Nature, Purpose, and Practice of Disciple Making
For Bonhoeffer, discipleship is a lifelong “who” question, a question that we ask daily of the
living Lord who encounters us in the word of Scripture as we strive to discern in God's word the presence
of the Word himself.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – The Cost of Discipleship
https://www.christianstudylibrary.org/article/dietrich-bonhoeffer-%E2%80%93-cost-discipleship
https://books.google.com/books?
id=ANfH1fmvBKIC&pg=PA43&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false (full chapter) The Cost of
Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chapter 1 Costly Grace pp 43-56, Chapter 2 The Call to Discipleship
pp 57-78
Himes, Brant. "Discipleship as theological praxis: Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a resource for
educational ministry." Christian Education Journal 8, no. 2 (2011): 263+. Gale Academic
OneFile (accessed December 12, 2022). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A269028176/AONE?
u=anon~38320e5c&sid=googleScholar&xid=ad2bbf11.
Discipleship as theological praxis: Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a resource for educational ministry
Citation metadata
Author: Brant Himes
Date: Fall 2011
From: Christian Education Journal(Vol. 8, Issue 2)
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd. (UK)
Document Type: Essay
Article Preview :
Abstract: This article offers Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a resource for educational ministry by placing
him in conversation with what Richard Osmer calls the normative task of practical theology. In response
to the practical theological question "What ought to be going on?" in a given ministry context,
Bonhoeffer answers: "Discipleship." Bonhoeffer's concepts of revelation, ecclesiology, and Christology
inform a distinct theology of discipleship that culminates in his notion that "religionless Christianity" is
the very possibility of discipleship. In addition to Osmer, Bonhoeffer's ideas are interpreted in
relationship to Ray Anderson, Andrew Root, and Darrell Guder.
Keywords: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, discipleship, revelation, ecclesiology, Christopraxis, religionless
Christianity
Introduction: Questions of Discipleship and Theological Interpretation
"Following Christ--what that really is, I'd like to know--it is not exhausted by our concept of faith"
(Bonhoeffer, 2007, p. 136).
In April of 1934, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to his dear friend Erwin Sutz seeking
guidance on how to preach the Sermon on the Mount. Bonhoeffer (2007) was in London overseeing his
first parish and was working to keep his message "infinitely plain and simple," convinced the Sermon
"always comes back to keeping the commandments and not trying to evade them" (p. 136). And yet he
struggled with an inadequate concept of faith to grasp what following Christ truly entailed.
Bonhoeffer's reflections on the Sermon on the Mount eventually led to the penning of what
would become one of his best-known works, Discipleship, in 1937. Here, Bonhoeffer rails against cheap
grace, painting a picture of costly grace, in part through an exposition of Jesus' famous sermon in
Matthew 5-7. But Bonhoeffer's understanding of discipleship does not begin, or end, in this book. The
formation of this central theme of his theology can be traced from his doctoral dissertation, Sanctorum
Communio (completed in 1927 at the age of 21), all the way through his Letters and Papers from Prison,
written throughout 1943-1945. Bonhoeffer's question to Sutz--what does it really mean to follow
Christ?--is the essential question of discipleship. It is a question Bonhoeffer will continue asking and,
arguably, is the primary question of his entire theology.
For Bonhoeffer, this central orientation to discipleship is the question of what ought to be going
on in the life of a Christian and in the life of the church. In this sense, Bonhoeffer falls quite naturally into
the realm of the normative task of practical theological interpretation, as set forth by Richard Osmer
(2008). Osmer describes four tasks that can be used to guide and respond to specific episodes,
situations, or contexts in ministry: the descriptive-empirical task is concerned with what is going on; the
interpretive task explores why this is going on; the normative task engages in what ought to be going on;
and the pragmatic task looks for how we might respond.
In this article, Bonhoeffer's concept of discipleship will act as a resource for the normative task
of practical theological interpretation. The normative question of what ought to be going on will be
understood in light of Bonhoeffer's question….
The Cost of Discipleship – Here’s What To Count
Journal: Just Disciple
Author: Julia Oates
