Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoefferwas a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship became a modern classic...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth4 February 1906
CountryGermany
pain grieving trying
Nothing can fill the gap when we are away from those we love, and it would be wrong to try to find anything.....It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; he does not fill it, but keeps it empty so that our communion with another may be kept alive, even at the cost of pain.
jesus two trying
Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.
trying relevant relevance
Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic.
trying way certain
Certainly one must try everything, but only to become more certain what God's way is.
trying tears gaps
Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words.
creative full human lived lost time
Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, and suffering.
bring clear crucial decide form nature opinion people weak
It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.
people waiting satisfied
Not everyone can wait: neither the sated nor the satisfied nor those without respect can wait. The only ones who can wait are people who carry restlessness around with them.
new-beginnings past people
God can make a new beginning with people whenever God pleases, but not people with God. Therefore, people cannot make a new beginning at all; they can only pray for one. Where people are on their own and live by their own devices, there is only the old, the past.
community done christ
Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to each of us.
jesus suffering tragedy
To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
self vanity profound
Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.
desire bread doe
Not until one person desires to keep his own bread for himself does hunger ensue.
sad running depressing
If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.