Church Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The church is her true self only when she exists for humanity.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Where a people prays, there is the hurch; and where the church is; there is never loneliness.”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The church ... is not just to bandage the victims under the wheel, but to put a spoke in the wheel itself.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Church knows nothing of a sacredness of war. The Church which prays'Our Father'asks God only for peace.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is the task of youth not to reshape the church, but rather to listen to the word of God.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings, it is the…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

So many people come to church with a genuine desire to hear what we have to say, yet they are always going…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Freedom for the Church comes from the necessity of the Word of God. Otherwise, it becomes arbitrariness and ends in a great…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“It is solely the form of Christ that matters, not any form besides Christ’s own. The church is the human being who…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Christian church. With its recovery will come unexpected power.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The future and the hope for the middle class church lies in the renewal of its lifeblood, which is only possible if…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Our church, which has been fighting in these years only for its self-preservation, as though that were an end in itself, is…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“That it is Peter, the rock of the church, who incurs guilt here immediately after his own confession to Jesus Christ and…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The restoration of the church must surely depend on a new kind of monasticism, which has nothing in common with the old…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“That it is Peter, the rock of the church, who incurs guilt here immediately after his own confession to Jesus Christ and…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is God's earth out of which man is taken. From it he has his body. His body belongs to his essential…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The church can only defend its own space by fighting, not for space, but for the salvation of the world. Otherwise the…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Church is her true self only when she exists for humanity. As a fresh start, she should give away all her…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In the first place, the church can ask the state whether its actions are legitimate and in accordance with its character as…

— 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

“And in the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Henceforth, any attack even on the…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

True prayer is done in secret, but this does not rule out the fellowship of prayer altogether, however clearly we may be…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The church is only the church when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property…

— 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

“Reproof is unavoidable. God’s Word demands it when a brother falls into open sin. The practice of discipline in the congregation begins…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ himself who has taken form among people.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. This saying of Christ removes the Church from…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering society, even if they do not belong to the Christian…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The early morning belongs to the Church of the risen Christ. At the break of light it remembers the morning on which…

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer