Bonhoeffer Quotes

Collection of famous quotes and sayings about Bonhoeffer.

Quotes About Bonhoeffer

Enjoy collection of 100 Bonhoeffer quotes. Download and share images of famous quotes about Bonhoeffer. Righ click to see and save pictures of Bonhoeffer quotes that you can use as your wallpaper for free.

If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is from God that parents receive their children, and it is to God that they should lead them. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
After death something new begins, over which all powers of the world of death have no more might. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The fact that the fool is often stubborn must not mislead us into thinking that he is independent. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In the world God wills work, marriage, government, and church, and God wills all these, each in its own way, through Christ, toward Christ, and in Christ. God has placed human beings under all these mandates, not only each individual under one or the other, but all people under all four. There can be no retreat, therefore, from a "worldly" into a "spiritual" "realm." The practice of the Christian life can be learned only under these four mandates of God. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Loving God means rejoicing in God, being eager to think of and pray to God. It means being glad to be in God's presence and to be with God alone. It means not grieving God, but rejoicing in God simply because it is God who is involved, and because we are permitted to know and have God, and to speak with and live with God. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Seek God, not happiness - this is the fundamental rule of all meditation. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness: that is its promise. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Christian is the man who no longer seeks his salvation, his deliverance, his justification in himself, but in Jesus Christ alone. He knows that God's Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him guilty, even when he does not feel his guilt, and God's Word in Jesus Christ pronounces him not guilty and righteous, even when he does not feel that he is righteous at all. The Christian no longer lives of himself, by his own claims and his own justification, but by God's claims and God's justification. He lives wholly by God's Word pronounced upon him, whether that Word declares him guilty or innocent. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God of the gaps" Christianity seeks to present Christianity as playing a strong savior role whereby it fills the gaps and provides the missing links for all of society's questions and concerns. This entails the view of God riding into town and miraculously saving the day (deus ex machina). On this view, God delivers his people from their (and his) enemies - in Bonhoeffer's case, the Nazis. In contrast, in Letters and Papers from Prison, Bonhoeffer writes that God allows us to push him out of the world and onto the cross. ~ Paul Louis Metzger
Bonhoeffer quotes by Paul Louis Metzger
The attempt to understand reality apart from that action of God in and upon reality means living in anabstraction; it means failing to live in reality and vacillating between the extremes of a servile attitude toward the status quo and a protest in principle against it. Only God's becoming human makes possible an action that is genuinely in accord with reality. The world remains world. But it only does so because God has taken care of it and declared it to be under God's rule. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is a wicked sophistry to justify the worldliness of the Church by the cross of Christ. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sanctification means that the Christians have been judged already, and that they are being preserved until the coming of Christ and are ever advancing towards it. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Grace is costly because it calls us through our person to the person of Jesus Christ. And when we follow the person of Jesus Christ, when we follow his call through our person, we're sent to act for the concrete person of our neighbor in the world. ~ Andrew Root
Bonhoeffer quotes by Andrew Root
Easter is not about immortality but about resurrection from a death that is a real death with all its frightfulness and horrors, resurrection from a death of the body and the soul, of the whole person, resurrection by the power of God's mighty act. This is the Easter message. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Christian, however, must bear the burden of a brother. He must suffer and endure the brother. It is only when he is a burden that another person is really a brother and not merely an object to be manipulated. The burden of men was so heavy for God Himself that He had to endure the Cross. God verily bore the burden of men in the body of Jesus Christ. But He bore them as a mother carries her child, as a shepherd enfolds the lost lamb that has been found. God took men upon Himself and they weighted Him to the ground, but God remained with them and they with God. In bearing with men God maintained fellowship with them. It was the law of Christ that was fulfilled in the Cross. And Christians must share in this law. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The person who's in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do. To that there is only one answer. You can only know and think about it by actually doing it. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Events cast their shadows ahead; before a harsh winter, wild animals grow thicker fur, and the beaver puts on a thicker layer of fat. What kind of times and what sort of tasks can lie ahead for a generation that must think so harshly, even at such a young age, in order to survive? ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Nevertheless, it is the free grace of the resurrected One that now also goes after the individual, overcomes the doubter, and creates in him the Easter faith. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God's truth judges created things out of love, and Satan's truth judges them out of envy and hatred. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The idea that we could have avoided many of life's difficulties if we had taken things more cautiously is too foolish to be entertained for a moment. As I look back on your past I am so convinced that what has happened hitherto has been right, that I feel that what is happening now is right too. To renounce a full life and its real joys in order to avoid pain is neither Christian nor human. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If any want to become my followers," Jesus says. Following him is not something that is self-evident, even among the disciples. No one can be forced, no one can be expected to follow him ... "If any want to follow me, they must deny themselves ... and take up their cross. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As Christians, we needn't be at all ashamed of some impatience, longing, opposition to what is unnatural, and our full share of desire for freedom, earthly happiness, and opportunity for effective work. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The lack of mystery in our modern life is our downfall and our poverty. A human life is worth as much as the respect it holds for the mystery. We retain the child in us to the extent that we honor the mystery. Therefore, children have open, wide-awake eyes, because they know that they are surrounded by the mystery. They are not yet finished with this world; they still don't know how to struggle along and avoid the mystery, as we do. We destroy the mystery because we sense that here we reach the boundary of our being, because we want to be lord over everything and have it at our disposal, and that's just what we cannot do with the mystery…. Living without mystery means knowing nothing of the mystery of our own life, nothing of the mystery of another person, nothing of the mystery of the world; it means passing over our own hidden qualities and those of others and the world. It means remaining on the surface, taking the world seriously only to the extent that it can be calculated and exploited, and not going beyond the world of calculation and exploitation. Living without mystery means not seeing the crucial processes of life at all and even denying them. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
His soul really shone in the dark desperation of our prison ... [Bonhoeffer] had always been afraid that he would not be strong enough to stand such a test but now he knew there was nothing in life of which one need ever be afraid. ~ Payne Best
Bonhoeffer quotes by Payne Best
The truth is that so long as we hold both sides of the proposition together they contain nothing inconsistent with right belief, but as soon as one is divorced from the other, it is bound to prove a stumbling block. "Only those who believe obey" is what we say to that part of a believer's soul which obeys, and "only those who obey believe" is what we say to that part of the soul of the obedient which believes. If the first half of the proposition stands alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of cheap grace, which is another word for damnation. If the second half stands alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of salvation through works, which is also another word for damnation. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
But the Christian also knows that he not only cannot and dare not be anxious, but that there is no need for him to be so. Neither anxiety now work can secure his daily bread, for bread is the gift of the Father. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This makes it clear that intercession is also a daily service we owe to God and our brother. He who denies his neighbour the service of praying for him denies him the service of a Christian. It is clear, furthermore, that intercession is not general and vague but very concrete: a matter of definite persons and definite difficulties and therefore of definite petitions. The more definite my intercession becomes, the more promising it is. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
They get married, but their marriage will look quite different from marriage as the world understands it. Christian marriage will be undertaken "in the Lord" (I Cor. 7.39). It will be sanctified in the service of the Body of Christ and in the discipline of prayer and self-control (I Cor. 7.5). It will be a parable of the self-sacrificing love of Christ for his Church. It will even be itself a part of the Body of Christ, a Church in miniature (Eph. 5.32). ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The richness of God's Word ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer knew that when the church stops talking about Jesus, it has nothing to say. And when it assumes dominance, it's not talking about Jesus. ~ Samuel Wells
Bonhoeffer quotes by Samuel Wells
I need the wisdom, reasoning, and apologetics of C. S. Lewis, though some of his theological beliefs are different from mine. I need the preaching and charisma of Charles Spurgeon, though his view of baptism is different from mine. I need the resurrection vision of N. T. Wright and the theology of Jonathan Edwards, though their views on church government are different from mine. I need the passion and prophetic courage of Martin Luther King Jr., the cultural intelligence of Soong-Chan Rah, and the Confessions of St. Augustine, though their ethnicities are different from mine. I need the justice impulse and communal passion of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, though his nationality is different from mine. I need the spiritual thirst and love drive of Brennan Manning and the prophetic wit of G. K. Chesterton, though both are Roman Catholics and I am a Protestant. I need the hymns and personal holiness of John and Charles Wesley, though some of their doctrinal distinctives are different from mine. I need the glorious weakness of Joni Eareckson Tada, the spirituality of Marva Dawn, the trusting perseverance of Elisabeth Elliot, the long-suffering spirit of Amy Carmichael, the transparency of Rebekah Lyons, the thankfulness of Ann Voskamp, the Kingdom vision of Amy Sherman, and the integrity of Patti Sauls, though their gender is different from mine. As St. Augustine reputedly said, "In nonessentials, liberty." To this we might add, "In nonessentials, open-minded receptivity." We Christians m ~ Scott Sauls
Bonhoeffer quotes by Scott Sauls
No one can become a new man except by entering the Church, and becoming a member of the body of Christ. It is impossible to become a new man as a solitary individual. The new man means more than the individual believer after he has been justified and sanctified. It means the Church, the Body of Christ, in fact it means Christ himself. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We break bread with the hungry[78] and share our home with them[79] for the sake of Christ's love, which belongs to the hungry as much as it does to us. If the hungry do not come to faith, the guilt falls on those who denied them bread. To bring bread to the hungry is preparing the way for the coming of grace. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The renewal of the Church will come from a new type of monasticism which only has in common with the old an uncompromising allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount. It is high time people banded together to do this. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Life is not a thing, an essence, or a concept,[10] but a person - more specifically, a particular and unique person. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We have been silent witnesses to ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When our will wholeheartedly enters into the prayer of Christ, then we pray correctly. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This fact that we are brethren only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance. Not only the other person who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seeking brotherhood, must I deal with in fellowship. My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from his sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spiriruality and piety, constirutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in
what Christ has done to both of us. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation for which, O Lord, You taught us to prepare. And when this cup You give is filled to brimming with bitter suffering, hard to understand, we take it thankfully and without trembling, out of so good and so beloved a hand. Yet when again in this same world You give us the joy we had, the brightness of Your Sun, we shall remember all the days we lived through, and our whole life shall then be Yours alone. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Only when Christian faith in God is lost do people feel compelled to make use of all means - even criminal - to force the victory of their cause. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What we are in ourselves, and what we owe to others makes us a complete whole. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The child asks of the Father whom he knows. Thus, the essence of Christian prayer is not general adoration, but definite, concrete petition. The right way to approach God is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We cannot approach the manger of the Christ child in the same way we approach the cradle of another child. Rather, when we go to his manger, something happens, and we cannot leave it again unless we have been judged or redeemed. Here we must either collapse or know the mercy of God directed toward us. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It seems to me more important actually to share someones distress than to use smooth words about it. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God wants to see human beings, not ghosts who shun the world ... Our marriage must be a 'yes' to God's earth. It must strengthen our resolve to do and accomplish something on earth. I fear that Christians who venture to stand on earth on only one leg will stand in heaven on only one leg too. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Not hero worship, but intimacy with Christ. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Time lost is time not filled, time left empty. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Only he who gives thanks for the little things receives the big things. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Only the suffering God can help. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Through our daily meals He is calling us to rejoice, to keep holiday in the midst of our working day. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If I should still be kept in this hole over Christmas, don't worry about it. I'm not really anxious about it. One can keep Christmas as a Christian even in prison - more easily than family occasions, anyhow. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer categorically refuses to demythologize the resurrection ... he finally walked to his execution, saying that for him it was the beginning of life. ~ K Hamilton
Bonhoeffer quotes by K Hamilton
The root of all sin is pride, superbia. I want to be my own law, I have a right to my self, my hatred and my desires, my life and my death. The ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If you believe, take the first step, it leads to Jesus Christ. If you don't believe, take the first step all the same, for you are bidden to take it. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Why do Christians sing when they are together? The reason is, quite simply, because in singing together it is possible for them to speak and pray the same Word at the same time; in other words, because here they can unite in the Word. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge ... We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don't know; God wants us to realize his presence, not in unsolved problems but in those that are solved ... God is no stop-gap; he must be recognized as the center of life, not when we are at the end of our resources. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
You can only learn what obedience is by obeying ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An abstract Christology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge on the subject of grace or on the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact they positively exclude any idea of discipleship whatever, and are essentially inimical to the whole conception of following Christ. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
May we be enabled to say "No" to sin and "Yes" to the sinner. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What is the "extraordinary"? It is the love of Jesus Christ himself, love that goes to the cross in suffering obedience. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Incarnation is the ultimate reason why the service of God cannot be divorced from the service of man. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Many persons seek community because they are afraid of loneliness...those who take refuge in community while fleeing from themselves are misuing it to indulge in empty talk and distraction, no matter how spiritual this idle talk and distraction may appear...it is precisely such misuse of community that creates deadly isolation of human beings. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The cross is God's truth about us, and therefore it is the only power thatcanmakeustruthful.Whenwe know the cross we are no longer afraid of the truth. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I'm now reading Tertullian, Cyprian, and others of the church fathers with great interest. In some ways they are more relevant to our time than the Reformers, and at the same time they provide a basis for talks between Protestants and Roman Catholics. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Help must come from the outside, and it has come and comes daily and answers in the Word of Jesus Christ ... ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Who am I? They often tell me I would step from my cell's confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country-house.

Who am I? They often tell me I would talk to my warden freely and friendly and clearly, as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me I would bear the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of, or am I only what I know of myself, restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds, thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation, tossing in expectation of great events, powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, faint and ready to say farewell to it all.

Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today, and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army, fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine! ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Why are we so afraid when we think about death? Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God's Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in Him. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is not that God is the spectator and sharer of our present life, howsoever important that is; but rather that we are the reverent listeners and participants in God's action in the sacred story, the history of the Christ on earth. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Why does the Old Testament law never punish anyone by depriving him of his freedom? ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
One who loves his community destroys community; one who loves its members builds community. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Discipleship can tolerate no conditions which might come between Jesus and our obedience to him. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
One's task is not to turn the world upside down, but to do what is necessary at the given place and with a due consideration of reality. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
For the rest of mankind to be with Christ means death, but for Christians it is a means of grace. Baptism is their assurance that they are "dead with Christ", "crucified with him", "buried with him", "planted together in the likeness of his death". All this creates in them the assurance that they will also live with him. "We with Christ"
for Christ is Emmanuel, "God with us." Only when we know Christ in this way is our being with him the source of grace. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
That fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than that fact that I will die. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It's much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, than a vain person praying. Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy ... He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Psalter is the prayer book of Jesus Christ in the truest sense of the word. He prayed the Psalter and now it has become his prayer for all time ... we understand how the Psalter can be prayer to God and yet God's own Word, precisely because here we encounter the praying Christ ... because those who pray the psalms are joining in with the prayer of Jesus Christ, their prayer reaches the ears of God. Christ has become their intercessor ... ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Call to Discipleship And as he passed by he saw Levi, the son of Alpaeus, sitting at the place of toll, and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. (Mark 2.14) THE CALL goes forth, and is at once followed by the response of obedience. The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confession of faith in Jesus. How could the call immediately evoke obedience? ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus' commandment never wishes to destroy life, but rather to preserve, strengthen, and heal life. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Those sentimental radio hits, with their artificial naivete and empty crudities, are the pitiful remains and the maximum that people will tolerate by way of mental effort; it's a ghastly desolation and impoverishmment. By contrast, we can be very glad when something affects us deeply, and regard the accompanying pains as an enrichment. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Is Christian ethics merely a specific set of Christian answers to the question of good and evil, right and wrong? To make it no more than this is to forget that man's fall was a fall into the knowledge of good and evil, reinforced by the inexorable knowledge of a condemning law, and that man's restoration in Christ is a restoration to freedom and grace, to a love that needs no law since it knows and does only what is in accord with love and with God. To imprison ethics in the realm of division, of good and evil, right and wrong, is to condemn it to sterility, and rob it of its real reason for existing, which is love. Love cannot be reduced to one virtue among many others prescribed by ethical imperatives. When love is only "a virtue" among many, man forgets that "God is love" and becomes incapable of that all-embracing love by which we secretly begin to know God as our Creator and Redeemer - who has saved us from the limitations of a purely restrictive and aimless existence "under a law."

So Bonhoeffer says very rightly: "In the knowledge of good and evil man does not understand himself in the reality of the destiny appointed in his origin, but rather in his own possibilities, his possibility of being good or evil. He knows himself now as something apart from God, outside God, and this means that he now knows only himself and no longer knows God at all…. The knowledge of good and evil is therefore separation from God. Only against God can man know good and evil. ~ Thomas Merton
Bonhoeffer quotes by Thomas Merton
Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the ripe fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot. But all too often the greedy eyes are only deceived; the fruit that seemed so precious is still green on the inside, and disrespected hands ungratefully toss aside what has so disappointed them. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Once again, Jesus calls those who follow him to share his passion. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus is the only significance. Beside Jesus nothing has any significance. He alone matters. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
No, God and the world, God and its goods are incompatible, because the world and its goods make a bid for our hearts, and only when they have won them do they become what they really are. That is how they thrive, and that is why they are incompatible with allegiance to God. Our hearts have room only for one all-embracing devotion, and we can only cleave to one Lord. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the total orientation of one's life towards a goal. Without such a goal, chastity is bound to become ridiculous. Chastity is the sine qua non of lucidity and concentration. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Spread The Wings Quotes «
» Costly Grace Quotes