Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community

This chapter marks an apparent shift in emphasis away from The Nature and Importance of Christian Fellowship and Unity, as Bonhoeffer tells his readers that knowing how to spend the day alone is as important as knowing how to spend the day with others. However, Bonhoeffer contextualizes this contention with regard to his broader argument, emphasizing that the health of the individuals directly impacts the health of the community: A community fully focused on God must have individuals who are fully focused on God. Moreover, Bonhoeffer clarifies that he is not instructing readers to attempt a life of solitude but rather calling for them to find moments of solitude in their daily practices. Community remains vital to Christian life: “Into the community [Christians] were called, the call was not meant for [them] alone; in the community of the called [they] bear [their] cross[es], [they] struggle, [they] pray” (77). The work that each person puts in during their practice of solitude makes them stronger and readier to accept the duties, fellowship, and gifts that come with a Christian community. Given the dangers dissidents faced meeting publicly in Nazi Germany, such practices would have been particularly crucial at the time Bonhoeffer was writing, lending additional urgency to his message. 

In explaining how to approach solitude, he divides the chapter according to four primary principles that build upon one another: solitude and silence, meditation, prayer, and intercession. Though all can be practiced in solitude, the order of these loosely charts a progression from the individual back to the community (“intercession” necessarily involves relationship, where silence, meditation, etc., do not), mirroring Bonhoeffer’s overall argument. However, Bonhoeffer insists that all of these principles be understood in terms of community. The discipline of silence, for example, makes the Christian a better listener and a better speaker: “[S]ilence before the Word leads to right hearing and also to right speaking of the Word of God at the right time” (80). Silence and solitude result in patience and wisdom when dealing with others. Even when providing guidance for solitary acts, Bonhoeffer is thus always pointing back to the book’s theme of Christian fellowship. 

Silence, for Bonhoeffer, flows naturally into meditation—reflection on what one apprehends when approaching God’s Word. Here again, Bonhoeffer demonstrates his insistence on Christians personally studying and knowing the Scriptures, and this part of the chapter demonstrates some of the different techniques he taught and practiced himself when doing so. Notably, Bonhoeffer draws a parallel between different approaches to reading the Bible—seeking overarching patterns versus close reading particular passages—and the life of the community versus the life of the individual. The parallel is partly practical, with Bonhoeffer recommending a holistic approach in church and a more granular approach in solitude, but it also symbolically reinforces Bonhoeffer’s message that the individual and community are inseparable, just as particular biblical passages cannot be divorced from their broader context.

Bonhoeffer distinguishes individual prayer from prayer in community by explaining that solitary prayer is born out of meditation. Even this, however, can look outward to benefit others. He writes that it is common for the mind to wander to people or events during prayer. Instead of becoming anxious or feeling ashamed of this, Christians should work “quite calmly to incorporate into [their] prayer the people and the events to which [their] thoughts keep straying and in all patience return to the starting point of the meditation” (85). The ability to look beyond the self, even in moments of solitude, is a common thread throughout Life Together and is related to the theme of The Relationship Between Humility, Confession, and Forgiveness (humility being a kind of self-forgetfulness). 

Intercession, one of the key terms in the text, is further explored in this chapter. Bonhoeffer describes intercession as something to be practiced daily and something that is required of all Christians, writing, “Every Christian has his own circle who have requested him to make intercession for them or for whom he knows he has been called upon especially to pray. These will be, first of all, those with whom he must live day by day” (85). Intercession therefore explicitly supports the theme of Christian fellowship as an act that strengthens the bond between Christians—even those who might not be particularly friendly with one another.