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Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes - Page 12

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The fact that we do not speak it but sing it only expresses the fact that our spoken words are inadequate to express what we want to say, that the burden of our song goes far beyond all human words.

The fact that we do not speak it but sing it only expresses the fact that our spoken words are inadequate to express what we want to say, that the burden of our song goes far beyond all human words.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Song, Want, Facts
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.43, SCM Press

A love that left people alone in their guilt would not have real people as its object. So, in vicarious responsibility for people, and in His love for real human beings, Jesus becomes the one burdened by guilt.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus, Real, Responsibility
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas”, p.34, Westminster John Knox Press

No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sacrifice, Enemy, Lovers
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.97, SCM Press

Desires repeatedly mastered for the sake of present duty make us richer. Lack of desire is poverty.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Desire, Sake, Poverty
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2001). “Letters and Papers from Prison”, p.77, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

Help must come from the outside, and it has come and comes daily and answers in the Word of Jesus Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus, Answers, Helping

It is 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
Prayer, Vanity, Odds
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2008). “Barcelona, Berlin, New York, 1928-1931”

There is a wrong way of staying in the world and a wrong way of fleeing from it. In both cases we are fashioning ourselves according to the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Fleeing, World, Way
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.267, Simon and Schuster

To be sure, God shall call you, and us, only at the hour that God has chosen. Until that hour, which lies in God's hand alone, we shall be protected even in the greatest danger; and from our gratitude for such protection ever new readiness surely arises for the final call

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Gratitude, Lying, Hands

...And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christmas, Eye, Dark
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas”, p.5, Westminster John Knox Press

Love, in the sense of spontaneous, unreflective action, spells the death of the old man.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Men, Action, Spontaneous
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.108, SCM Press

While we exert ourselves to grow beyond our humanity, to leave the human behind us, God becomes human; and we must recognize that God wills that we be human, real human beings. While we distinguish between pious and godless, good and evil, noble and base, God loves real people without distinction.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Real, People, Evil

The Christian life is participation in the encounter of Christ with the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Encounters, World
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “Ethics”, p.132, Simon and Schuster

Only the suffering God can help.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Suffering, Helping
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2001). “Letters and Papers from Prison”, p.134, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

Discipleship means adherence to Christ and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An abstract theology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge of the subject of grace or the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact exclude any idea of discipleship whatsoever, and are essentially inimical to the whole conception of following Christ....Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Religious, Mean, Following Christ

A pastor who does not pray daily for his congregation is not a pastor.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Doe, Praying, Pastor

the world exercises dominion by force and Christ and Christians conquer by service.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Exercise, World
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.197, SCM Press

Christian marriage is marked by discipline and self-denial...C hristianity does not therefore depreciate marriage, it sanctifies it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Self, Discipline

And we simply cannot be constant with the fact that God’s cause is not always the successful one, that we really could be “unsuccessful”; and yet be on the right road. But this is where we find out whether we have begun in faith or in a burst of enthusiasm.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Successful, Enthusiasm, Causes
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1995). “Selected Writings”, HarperCollins

To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Reality, Significant, Factual
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “Ethics”, p.71, Simon and Schuster

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
Gratitude, Grateful, Giving

Jesus is no draughtsman of political blueprints, he is the one who vanquished evil through suffering. It looked as though evil had triumphed on the cross, but the real victory belonged to Jesus.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus, Real, Evil
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.144, Simon and Schuster

We have grown so accustomed to the idea of divine love...that we no longer sense the awe that God's coming should awaken in us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Ideas, Divine, Should

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
People, Path, Claims
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1954). “Life Togehter”

In Jesus, the service of God and the service of the least of the brethren were one.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus, Brethren
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.82, SCM Press

What is the "extraordinary"? It is the love of Jesus Christ himself, love that goes to the cross in suffering obedience.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus, Self Love, Suffering
"Encountering the Extraordinary". Essay by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1934), published in "Meditations on the Cross" edited by Manfred Weber and translated by Douglas W. Scott (p. 1), 1998.

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