The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Week 8: The Hidden Righteousness — Piety in Secret
Read Chapters 15-18 of The Cost of Discipleship (on almsgiving, prayer, fasting, and treasures). Key passages: Matthew 6:1-21.
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Having addressed our visible conduct in the world, Bonhoeffer now turns to our secret life with God — and the danger that even our devotion becomes a performance.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Bonhoeffer argues that "righteous" acts done to be seen by others — almsgiving, prayer, fasting — are not discipleship but its imitation, and he calls this the "most dangerous" form of religious corruption. Why is religious performance more dangerous than open irreligion?
2.He says that the left hand must not know what the right hand is doing — the disciple's good deeds must become so genuinely selfless that the disciple himself scarcely notices them. What is the spiritual discipline this requires? Can you honestly say your acts of generosity are hidden in this way?
3.On prayer: Bonhoeffer presents the Lord's Prayer as the model prayer of the disciple community — a prayer that begins with "Our Father" and immediately places us in the community of Christ's disciples rather than in individual spiritual isolation. How does praying the Lord's Prayer in community change its meaning compared to praying it alone?
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