Christianity of the Gospels

The Christianity of the Gospels predates that of Pauline Christianity. One cannot have Paul's writings and take them to be all that Christian life is. Far from it! Everything Paul taught and said was build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. It is impossible to have just Paul alone, for they build upon the Gospels and Words of Jesus, which proceeded naturally and completely from the Hebrew Scripture, the Torah and the Prophets.

What I appreciate about the "Cost of Discipleship" is that it's premise is the return to Jesus alone and His Word, to the core of our faith, to what it first was, without which the rest of the epistles become meaningless.

The "Cost of Discipleship" cannot be simply dismissed as "just one man's teaching" in the pejorative sense, because the whole book is about Jesus. It is also a plea for Christians to return to the Word of Jesus and to cast off all man-made dogmas, traditions, heresies, etc.

The Call of Jesus resurfaced in the 1930s through this book. Before, it had been forgotten and hidden, mentioned but not understood. Now all the dross was cast away and the  pressing issue, the heart of the matter, thrust into the faith of Christians - Christ demands obedience, absolute, single-minded obedience to His Word and His Word alone. Nothing less that absolute allegiance and adherence to Him, conformation to His image, and the death to all religious program.

Bonhoeffer was not promoting his own writing or interpretation. He wrote to direct men back to the Words of Jesus Himself. 

It is a call to the Narrow Way.