Bonhoeffer on Community and Individuality

“Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community.  Such people will only do harm to themselves and to the community.  Alone you stood before God when God called you.  Alone you had to obey God’s voice.  Alone you had to take up your cross, struggle, and pray and alone you will die and give an account to God.  You cannot avoid yourself, for it is precisely God who has singled you out.  If you do not want to be alone, you are rejecting Chris’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called…  But the reverse is also true.  Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone.  You are called into the community of faith, the call was not meant for you alone.  You carry your cross, you struggle, and you pray in the community of faith, the community of those who are called.  You are not alone even when you die, and on th day of judgment you will be only one member of the great community of faith in Jesus Christ.  If you neglect the community of other Christians, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your being alone can only become harmful for you.” - Bonhoeffer

It is Both And - not - Either Or