Top 100 Quotes About Bonhoeffer
#1. Bonhoeffer's rule never to speak about a brother in his absence. Bonhoeffer knew that living according to what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount was not "natural" for anyone.
Eric Metaxas
#2. (Bonhoeffer's) change was not an ungainly, embarrassing leap from which he would have to retreat slightly when he gained more maturity and perspective. It was by all accounts a deepening consistent with what had gone before.
Eric Metaxas
#3. Bonhoeffer said it's not about hero worship, but intimacy with God.
Jan Karon
#4. You go after crude, rabble-rousing chancers like Ted Haggard, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, rather than sophisticated theologians like Tillich or Bonhoeffer who teach the sort of religion I believe in.
Richard Dawkins
#5. Bonhoeffer knew that twisting the Truth to sell it more effectively was inexcusable. For Bonhoeffer the challenge was to present the Truth as purely as possible without attempting to help it along or dress it up.
Eric Metaxas
#6. Bonhoeffer's experiences with African American community underscored an idea that was developing in his mind: the only real piety and power that he had seen in the American church seemed to be in the churches where there were a present reality and a past history of suffering.
Eric Metaxas
#7. 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
#8. The rich world of his ancestors set the standards for Dietrich Bonhoeffer's own life. It gave him a certainty of judgment and manner that cannot be acquired in a single generation.
Eric Metaxas
#9. I think Bonhoeffer rightly saw that the Christian acceptance that truth does not matter in such small matters prepared the ground for the terrible lie that was Hitler.
Stanley Hauerwas
#10. A shaking of heads, perhaps even an evil laugh, must go through our old, smart, experienced, self-assured world, when it hears the call of salvation of believing Christians: "For a child has been born for us, a son given to us."5 Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#11. Bonhoeffer's emphasis on the deep this-worldliness of Christianity does not lead to de-escahtologizing the gospel.
G. C. Berkouwer
#12. I do believe that we stand at a threshold, as Bonhoeffer did, and that the example of his life obliges me to speak about the gravity of our historical moment as I see it, in the knowledge that no society is at any time immune to moral catastrophe.
Marilynne Robinson
#13. As pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Nothing is so cruel as the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin."[2] Those
Ken Sande
#14. Bonhoeffer thought of death as the last station on the road to freedom.
Eric Metaxas
#15. A king who dies on the cross must be the king of a rather strange kingdom. Only those who understand the profound paradox of the cross can also understand the whole meaning of Jesus' assertion: my kingdom is not of this world. 2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lectures to the Congregation in Barcelona
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#16. Bonhoeffer's permanent legacy as a theologian has been to show that in the modern world, as in Josiah's and Huldah's Jerusalem, fostering the discomfiting yet life-giving practice of reading the Bible against ourselves is a major public responsibility of the Christian teacher and theologian.
Ellen F. Davis
#17. Joining the ranks of some notables who had penned powerful stuff behind bars. Saint Paul, the apostle. John Bunyan. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Martin Luther King Jr. But,
Craig Parshall
#18. Bonhoeffer did not expect his life to be a tidy edifice of perfection.
Samuel Wells
#19. The lecturer points to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's decision to get engaged while in prison as his "positive statement that life will go on," his affirmation of the power of love.
J. Rufus Fears
#20. It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who more than anybody else realized that nothing less than a return to the Christian faith could save Germany.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#21. Christianity contains within itself a germ hostile to the Church (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Eric Metaxas
#22. Community means caring: caring for people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: "He who loves community destroys community; he who loves the brethren builds community." A community is not an abstract ideal.
Jean Vanier
#23. Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic. Do not defend God's word, but testify to it. Trust to the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Eric Metaxas
#24. 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
#25. Ascension joy - inwardly we must become very quiet to hear the soft sound of this phrase at all. Joy lives in its quietness and incomprehensibility. This joy is in fact incomprehensible, for the comprehensible never makes for joy.1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#26. 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
#27. Christianity is not the faith of the complacent, the comfortable or of the timid. It demands and creates heroic souls like Wesley, Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer, John Paul the Second, and Billy Graham. Each showed, in their own way, the relentless and powerful influence of the message of Jesus Christ.
Mitt Romney
#28. Death reveals that the world is not as it should be but that it stands in need of redemption. Christ alone is the conquering of death. - DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
Eric Metaxas
#29. When someone asked Bonhoeffer whether he shouldn't join the German Christians in order to work against them from within, he answered that he couldn't. 'If you board the wrong train,' he said, 'it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction.
Eric Metaxas
#30. If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi and nonviolence. But if your enemy has no conscience like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.
Martin Luther King Jr.
#31. The church is to be set apart (sanctified) not by possessing a special religious piety but by participating in and manifesting the perfect eternal love of God. As Bonhoeffer said, Jesus calls men, not to a new religion, but to life.
Gregory A. Boyd
#32. Silence in the face of evil is evil itself: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#33. He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon no longer be listening to God, either. - DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
Various
#34. Describing Bonhoeffer's demeanor on returning to danger in Germany rather than safety in America, with with a strong and joyful firmness such as only arises out of realized freedom.
Eric Metaxas
#35. Bonhoeffer's thought is not determined by the ultimacy of this world but by his opposition to 'the separation ... (of) the two spheres of the sacred and secular' and his insistence that 'faith is always ... an act involving the whole life
Kenneth Hamilton
#36. If there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God's will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#37. I always have the feeling we are merely fearfully trying to save room for God; I would rather speak of God at the center than at the limits, in strength rather than weakness, and thus in human life and goodness rather than in death and guilt.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#38. Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#39. The religion of Christ is not a tidbit after One's bread; on the contrary, it is the bread or it is nothing. People should at least understand and concede this if they call themselves Christians.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#40. Telling the truth ... is not solely a matter of moral character; it is also a matter of correct appreciation of real situations and of serious reflection upon them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#42. The biggest mistake you can make in your life is to be always afraid of making a mistake.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#43. Only he who gives thanks for the little things receives the big things.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#44. Every Christian must be fully Christian by bringing God into his whole life, not merely into some spiritual realm.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#45. In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#46. The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#47. Christian marriage is marked by discipline and self-denial ... C hristianity does not therefore depreciate marriage, it sanctifies it.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#48. We are silent at the beginning of the day because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#49. Music ... will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#51. Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#52. When our will wholeheartedly enters into the prayer of Christ, then we pray correctly.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#53. The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#54. Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means passio passiva, suffering because we have to suffer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#55. The real trouble is that the pure Word of Jesus has been overlaid with so much human ballast - burdensome rules and regulations, false hopes and consolations - that it has become extremely difficult to make a genuine decision for Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#56. The 'polymath' had already died out by the close of the eighteenth century, and in the following century intensive education replaced extensive, so that by the end of it the specialist had evolved. The consequence is that today everyone is a mere technician, even the artist ...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#57. Not enslaved to principles but bound by love for God, they have become free from the problems and conflicts of ethical decision. They are no longer weighed down by them. They belong completely and solely to God and God's will.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#58. How impossible, how utterly absurd it would be for the disciples
these disciples, such men as these!
to try and become the light of the world! No, they are already the light, and the call has made them so.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#59. Help must come from the outside, and it has come and comes daily and answers in the Word of Jesus Christ ...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#61. Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#62. 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
#63. 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
#65. We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#66. Instead, choose decaf for your second cup of the day, engage in good sleeping habits, moderate insulin production in your diet, exercise Primally and boost energy naturally with cold water plunges, deep breathing sequences, napping or quick exercise breaks after long periods of inactivity.
Mark Sisson
#70. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#71. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#72. Faith without works is not faith at all, but a simple lack of obedience to God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#73. Not until one person desires to keep his own bread for himself does hunger ensue.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#75. Not everyone can wait: neither the sated nor the satisfied nor those without respect can wait. The only ones who can wait are people who carry restlessness around with them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#76. God's truth judges created things out of love, and Satan's truth judges them out of envy and hatred.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#77. Nothing can fill the gap when we are away from those we love, and it would be wrong to try to find anything ... It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; he does not fill it, but keeps it empty so that our communion with another may be kept alive, even at the cost of pain.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#78. The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother, and requite his hostility with love. His behavior must be determined not by the way others treat him, but by the treatment he himself receives from Jesus; it has only one source, and that is the will of Jesus.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#79. What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straghtforward men.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#80. There are not two realities, but only one reality, and that is the reality of God, which has become manifest in the Christ event/redemption and creation.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#81. 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
#82. A day without morning and evening prayers and personal intercessions is actually a day without meaning or importance.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#83. Holy theology arises from knees bent before the mystery of the divine child in the stable. Without the holy night, there is no theology.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#84. Wherever it pleases God to put man in this world, the Christian must be ready for martyrdom and death. It is only in this way that man learns faith.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#85. The believer is neither a pessimist nor an optimist. To be either is illusory. The believer sees reality not in a certain light but as it is, and believes only in God and God's power towards all and over all that is seen. (in No Rusty Swords)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#86. Then fear will grow pale and fade away, and you will be free, through your faith in our strong and living Savior, Jesus Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#87. Man has learned to cope with all questions of importance without recourse to God as a working hypothesis.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#88. It matters little what form of prayer we adopt or how many words we use. What matters is the faith which lays hold on God, knowing that He knows our needs before we even ask Him. That is what gives Christian prayer its boundless confidence and its joyous certainty.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#89. There is also a false serenity that is not at all Christian. We need feel no shame as Christians about a measure of impatience, longing, protest against what is unnatural, and a strong measure of desire for freedom and earthly happiness and the capacity to effect change. In
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#91. 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
#93. The richness of God's Word ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#94. The Christian life is participation in the encounter of Christ with the world.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#95. When we come to a clearer and more sober estimate of our own limitations and responsibilities, that makes it possible more genuinely to love our neighbor.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#96. The joy of God has gone through the poverty of the manger and the distress of the cross; therefore it is invincible and irrefutable.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#97. The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#98. 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
#99. How would you expect to find community while you intentionally withdraw from it at some point? The disobedient cannot believe; only the obedient believe.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#100. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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