Together and Alone…

The other day I ran across an interesting set of quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In Life Together, Bonhoeffer's small work on…well, life together, he identifies two dangers: not being able to be alone and not being able to be with the fellowshipping, worshipping community. Here's what he says,

"Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and to the community…You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ's call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called." 

But, then he says,"The reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren [and sistern], you reject the call of Jesus Christ and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you." (Life Together, page 77)

Bonhoeffer will go on to say that aloneness and being with the community need to be developed together. I wonder how much distress, how much heartache, and how much trouble could be averted in the church if we all spent time alone so that we could be together and time together so that we could be alone? Too often the church has emphasized one practice over the other. At times we call our people to a rich devotional life but then don't encourage them to truly do life together. By that I mean to engage in developing true, deep, and vulnerable relationships. These kinds of relationships will last over space and time, but are extremely hard to cultivate. It means we have to be open and willing to confess our sins and weaknesses with other sinful and weak persons who just might use our confessions against us. We can be inwardly pious people, but if we cannot lean on the strength of the confessing community, then our piety will ultimately fade away or cause us to think we are better than others.

Other times, the church stresses community but no inward piety. When the church does this, it is, at best, a social club. At its worst, it is a collection of bitter, hurt, and suspicious individuals who constantly seek for self-fulfillment, power, and advantage. Ok, so this might be a little bit of a simplification or overstatement. The Spirit still has power to work in the collected lives of individuals to shape and to form us into the likeness of Christ. But it's much a harder climb.

The key is to hold the two together. We must develop rich times of individual prayer, contemplation, meditation, and worship. But we must do the hard, messy work of developing true relationships with the community. Times alone help us be better neighbors. Times together helps us better develop our relationship with Jesus Christ as we are sharpened and encouraged.

What do you think? Can we be Christian without being alone? Can we be Christian without being together? Have you seen the effects of an over emphasis in either direction? Or, is Dietrich Bonhoeffer crazy?