Thursday, March 6, 2008

for thought.

God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and jusdges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of Christian community, as if his dream binds men together.
When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure.
-dietrich bonhoeffer -

so...

2 comments:

Columbia Clay said...

i always thought dietrich bonhoeffer was an asshole. typical narrow-minded, dogmatic german asshole. this quote proves it.

i'll grant that he has some good points, but he is not a good thinker. he attaches his ideas in this paragraph as though they can't help but follow upon one another. it does not follow that if one has a vision and knows what it takes to get there that he will demand God and others fulfill it. nor will it necessarily make him proud.

it also doesn't allow that man can have a vision, and realize it, because he perseveres and is unwilling to compromise on it. his idea is the road to mediocrity.

i find this quote of bonhoeffer ironic. of all the Christian losers i have read things by, his prose and ideas were the most narrow, pedantic, graceless and dogmatic.

let me repeat. dietrich bonhoeffer was an asshole.

Jeff said...

so i read 'life together' in one night. parts going 'well...i guess he has a point' and other parts of me cringing. "typical german dogmatic asshole' has a nice ring to it - hmm so where to go from here.
He presents tho an image that while I don't agree with, maybe allows to temper some of the "Community worship" that it feels like a lot of people have. unreal expectations, broad statements like "spectacular failure" when a group of people meeting in a basement decide to stop...etc.etc.
so what to do - i can't very well have people rip it out of their bibles..