The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Published 1937 · 352 pages · 65,827 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality
How hard is The Cost of Discipleship to read?
The Cost of Discipleship scores 35 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 40 out of 100
- Theological vocabulary. Biblical exegesis.
- Sentence structure: 38 out of 100
- Abstraction: 50 out of 100
- Abstract theological argument grounded in scriptural analysis.
- Information density: 52 out of 100
- Dense theological meditation and biblical commentary.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Systematic commentary on the Sermon on the Mount.
- Symbolic density: 28 out of 100
- Rich in biblical symbolism. Cross as central symbol.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- Earnest, prophetic tone.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- Calls for radical commitment without promising worldly success.
- Structural complexity: 28 out of 100
- Systematic commentary with theological digressions.
How The Cost of Discipleship is regarded
The Cost of Discipleship holds a literary regard score of 82 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.