Abstract
This article investigates Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s distinct understanding of the correlation between the church’s discipleship and its conformation to Christ’s form. Bonhoeffer’s thought highlights a provocative question regarding spiritual formation and the life of the church: Is Christian formation the proper aim of discipleship, and thus its product, or is it a consequence of discipleship, and hence its byproduct? Though Bonhoeffer disagreed with the idea that formation occurs as Christians “strive to become like Jesus,” he does acknowledge that formation occurs by Christians striving towards something. This article pays particular attention to understanding how this “something” for which Christians strive relates to God’s work of conformation and thereby highlights Bonhoeffer’s distinct perspective on human and divine agency in the process of Christian formation. The article engages relevant sections of Discipleship to develop core aspects of Bonhoeffer’s thought regarding the relationship between the life of the church and the specifically formative nature of Christian existence. This permits me to note the effects of discipleship and how these effects correspond to what the disciple intends in following Christ. On this basis, we recognize the difference between what disciples intend in their obedience to Christ and what God works through their discipleship. This reveals a strict asymmetry within Bonhoeffer’s account of Christian life and its effects, and draws attention to God’s sole agency in Christian formation. For Bonhoeffer, Christian formation is determined by an asymmetrical agency, in which formation in Christ is a byproduct of the church’s discipleship to Christ, even as such formation is not—indeed cannot—be its original objective.
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