So here’s my “Dale on Eric on Bonhoeffer on Cheap Grace”: (kind of like the blog-like “Found this(link) via this(link) concerning this(link) and I think this about what this person (link) thinks.
Eric’s Tasty Morsels of Thought – Book Blogging: The Cost of Discipleship, Chapter 2
But, even though we cannot find God on our own nor be saved by our works, these external works must be done, “for we still have to find our way into the situation where faith is possible” (66). Our author even goes so far as to say that even those who do not believe should still take the first step for it will put themself in this situation where faith is possible. Sometimes we aren’t quite sure whether or not this Messiah is real, but there is something compelling us to be obedient, and it is that call of Jesus. Bonhoeffer contrasts this with the disobedience of “believers” who, “when they are asked to obey, they simply confess their unbelief and leave it at that” (67). This is more of the cheap grace of confession alone, doctrine alone, and propositional truth alone.
Since I’ve been reading a bunch of Hauerwas lately, my reactions to things lately have been a bit more “Hauerwasian”. The idea that we are to put ourselves into situations where faith is possible seems to me to be very much like how Hauerwas implores us to submit ourselves to a community of faith so that we might learn HOW to have faith, how to read the Scriptures, and how to live the Christian life . (As in The Peaceable Kingdom)Yes, obedience is compelling. It speaks to the narrative idea; that the best “doctrine” and “theology” is that living , breathing stuff of which narrative stories are made. Elizabeth O’Connor’s narrative of the beginnings and the journey of The Church of the Saviour in Washington DC is some of the most compelling reading I’ve ever done, and that sense is heightened by my having been there to visit, talked with Gordon Cosby and took a youth group through a tour/mission trip visit/live documentary type experience (in fact, I did take a lot of video of that trip….I ought to cue up some of this as I begin my forray into experimenting with multimedia elements to blogging.
Another inseparable phrase invoked here is “only those who believe obey, and only those who obey believe.”
Wow, thank you for making this connection. I hadn’t thought of submitting to a community as a way for putting oneself into a place where faith is possible. I think it would also help to be in a community because you’re watching others and being inspired by others who “obey because they believe, and believe because they obey.” I think that’s what would be called a genuine witness to Christ.
Good stuff.