The World

Our friend Danielle recently put up a post that included the following:

Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter to his brother in 1935: "The restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ. I think it is time to gather people together to do this."

Commenting on Bonhoeffer's letter, the theologian Walter Rauschenbusch wrote: "Christian ascetism called the world evil and abandoned it. Humanity is waiting for a Christian revolution which will call the world evil and change it."

With all due respect to Dr. Rauschenbusch I think I would slightly alter his response to Bonhoeffer's brilliant assessment:

Christian ascetism called the world evil and abandoned it. Humanity is waiting for a Christian revolution which will call the world good and love it.

Comments

[grace]

Nice alteration! We won't change the world if we don't love it. And if we love it, we won't see it as solely evil.

[Craig Weber]

I would propose a "call the world evil and love it" compromise...

It sort of speaks out against the lie that love is conditional on behavior, to me at least. It frees us [the world] to admit our sin without fear of forfeiting our Loved status.

Ultimately I think we're all saying the same thing with different words, but I really like everyone's commentary, regardless.

[Mike]

I hear you Craig. I initially thought of going that way, but I'm trying to avoid the "world is evil" dualism thing. I don't think I believe that any more. Good input though, thanks.