Bonhoeffer Quotes

• Christianity contains within itself a germ hostile to the Church (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

  Eric Metaxas

  Church, Germs, Christianity

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• I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison garb, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a prayer and then climbed the steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued in a few seconds. In the almost 50 years that I have worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Prayer, Men, Doctors

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• 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

  Trying, Limits, Ships

  Eric Metaxas (2011). “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”, p.184, Thomas Nelson

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• ...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

  Christian, Running, Order

  Eric Metaxas (2011). “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”, p.136, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• 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.

  Enemy, Opponents, Ifs

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• 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

  Mean, Caring, People

  Jean Vanier (1992). “From Brokenness to Community”, p.35, Paulist Press

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• Must the Christian go around looking for a cross to bear, seeking to suffer? No, insisted Bonhoeffer. Opportunities for bearing crosses will occur along life's way and all that is required is the willingness to act when the time comes. The needs of the neighbor, especially those of the weak and downtrodden, the victimized and the persecuted, the ill and the lonely, will become abundantly evident.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Lonely, Opportunity

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• 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

  Challenges, Dresses, Helping

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• The family trees of Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer are everywhere so laden with figures of accomplishment that one might expect future generations to be burdened by it all. But the welter of wonderfulness that was their heritage seemed to have been a boon, one that buoyed them up so that each child seems not only to have stood on the shoulders of giants but also to have danced on them.

  Eric Metaxas

  Children, Accomplishment, Tree

  Eric Metaxas (2011). “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”, p.21, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• 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

  Jesus, Powerful, Soul

  "Mitt Romney's Religious Act of Political Accommodation" by Charles P. Pierce, www.esquire.com. May 14, 2012.

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• Bonhoeffer thought of death as the last station on the road to freedom.

  Eric Metaxas

  Lasts, Thoughts Of Death, Stations

  Eric Metaxas (2011). “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”, p.358, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• Bonhoeffer's emphasis on the deep this-worldliness of Christianity does not lead to de-escahtologizing the gospel.

  G. C. Berkouwer

  Doe, Christianity, Emphasis

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