Bonhoeffer Chapter Summary

Living in Christian community is a necessity for the everyday life of a Christian. Without community, the Christian has no one else to “sharpen” them, no one else to understand the everyday struggle of living in the world, sharing the Gospel, but not partaking in the sinful ways of the world. In “Life Together”, Dietrich Bonhoeffer explores Christian community, and presents not only the benefits of Christian community, but also the toxins that can destroy the community. Living in Christian community brings incomparable joy and community in and through Jesus Christ, but can be easily lost due to humanistic ideals, or “dreams”.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains a variety of topics about the reformation of the church in his book on Life Together. Something that was very powerful for me while reading this great work is the power of silence for Bonhoeffer. He explains the importance of listening. The ability to be silent while a brother or sister of Christ is speaking is very powerful. Listening to God through people is something that I have been battling in church recently. Based on Bonhoeffer, Life Together, I have learned how important to listen to my brothers and sisters in Christ because it would be the same to listen to God.

I find that after spending time in solitude, I am able to serve others better. The inner solidarity borne out of a heart of solitude lessens my frustrations and enables me to accept others where they are.

Chapter 19 of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life deal’s with Jeremy’s birthday. He receives a letter from his father. The letter is a very thoughtful and caring one and it was written just after Jeremy’s 8th birthday. It starts off how Mr. Fink writes about a trip to the zoo where a motherless bear cub was taken in by a tiger who had just given birth. It says that Jeremy had thought that was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and his parents were awed by him. The letter also explained the things Mr. Fink had learned in his life. Mr. Fink had asked his father if any could predict somebody’s future and his father replied “The future changes everyday. We, not someone else have the power to create our own lives.” This is something Mr. Fink

In this book, Jeffrey Ogbar talks about the beginning of rap, where it started, some of the artists of this genre and some of the controversial topics the artists rap about. He also talks about the usage of the N word as well as men calling women the B word. In the first chapter of the book, Ogbar contextualizes the debate by talking about the history of the minstrel figure in American popular culture, relying mainly on the work of W. T. Lhamon and Patricia Hill Collins. He talks about how the earliest manifestations of hip-hop music in the 1970s came from the Black Power movement and often included direct rejections of minstrel tropes for example in the artist KRS-One’s song “My Philosophy”. Before going on a chronological study of the internal debates that many rappers have over their relationships with the minstrel trope, Ogbar finds the source of the debate in early twentieth-century black writers’, mainly W.E.B Du Bois, interest in elevating many portrayals of African Americans in the arts, versus Harlem Renaissance writers’ rejection of the emphasis on

In (Matthew 6:6 NIV), Jesus explains the merits of praying to the lord God and the reward of inner peace, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret: and your father who sees in secret will reward you.” It is through this conversation with God that Christians pursue peace in their lives. Prayer can either be private or communal, spontaneous prayer is one way that charismatic communities can come closer to God. The act of prayer allows believers to have a personal conversation with God; it alleviates stress attributed to the monotony of everyday life. Besides prayer, meditation is another way of attaining inner peace, it is an ancient practice within the Christian tradition, which has undertaken a recent revival, a global group that reaffirms the concept of praying and meditating for inner peace is Taizé. Not as popular as prayer and meditation, Lectio Divina, generally known as bible studies is a way for Christians to feel connected to God and to finally attain inner peace. The studying of the sacred scriptures on a day to day basis and reflecting on prayers also maintain a continual connection with God. It is vital to maintain equilibrium between prayer and service, whereby an individual fathoms the notion ‘ora et labora’, in order to equally partake in both prayer, and the concept of action whereby ora develops inner peace, which is mirrored through the

In 1906, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born along with his twin sister Sabine in Breslau, Germany to neurologist Karl Bonhoeffer and his wife Paula. Growing up, Dietrich was expected to follow the footsteps of his father and his older siblings into the field of medicine, however it was quite a surprise for them to hear that he had decided to become a pastor. This was shocking news to the Bonhoeffers because they were not religious family. Bonhoeffer graduated from the University of Berlin in 1927 with a doctorate degree in the field theology at the age of only twenty-one. He believed that Christians needed to be involved in politics and work together in order to establish God’s kingdom on earth.

Eric Schlosser starts with the scenery of Colorado Springs, how in just three decades it went from vast, open nature, to having fast food restaurants placed anywhere and everywhere readily accessible. A majority of land withholding pure nature and free roaming animals was a view to others, the opportunity to place mass fast food corporations. These mass fast food corporations have not only broadened the American’s average diet, it has also affected the landscape, culture, and the overall economy of America. The culture of the average citizen’s meal included going to the grocery store to buy food staples such as vegetables or meat, that were to be prepared later for homemade meals. Nowadays, the popular culture of American citizens is to hit

Through solitude, we have the opportunity to retreat and be alone with God. We are away from the hustle and bustle of our chaotic days. We are not concerned with work, school, or family, which allows us to rid ourselves of the noise pollution that effects “the sacred within.” During times of solitude we can readjust our focus and thoughts on love for ourselves and our love for God. We can center ourselves and as Narsinha Mehta writes, “They are pure in thought, word, and deed. Free from greed, anger, and fear, These are the real lovers of God.” (Easwaren, 1982. P. 148). This time in solitude allows us the ability to confess our faults and motivates us to seek God.

I am going to blatantly honest with you, Benjamin Radford makes discovering a possibility of a new species seem so boring. In all honesty I sometimes feel as if he takes his sweet time to get to the conclusion of his findings. Maybe it is because I hate scientific articles maybe it’s because I hate finding out that the goat sucker doesn’t really exist. I don’t know, but criticism of the book aside, there is not much you can say about how credible a source is when you are hunting down a cryptid. What chapter five and chapter six mostly consisted of was Radfords retelling of eyewitness encounters with the elusive beast. My biggest problem with this book is that Radford is looking for this creature but he’s doing it in a half ass job. To me it

In this chapter, Macduff starts off by saying that it is thanks to the actions of agitators in the past that governments have redirected towards more democratic societies. Here, she uses Martin Luther King as an example during the Civil Rights Movement. It was thanks to his civil disobedience tactics that the United States government was able to move forward and recognize its wrong doings. As the chapter continues, Macduff talks about how the Australian government limits and manipulates the meaning of active citizenship to its constituents. She makes the argument that the Australian government fails to support the principle of active citizenship value it promises. For example, the rituals and pledges the Australian government enforces to future

Referencing the Bible, she utilizes an excerpt to suggest past rationale for the concern of solitude stating “Bear ye one another’s burdens… how few the burdens are that one soul can bear for another” (Stanton, 5).

The American frontier was a vast area of free land. The dividing line of the frontier was a boundary line that was continuously moving farther and farther west with each generation. It’s the frontier, and subsequently its boundaries, that determined the path of history more than other events. As the expansion of the west continued the attractions and conveniences of things were farther apart, yet the reward of moving westward reaped its benefits in the ways that each and every person had a chance to make their future and had the west as a blank canvas..

In Chapter 15, Zinsser talks about the difficulties people have writing about science and technology. Zinsser says that most people have trouble with these topics because people don’t really know what they are writing about. A lot of writers won’t put in effort to learn about what they are asked to write about. They can’t write about what they don’t understand, so they are just putting meaningless words on their paper. He even stated that most scientists out there don’t like wring about their own interests and discoveries because they aren’t good at writing. Zinsser says that when you write about science and technology, you should make it simple to readers so that they understand. You should write out and explain the steps that occur so that

“When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death – ourselves.” – Eda LeShan. It’s a busy, busy day here in our lives. It would be nice if we can just press pause for a moment, so we can indulge the seconds of relief. I don’t think there’s anyone who wishes they couldn’t have a time out from everybody and everything. In “Daystar” by Rita Dove and “Loneliness” by Leon Neyfakh both share the same concept, spending time by yourself is healthy for an individual. They portray this content using the elements of tone, language, and imagery. They both are really intergrading in the fact people should give themselves a break.