiger Gemeinschaft bei ihm sein. Wer seinen Bruder ansieht, soll wissen, dass er ewig mit ihm vereinigt sein wird in Jesus Christus. Christliche Gemeinschaft heißt Gemeinschaft durch und in Jesus Christus. Auf dieser Voraussetzung ruht alles, was die Schrift an Weisungen und Regeln für das gemeinsame Leben der Christen gibt.
Sober realism tells us that, although we are gathered around a perfect, infinite, sinless, and holy God, we remain flawed, corrupt, broken, and sinful. We will not be able to create a little paradise for ourselves in Christian community. Bonhoeffer speaks derisively of utopian schemes: "God hates visionary dreaming":
Unzählige Male ist eine ganze christliche Gemeinschaft daran zerbrochen, dass sie aus einem Wunschbild heraus lebte. Gerade der ernsthafte Christ, der zum ersten Male in eine christliche Gemeinschaft gestellt ist, wird oft ein sehr bestimmtes Bild von der Art des christlichen Zusammenlebens mitbringen und zu verwirklichen bestrebt sein. Es ist aber Gottes Gnade, die alle derartigen Träume rasch zum Scheitern bringt. Die große Enttäuschung über die Andern, über die Christen im allgemeinen und, wenn es gut geht, auch über uns selbst, muss uns überwältigen, so gewiss Gott uns zur Erkenntnis echter christlicher Gemeinschaft führen will. Gott lässt es aus lauter Gnade nicht zu, dass wir auch nur wenige Wochen in einem Traumbild leben, uns jenen beseligenden Erfahrungen und jener beglückenden Hochgestimmtheit hingeben, die wie ein Rausch über uns kommt. Denn Gott ist nicht ein Gott der Gemütserregungen, sondern der Wahrheit. Erst die Gemeinschaft, die in die große Enttäuschung hineingerät mit all ihren unerfreulichen und bösen Erscheinungen, fängt an zu sein, was sie vor Gott sein soll, fängt an, die ihr gegebene Verheißung im Glauben zu ergreifen. Je bälder die Stunde dieser Enttäuschung über den Einzelnen und über die Gemeinschaft kommt, desto besser für beide. Eine Gemeinschaft aber, die eine solche Enttäuschung nicht ertragen und nicht überleben würde, die also an dem Wunschbild festhält, wenn es ihr zerschlagen werden soll, verliert zur selben Stunde die Verheißung christlicher Gemeinschaft auf Bestand, sie muss früher oder später zerbrechen. Jedes menschliche Wunschbild, das in die christliche Gemeinschaft mit eingebracht wird, hindert die echte Gemeinschaft und muss zerbrochen werden, damit die echte Gemeinschaft leben kann. Wer seinen Traum von einer christlichen Gemeinschaft mehr liebt als die christliche Gemeinschaft selbst, der wird zum Zerstörer jeder christlichen Gemeinschaft, und ob er es persönlich noch so ehrlich, noch so ernsthaft und hingebend meinte.
God blesses us with rude awakenings. When we imagine creating a comfortable little community for ourselves, in which we will be happy and all will go well, "God's grace speedily shatters such dreams." We will experience "disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves." God will not allow us to idealize or idolize preachers or ministers; He will not allow us to conceptualize them as heroes. Just as Scripture is careful to show us the sins of every ordinary man in the Bible - Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, Saul David, Solomon, Peter, James, John - so God will show us that the leaders and "role models" in our Christian community are sinful sinners. We proceed by loving, forgiving, and respecting them. This is true not only for leaders, but for anyone in Christian community: our peers and our subordinates, too.
"God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth," Bonhoeffer writes. Only when we face "such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects," only then can we "grasp in faith the promise that is given to" us. Disillusionment is a blessing - think about the literal meaning of the word: to have an illusion taken away, to become aware of the truth - on both an individual and a corporate level: "The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both." Although the word 'dream' has taken on a virtuous quality in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Bonhoeffer reminds us it means, finally, something which is not - something which is false:
Gott hasst die Träumerei; denn sie macht stolz und anspruchsvoll. Wer sich das Bild einer Gemeinschaft erträumt, der fordert von Gott, von den Andern und von sich selbst die Erfüllung. Er tritt als Fordernder in die Gemeinschaft der Christen, richtet ein eigenes Gesetz auf und richtet danach die Brüder und Gott selbst. Er steht hart und wie ein lebender Vorwurf für alle andern im Kreis der Brüder. Er tut, als habe er erst die christliche Gemeinschaft zu schaffen, als solle sein Traumbild die Menschen verbinden. Was nicht nach seinem Willen geht, nennt er Versagen. Wo sein Bild zunichte wird, sieht er die Gemeinschaft zerbrechen. So wird er erst zum Verkläger seiner Brüder, dann zum Verkläger Gottes und zuletzt zu dem verzweifelten Verkläger seiner selbst. Weil Gott den einzigen Grund unserer Gemeinschaft schon gelegt hat, weil Gott uns längst, bevor wir in das gemeinsame Leben mit andern Christen eintraten, mit diesen zu einem Leibe zusammengeschlossen hat in Jesus Christus, darum treten wir nicht als die Fordernden, sondern als die Dankenden und Empfangenden in das gemeinsame Leben mit andern Christen ein. Wir danken Gott für das, was er an uns getan hat. Wir danken Gott, dass er uns Brüder gibt, die unter seinem Ruf, unter seiner Vergebung, unter seiner Verheißung leben. Wir beschweren uns nicht über das, was Gott uns nicht gibt, sondern wir danken Gott für das, was er uns täglich gibt. Und ist es nicht genug, was uns gegeben ist: Brüder, die in Sünde und Not mit uns unter dem Segen seiner Gnade dahingehen und leben sollen? Ist denn die Gabe Gottes an irgend einem Tage, auch in den schwierigen, notvollen Tagen einer christlichen Bruderschaft weniger als dies unbegreiflich Große? Ist denn nicht auch dort, wo Sünde und Missverstehen das gemeinsame Leben belasten, ist nicht auch der sündigende Bruder doch immer noch der Bruder, mit dem ich gemeinsam unter dem Wort Christi stehe, und wird seine Sünde mir nicht zu immer neuem Anlass, dafür zu danken, dass wir beide unter der einen vergebenden Liebe Gottes in Jesus Christus leben dürfen? Wird so nicht gerade die Stunde der großen Enttäuschung über den Bruder mir unvergleichlich heilsam sein, weil sie mich gründlich darüber belehrt, dass wir beide doch niemals von eigenen Worten und Taten, sondern allein von dem einen Wort und der einen Tat leben können, die uns in Wahrheit verbindet, nämlich von der Vergebung der Sünden in Jesus Christus? Wo die Frühnebel der Traumbilder fallen, dort bricht der helle Tag christlicher Gemeinschaft an.
"God hates visionary dreaming" - Bonhoeffer may run afoul of consultants who instruct us in "vision casting" - because the one who sets up such ideals becomes proud, becomes judgmental, and becomes demanding. The dreamer judges reality and finds it deficient, judges men as they correspond to his dream, and judges outcomes based on his plans, not based on God's plans. "Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate." If it were a human product, it would be far less valuable than it is. If it could be achieved by human effort, it would be neither holy nor enduring. The dreamer demands that reality correspond to his dream, that people subordinate themselves to his will, and that eventually even God conform to his dream.
This lattermost presumption - that one demand that God conform to one's visionary dreams - may well be subconscious or unconscious, but is nonetheless an arrogant imposition on God and essentially idolatrous. Such a visionary leader/dreamer may vigorously deny that he is imposing on God, and may even believe his own denial, but in any rational analysis of the situation, he is doing exactly that.
True Christian community is not built on dreams, but rather on God's Word. In such a Christian community, Jesus is the mediator of every relationship. To the human mind, it may seem better to have immediate, unmediated, relationship. The natural sinful human heart and mind is capable of very strong passionate attachment. But such relationships are blind to the truth, following the beloved unconditionally, and turn readily into hatred if the beloved or the relationship fail - which they inevitably will. By contrast, the relationship in which Jesus is the mediator loves unconditionally and serves unconditionally, but does not follow unconditionally. Bonhoeffer calls this the difference between spiritual love and human love - the difference between geistliche Liebe and seelische Liebe:
Eben hier ist aber der Ort, an dem die geistliche Liebe anfängt. Darum wird die seelische Liebe zum persönlichen Haß, wo sie der echten geistlichen Liebe begegnet, die nicht begehrt, sondern dient. Seelische Liebe macht sich selbst zum Selbstzweck, zum Werk, zum Götzen, den sie anbetet, dem sie alles unterwerfen muß. Sie pflegt, sie kultiviert, sie liebt sich selbst und sonst nichts auf der Welt. Geistliche Liebe aber kommt von Jesus Christus her, sie dient ihm allein, sie weiß, daß sie keinen unmittelbaren Zugang zum Menschen hat. Christus steht zwischen mir und dem Anderen. Was Liebe zum Anderen heißt, weiß ich nicht schon im voraus aus dem allgemeinen Begriff von Liebe, der aus meinem seelischen Verlangen erwachsen ist, - das alles mag viel mehr vor Christus gerade Haß und Böses zur Selbstsucht sein, - was Liebe ist, wird mir allein Christus in seinem Wort sagen. Gegen alle eigenen Meinungen und Überzeugungen wird Jesus Christus mir sagen, wie Liebe zum Bruder in Wahrheit aussieht. Darum ist geistliche Liebe allein an das Wort Jesu Christi gebunden. Wo Christus mich um der Liebe willen Gemeinschaft halten heißt, will ich sie halten, wo seine Wahrheit um der Liebe willen mir Aufhebung der Gemeinschaft befiehlt, dort hebe ich sie auf, allen Protesten meiner seelischen Liebe zum Trotz. Weil geistliche Liebe nicht begehrt, sondern dient, darum liebt sie den Feind wie den Bruder. Sie entspringt ja weder am Bruder, noch am Feind, sondern an Christus und seinem Wort. Seelische Liebe vermag die geistliche Liebe niemals zu begreifen; denn geistliche Liebe ist von oben, sie ist aller irdischen Liebe etwas ganz Fremdes, Neues, Unbegreifliches.
Bonhoeffer's community at Finkenwalde was a serious attempt at carrying out the concepts in Gemeinsames Leben - even though the book was written after the community ended, the concepts existed beforehand. Describing the community, Eric Metaxas writes:
Another aspect of this “life together” that proved quite difficult was Bonhoeffer’s rule never to speak about a brother in his absence. Bonhoeffer knew that living according to what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount was not “natural” for anyone.
There were long periods of silent meditation, and periods of communal singing; this way of life would seem foreign to many twenty-first century Americans, Christian or not.
Whatever they thought of the disciplines and the daily devotions, no one at Finkenwalde could complain that there was no fun. Most afternoons and evenings a time was set aside for hiking or sports. Bonhoeffer was forever organizing games, just as his mother had done in their family. There was a lot of table tennis, and anyone looking for Bonhoeffer would try the table tennis room first. They also played soccer. Schönherr recalled that "Bonhoeffer was always at the head of the pack because he was such a fantastic runner." He had always been competitive, and Bethge remembered that "he hated to lose when we tried shot-putting - or stone-putting - down the beach."
Just as Bonhoeffer sternly warned against cloistered monasticism, he also warned against the loss of spiritual discipline. German pietism, the spiritual descendants of Spener, could be legalistic; but the theology students Bonhoeffer had met at New York's Union Theological seminary had gone so far in avoiding legalism that they had become formless and meaningless, having nothing to communicate. One must avoid both. Metaxas continues:
Bonhoeffer wrote Barth, partially in response to his concern about Finkenwalde's "monastic" atmosphere. Bonhoeffer himself was critical of "pietistic" communities, but he knew that regarding all emphasis on prayer and spiritual disciplines as "legalism" was equally erroneous. He had seen that at Union, too, where students prided themselves on avoiding the legalism of the so-called fundamentalists without expressing any real theology.
The book Life Together exists, paradoxically, thanks to the Gestapo. Gerhard Müller and Albrecht Schönherr write that, early on, Bonhoeffer was asked to write about the lifestyle of the students at Finkenwalde, but declined, considering the seminary community to be an unfinished experiment still in progress. He felt that it would be premature to write a book about it. Only because the Gestapo closed the seminary in mid-1937 did Bonhoeffer feel that it would then be appropriate to write about it.
Life together, living in Christian community, is not a paradise or a utopia. It calls us realize that we are incapable of the discipline and sober realism which it requires. We can only, we must simply, forgive each other - yet even this is beyond us: we forgive only as, and to the extent that, the Holy Spirit indwells us and empowers us and moves us to forgive. We can only forgive others and forgive ourselves, and watch as God does good things in us and through us.
