Christianity Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Not the way to God but the way of God to humanity: that is the sum of Christianity.”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“[...]one who will not learn to handle the Bible for himself is not an evangelical Christian.”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There is no worse sin than unbelief toward the gospel.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer it; he must let the evil person fall into Jesus'…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Just as our love for God begins with listening to God's Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“In other times it may have been the business of Christianity to champion the equality of all men; its business today will…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Sanctification means that the Christians have been judged already, and that they are being preserved until the coming of Christ and are…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The cross is not the suffering tied to natural existence, but the suffering tied to being Christians. The cross is never simply…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There are only two places where the powerful and great in this world lose their courage, tremble in the depths of their…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The cross is not the suffering tied to being natural existence, but the suffering tied to being Christians. The cross is never…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

With an abstract idea it is possible to enter into a relation of formal knowledge, to become enthusiastic about it, and perhaps…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin,…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Just as Christians should not be constantly feeling the pulse of their spiritual life, so too the Christian community has not been…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“[...]we must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“In the New Testament our enemies are those who harbour hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility, for Jesus…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“But it is a dangerous error, surely very widespread among Christians, to think that the heart can pray by itself. For then…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“If in the middle of an air raid God sends out the gospel call to his kingdom in baptism, it will be…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“For the rest of mankind to be with Christ means death, but for Christians it is a means of grace. Baptism is…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Discipleship means adherence to Christ and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak.…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The undiscerning observer may think that this mixture of ideal and reality, of the human and spiritual, is most likely to be…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The otherworldliness of the Christian life ought, Luther concluded, to be manifested in the very midst of the world, in the Christian…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“To be called to a life of extraordinary quality, to live up to it, and yet to be unconscious of it is…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than they love the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The flesh resists this daily humiliation, first by a frontal attack, and later by hiding itself under the words of the spirit…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“God sends his Son – here lies the only remedy. It is not enough to give man a new philosophy or better…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“God did not make this person as I would have made him. He did not give him to me as a brother…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say.…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer