March 3, 2008

Bonhoeffer on Chastity

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and activist in the German Resistance movement against Nazism.  His involvement in assassination plots against Adolf Hitler resulted in his imprisonment in 1943 and hanging two years later, just before the end of World War II.  

I like Bonhoeffer's view on chastity, from his book Letters and Papers from Prison:

"The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the total orientation of one's life towards a goal."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Dustan, found your blog via another blog that had posted a "topic" about your blog: http://signposts2.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/hillong-is-popular-like-smoking-binge-drinking-and-eating-fast-food-every-week/

Just curious as to why a "lead pastor" such as yourself is advocating someone like Bonhoeffer? I thought our example was Christ who told us that rather than assassinate our enemies we were to love them and pray for them (Matthew 5.44)? If you do a little research you will find that the Roman government of Christ's day was every bit as ruthless and oppressive as the Nazi's (even more so in some cases) and yet, Christ never instructed anyone to lift a finger against them but that rather we were to pray for those in positions of power (1 Timothy 1.1-2) Just curious as to your reasons? Thanks - Bill