Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Week 4: Chapter 3 — The Day Alone
Read Chapter 3 ('The Day Alone') of Life Together. Primary Scripture: Matthew 6:6; Mark 1:35.
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In a book about community, the chapter on solitude is perhaps the most surprising — and Bonhoeffer argues that you cannot be truly present to others until you have first learned to be alone.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Bonhoeffer opens with a striking double claim: 'Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community. Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone.' What is the logic of this paradox? Why do solitude and community require each other?
2.He warns against the person who flees into community to escape the silence and encounter of solitude — someone for whom 'the community is an escape from God.' Have you ever used busyness, socializing, or church activity to avoid being alone with yourself and with God?
a.What is it about solitude that feels threatening or uncomfortable?
b.What might God be waiting to say in the silence that the noise of community keeps us from hearing?
3.Bonhoeffer prescribes a specific practice of solitude: a daily time of personal Scripture meditation, personal prayer, and intercession. He distinguishes personal meditation from the community's Bible reading by saying that in personal meditation, 'we expose ourselves to the specific word until it addresses us personally.' What is the difference between reading the Bible *about* God and reading the Bible as a direct encounter *with* God?
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