Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Memoirs

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sold out for the Gospel in the face of Hitler's opposition. Many times he was offered safety and security in America but, at great risk, chose to fight for Christianity with brothers in his native land instead. That decision cost him his life. Bonhoeffer is described in the memoirs of his book, "The Cost of Discipleship." Below are quotes in that regard, as well as others that I found very meaningful.

G. Leibholz:

"Christianity was not the concern of the believing, pious soul who shuts himself up and keeps himself within the bounds of the sacramental sphere."

"Christian principles must in some way be translated into human life and that is in the sphere of the material, in state and society, that responsible love has to be manifested."

"From his (Bonhoeffer's) faith the breadth of vision came which enabled him to separate the gold in life from the dross and to differentiate what was and was not essential in the life of man."

"He believed in man as a free spiritual being, but this freedom was conferred and inspired by divine grace and granted man, not for his glorification, but for the conservation of the divine ordering of human life."

"Hitler was a destroyer of Europe and a traitor to his own country. Men can lose their country if it is represented by an anti-Christian regime."

"He was firmly and rightly convicted that it is not only a Christian right but a Christian duty towards God to oppose tyranny, that is, a government which is no longer based on natural law and the law of God."

"He felt that his church was more concerned with her own existence and inherited rights than with preaching against the war and with the fate of the persecuted and oppressed."

R. Niebuhr:

"The life of the Spirit is not that which shuns death and keeps clear of destruction; rather it endureth death in death is sustained. It only achieves its truth in the midst of utter destruction."

Bonhoeffer:

"When a man really gives up trying to make something of himself...then he wakes with Christ in Gethsemane (where Jesus wept just prior to His' arrest)."

"Christians stand by God in His hour of grieving."

"It is not only my task to look after the victims of madmen who drive a motorcar in a crowded street, but to do all in my power to stop their driving at all."