Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community Book

1/11/09 I just reread this book for another class. I think it's my fourth reading now. All I want to add is that this book gets better each time. I'm amazed by Bonhoeffer's insight and the understanding of God that informs the whole work. It's small but packed with import. You'd think I would have learned its lessons in the first three readings, but I again found myself deeply challenged about my own behavior in Christian community. This one is worth coming back to again and again.
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4/1/07 I re-read this book for the class I took on Bonhoeffer and found it even more enjoyable this time than the first couple of times. Bonhoeffer has some great practical advice about living in Christian community, as well as some challenging theological perspectives. It's easy to see the influences of Anglican monasticism on his view of communal life, which was particularly unique in protestant Germany at the time he wrote the book. The book is short and comprised of five chapters. Some of Bonhoeffer's insights are more helpful than others: his musings about the nature of community, confession, forgiveness, bearing, serving, etc. are all priceless. His thoughts on how prayer and worship ought to be conducted are interesting, but seem less universal. Even so, I highly recommend this challenging and thought-provoking book.