Bonhoeffer Quotes

“Men speak of God’s love for man… but if providence does not come in this hour, where is He then? My conclusion is simple. The Semitic texts from Bronze Age Palestine of which Christianity is comprised still fit uncomfortably well with contemporary life. The Old Testament depicts a God capricious and cruel; blood sacrifice, vengeance, genocide; death and destruction et al. Would He not approve of Herr Hitler and the brutal, tribalistic crusade against Hebrews and non-Christian ‘untermensch?’

One thing is inarguable. His church on Earth has produced some of the most vigorous and violent contribution to the European fascist cause.

It is synergy. Man Created God, even if God Created Man; it all exists in the hubris and apotheosis of the narcissistic soul, and alas, all too many of the human herd are willing to follow the beastly trait of leadership. The idea of self-emancipation and advancement, with Europe under the jackboot of fascism, would be Quixotic to the point of mirthless lunacy.”
― Daniel S. Fletcher, Jackboot Britain

“If we would answer the question of the existence of the Evil then we would not be sinners, we could make something else responsible.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The wish to have everything by one’s own power is false pride. Even what one owes to others belongs nevertheless to oneself and is a piece of one’s own life, and the desire to calculate what one has 'earned' on one’s own and what one owes to others is surely not Christian and is a futile undertaking besides. With what one is in oneself and what one receives, a person is a whole.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

“But if faith is only for the future, there will be no faith, for like manna, faith saved spoils.”
― Andrew Root, Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker: A Theological Vision for Discipleship and Life Together

“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, Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker: A Theological Vision for Discipleship and Life Together

“Do you still … me a bit? I still … you a little, but only a little—hardly at all! I think this is quite a nice letter all the same! Yours, Maria.”
― Diane Reynolds, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“people, also, after all, let the lovely cornflower bloom./No one planted it, no one watered it./Vulnerable, it grows freely/and in cheerful confidence/that it will be allowed to live its life/under the wide sky.” Such is the image of friendship; such is the image of grace. Such is the manifesto of people everywhere, gay, straight, male, female, black, white, who might not quite fit, seeking sacred communion with the other: “Far or near/in fortune or calamity--/each knows in the other/the faithful helper/toward freedom and humanity.”
― Diane Reynolds, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“I thought,” Dietrich wrote, imagining he would soon be executed, “I myself could learn to have faith by trying to live something like a saintly life… Later on I discovered and am still discovering, that one only learns to have faith by living in the full this-worldliness of life. If one has completely renounced making something of oneself …then one throws oneself completely into the arms of God, and this is what I call this-worldliness: living fully in the midst of life’s tasks, questions, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities—then one takes seriously no longer one’s own sufferings but rather God’s sufferings in the world.”
― Diane Reynolds, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“I am thinking gratefully and with peace of mind about past and present things.”
― Diane Reynolds, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“London, 1939: “The forsythia and dark mauve lilacs bloomed enchantingly, luxuriantly, in the old gardens in Forest Hills and the daffodils gleamed from the broad expanses of the parks.”
― Diane Reynolds, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“How should things go after the Baltic? Do you want me or not? I would really like to know.” Bonhoeffer, letter to Eberhard Bethge, July, 1939”
― Diane Reynolds, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“I am living in the loveliest area of Manhattan, directly on the Hudson and somewhat above the city. But it is probably even lovelier to live high up in one of the skyscrapers (the highest is 360 meters!). Again and again, the general impression of New York is indeed stunning, the skyscrapers, the masses of people from all nations and races milling about, the host of churches and chapels.”
― Diane Reynolds, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The difference between real leadership and the false leadership of the Leader was this: real leadership derived its authority from God, the source of all goodness. Thus parents have legitimate authority because they are submitted to the legitimate authority of a good God. But the authority of the Fuhrer was submitted to nothing. It was self-derived and autocratic, and therefore had a messianic aspect. Bonhoeffer stated, “Whereas earlier leadership was expressed in the form of the teacher, the statesman, the father… now the Leader has become an independent figure. The Leader is completely divorced from any office; he is essentially and only ‘the Leader.‘“ A true leader must know the limitations of his authority.”
― Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

“Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you’ (Matt. 7:6). The promise of grace is not to be squandered; it needs to be protected from the godless. There are those who are not worthy of the sanctuary. The proclamation of grace has its limits. Grace may not be proclaimed to anyone who does not recognize or distinguish or desire it. Not only does that pollute the sanctuary itself, not only must those who sin still be guilty against the Most Holy, but in addition, the misuse of the holy must turn against the community itself. The world upon whom grace is thrust as a bargain will grow tired of it, and it will not only trampled upon the Holy, but also will tear apart those who force it on them. For its own sake, for the sake of the sinner, and for the sake of the community, the Holy is to be protected from cheap surrender. The Gospel is protected by the preaching of repentance which calls sin sin and declares the sinner guilty. The key to loose is protected by the key to bind. The preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Much later in his life, Auden would borrow a musical metaphor from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and say that Kierkegaard was a 'monodist, who can hear with particular acuteness one theme in the New Testament -- in his case, the theme of suffering and sacrifice -- but is deaf to its rich polyphony.' And for the Auden who emerges in the pages of this volume [Prose, Volume III: 1949-1955], the unique power of Christian doctrine is its polyphonic character, its capacity to address every dimension of our being, to give a comprehensive account of how history and nature relate, and -- decisively in Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection -- how they may be reconciled.

(The Poet's Prose)”
― Alan Jacobs, Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant