Having read Eric Mataxus's brilliant biography of Bonhoeffer... 5 stars... skip this review... go read the biography... I had to read more of what Bonhoeffer wrote. It is tough reading. Good food, but vegetables when my brain occasionally wanted chocolate!

The book is divided into 5 sections:

1) Grace and discipleship
2) The Sermon on the Mount
3) The messengers
4) The Church of Jesus Christ and the life of discipleship


The book is worth your time if you're interested in deepening in discipleship. Section 1 was the most helpful in terms of laying out Bonhoeffer's central argument. He puts grace (freedom in the midst of imperfection) side-by-side with discipleship (pursuit of perfection... at least in the area of devotion and service.) This tension will eventually strike any Christian if s/he is thoughtful and lives long enough.

The exposition of the Sermon on the Mount could be a book on its own. Lots more in Matthew 5-7 than I ever saw through my own eyes.

The balance of the book is about how to apply all this to living in the ordinary sense of our lives and our associations.

This is one that will require several re-readings to fully consume.