9 - Costly discipleship

Summary

From 1935 to 1937 Bonhoeffer ran an illegal seminary for the Confessing Church, first in Zingst; then in Finkenwalde in Pomerania. When it was closed down by the Gestapo, he wrote three books reflecting the teaching, ethos and methods of the seminary, namely The Cost of Discipleship, Life Together and The Prayerbook of the Bible: An Introduction to the Psalms. These books take us to the heart of the theological and practical preparation Bonhoeffer gave to the five sets of ordinands who went through the sixmonth- long courses. Life Together conflates descriptions of the seminary's common ordered life, influenced by monastic models, with theological explanation and spiritual advice. This book and The Cost of Discipleship are probably Bonhoeffer's most famous and influential writings, apart from Letters and Papers from Prison. The Prayerbook of the Bible (1940) was the last of his writings published in his lifetime.