Week 9: The Disciple and the World — Anxiety, Judgment, and the Narrow Gate

1.Bonhoeffer writes that anxiety is the natural result of trying to secure your own life — it is what happens when your eye is not "single" but divided between God and possessions. He says the antidote is not positive thinking but a reorientation of the whole self toward God. How does this connect to what he said earlier about single-minded obedience?

2."Consider the lilies" — Bonhoeffer takes seriously Jesus' appeal to the natural world as a theological argument: the birds and flowers are cared for by God without securing themselves. He says disciples are invited into this same creaturely trust. Does this feel naïve to you, or does it penetrate something real about your anxiety?

3.On judging others: Bonhoeffer argues that the disciple is not released from moral discernment — we must still know right from wrong — but we are released from the role of judge over our brother's soul. What is the difference between discernment and judgment in his framework?