Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Theologian who was an early member of the Confessing Church, a Protestant church opposed to the Nazi regime. He was involved in the German Resistance movement and was eventually arrested and executed by the Nazis in 1945. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world continue to be influential today.
What is the most famous quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer ?
Your life as a Christian should make non believers question their disbelief in God.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What can you learn from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Lessons)
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught that living a life of integrity and faithfulness to God is more important than conforming to the standards of the world.
- He believed that it is important to stand up for what is right, even if it means facing opposition or persecution.
- He also taught that love and compassion should be extended to everyone, regardless of their beliefs or backgrounds.
The most unpopular Dietrich Bonhoeffer quotes that are guaranted to improve your brain
Following is a list of the best Dietrich Bonhoeffer quotes, including various Dietrich Bonhoeffer inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Being a Christan is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.
Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.
By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from a Christian community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; in the poor brother Christ is knocking at the door.
Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.
....We must not.....assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.
God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world. What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility, namely, real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.
Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.
Faithful quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Who can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
We have learnt, rather too late, that action comes, not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
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.
The church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ himself who has taken form among people.
Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross;
he waited until one of them turned to him.
The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them.
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.
Quotations by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that are courageous and innovative
Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace.
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.
The gift of Christ is not the Christian religion, but the grace and love of God which culminate in the cross.
Faith without works is not faith at all, but a simple lack of obedience to God.
Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.... Hoarding is idolatry.
It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie.
... There is a truth which is of Satan. Its essence is that under the semblance of truth it denies everything that is real. It lives upon hatred of the real world which is created and loved by God.
If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.
The entire day receives order and discipline when it acquires unity.
This unity must be sought and found in morning prayer. The morning prayer determines the day.
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
I believe that God both wills and is able to bring good out of everything, even the worst... I believe that even our mistakes and wrongdoing are not fruitless.
Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life
A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes...and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
The deep meaning of the cross of Christ is that there is no suffering on earth that is not borne by God.
Cheap grace is the idea that "grace" did it all for me so I do not need to change my lifestyle. The believer who accepts the idea of "cheap grace" thinks he can continue to live like the rest of the world. Instead of following Christ in a radical way, the Christian lost in cheap grace thinks he can simply enjoy the consolations of his grace.
I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.
A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses.
If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.
When you read the Bible, you must think that here and now, God is speaking with me
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all he has. It is the pearl of great price to by which the merchant will sell all his goods.
Wherever there are sinners, the weak, the sorrowful, the poor in the world, that is where God goes.
Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself.
Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; and we lay hold of a great hope.
The deceit, the lie of the Devil consists of this, that he wishes to make man believe that he can live without God's Word.
Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.
When a man really gives up trying to make something out of himself - a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman (a so-called clerical somebody), a righteous or unrighteous man,...and throws himself into the arms of God...then he wakes with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith, that is metanoia and it is thus that he becomes a man and Christian.
Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, l honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high; whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness.
The biggest mistake you can make in your life is to be always afraid of making a mistake.
Time is the most precious gift in our possession, for it is the most irrevocable. This is what makes it so disturbing to look back upon the time which we have lost. Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, and suffering. Time lost is time not filled, time left empty.
The church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community.
I believe that nothing that happens to me is meaningless and that it is good for us all that it should be so, even if it runs counter to our own wishes. As I see it, I'm here for some purpose, and I only hope I may fulfill it.
It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich!
There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.