Summer Reading Series: Book 1 - Radical Integrity

One of the reasons I love the summer time in the campus ministry world is I get to take some dedicated time to read.  As I write that, it seems quite weird to me because I used to HATE to read.  In high school, I remember using Cliff Notes all the time, or better yet, in AP English, we had our own Cliff Notes in the two brightest students in class who ended up being Valedictorian and Salutatorian.  I would just sit and listen to Emily and Ashely explain all the "fascinating" things they learned in reading and then regurgitate those on tests.  It served me quite well for the time being.  In college, I didn't read much either mainly because I didn't enjoy it.  However, when it was time for seminary, I had to make a choice: learn to love to read or be miserable because reading had to happen.  So, now I love reading and I see incredible benefits in doing it.

So this summer I have chosen a variety of books from different field, subjects, and authors.  Some of them might be beneficial for you and some might not be, but hopefully these writings might help clarify some of my thoughts in reading and help spur you on to reading as well.

I have often heard the famous quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "When Jesus calls a person, he bids him come and die," and I also know of his work, "The Cost of Discipleship."  However, I have really not learned much about the man himself, and so I wanted to read a book this summer that would scratch the surface of Bonhoeffer.  So I picked up, "Radical Integrity: The Story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer" by Michael Van Dyke.  This was an incredibly easy read, and in fact once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down.  I read it in a couple sittings, and it was very enjoyable learning a brief biography of Bonhoeffer's life.  Van Dyke walks the reader through Bonhoeffer's maturity and into his ministry calling, and it is quite easy for the reader to feel the weight of the decisions Bonhoeffer has to deal with.

I would recommend this book as a surface level introduction - it does quite well orienting one with the general history of Nazi Germany and how Bonhoeffer lives, or rather dies in the context of the Holocaust.  One also sees how Bonhoeffer was dedicated to the cause of Christ while living in the midst of a moral dilemma and trying to make sense of faith while experiencing injustice.  As I read the book, I began to continually try to make sense of injustices happening today all across the world.  Additionally I was struck by how Bonhoeffer viewed "nominal Christians" or those who simply identified with the religion culture but had no relationship with Christ.

Van Dyke writes of Bonhoeffer's thoughts, “Berliners were in the mood to hear sermons that them feel better about their Fatherland, but they were not always receptive to messages that made them feel bad about their sin.  They wanted a religion that made them better Germans, not a religion that forced them to confront their inward need of a Savor.”(Page 66) 

And again, "To make an analogy, Christianity for them was like bull fighting in Spain.  They entered into the spirit of the crowd (or the culture) without understanding what they were doing, or why they were doing it.  Such people were living according to a mythological reality not a biblical one." (Page 174) 

Many people would label Bonhoeffer as a man of God - however, according to Van Dyke, “Bonhoeffer would not have called himself a man of God.  He was a man who loved God and tried to serve Him, but he was also a man who made mistakes and at times questioned God’s purposes.” (Page 204) 

As long as we live in this world, we too will make mistakes and sometimes even question God's purposes.  However, like Bonhoeffer and so many others who have gone before, we must walk by faith, trust God, and follow Christ even if it means death because to live is Christ and to die is gain!