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Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes - Page 15

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Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.

Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Reality, Brotherhood
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.18, SCM Press

What is happiness and unhappiness? It depends so little on the circumstances; it depends really only on what happens inside a person. I am grateful for every day and that makes me happy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Grateful, Littles, Unhappiness

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Men, Doors, Grace
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.5, SCM Press

grace at a low cost, is in the last resort simply a new law, which brings neither help nor freedom.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Law, Grace, Cost
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.12, SCM Press

Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Brother, Thinking, Keeping Quiet
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.75, SCM Press

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
Believe, Community, Obedient

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
Love, Christian, Dream
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1996). “Life Together: Prayerbook of the Bible”, Fortress Pr

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
Christian, Father, Anxiety
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.179, Simon and Schuster

Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Tears, Trying, Gaps
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1966). “The Way to Freedom: 1935-1939, from the Collected Works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer”, New York : Harper & Row

If religion is onlya garment of Christianityand even this garment has looked very different at different timesthen what is religionless Christianity?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Different, Christianity, Garments

The Church is her true self only when she exists for humanity. As a fresh start, she should give away all her endowments to the poor and needy. The clergy should live solely on the freewill offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Offering, Self, Giving

Jesus' call to bear the cross places all who follow him in the community of the forgiveness of sins. Forgiving sins is the Christ-suffering required of his disciples. It is required of all Christians.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Jesus, Community
"Discipleship". Book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p.88, 1937.

The responsible person seeks to make his whole life a response to the question and call of God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Responsible, Whole Life, Response

God is not free from human beings but for them.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Humans, Human Beings

Whenever Christ calls us, His call leads us to death.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christ
"Discipleship". Book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 87, 1937.

The Psalter is the great school of prayer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Prayer, School, Great Schools
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2007). “I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions”, p.54, Westminster John Knox Press

Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake. Therefore, human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Spiritual, Mean, Love Is
"Life Togehter".

Every Christian must be fully Christian by bringing God into his whole life, not merely into some spiritual realm.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Spiritual, Whole Life

There remains an experience of incomparable value.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Incomparable, Remains, Values
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2011). “Letters Papers from Prison”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

Certainly one must try everything, but only to become more certain what God's way is.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Trying, Way, Certain
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2011). “Letters Papers from Prison”, p.134, Simon and Schuster

Christian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian, Spiritual, Real
"Life Togehter".

Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Night, Cold, Hell

Still more pathetic is the total collapse of moral fanaticism. Fanatics think that their single-minded principles qualify them to do battle with the powers of evil; but like a bull they rush at the red cloak instead of the person who is holding it; he exhausts himself and is beaten. He gets entangled in non-essentials and falls into the trap set by cleverer people.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Fall, Thinking, People
"Letters and Papers from Prison (Who Stands Fast?)". Book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (p. 4), 1967.

We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there he still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Grace, Needs, Earth
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Samuel Wells (2015). “Life Together”, p.38, SCM Press

The limitation of the ethical phenomenon to its place and time does not imply its rejection but, on the contrary, its validation. One does not use canons to shoot sparrows.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Validation, Rejection, Doe

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