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Tuesday, February 15, 2005

No Such Thing As the Ideal Christian Community



I started reading Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer today. Bonhoeffer argues persuasively against the "wish dream" of Christian community, when fellowship is everything I ever dreamed it to be. Instead, he says that fellowship is based not on our vision, but on reality in Christ. The reality is that Christian community will not all be pie-in-the-sky, but rather that pain, sin, disillusionment, and conflict will always be a part of it. Bonhoeffer suggests that the sooner we recognize that real community will be based on reality, not the ideal "wish dream," the sooner we will really be able to participate in it.

Wow. I needed that.

1 comment:

John said...

bonhoeffer is great