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There can be no real attachment to the given creation, no genuine responsibility in the world, unless we recognize the breach which already separates us from it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Human Tears Word
When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

End Faith Life Spirit Struggle Weapon
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Children Deep Moral
If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all. How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own?
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Appearance Myself Person Possible Recognition Serious Sin Worst
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Gift Grace Man
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Death Man Spiritual
While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One, it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Goodness Job Seek
A pastor should never complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Man People
Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Existence Himself Justice Myself Peace Worth
In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Achievement Easy Gratitude Hard Help Important Life Rich
The fact that we do not speak it but sing it only expresses the fact that our spoken words are inadequate to express what we want to say, that the burden of our song goes far beyond all human words.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Beyond Expression Human Ourselves Sing Talk
The early morning belongs to the Church of the risen Christ. At the break of light it remembers the morning on which death and sin lay prostrate in defeat and new life and salvation were given to mankind.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Break Death Defeat Human Life Light Morning Remember Rise Sin
The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Defeat Enemy Expression God Law Love Man Willing
God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world. What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility, namely, real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Human Ideal Love Pain Reality World
Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Politics Power Responsibility
Your life as a Christian should make non believers question their disbelief in God.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Believe God Life Yourself
Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Compassionate Path Sin
It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Lie Love Truth Worst
Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Himself Oneself Patience Religious Wait
A false faith is capable of terrible and monstrous things.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Deep Faith Religion
Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to each of us.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Community Ourselves Religious
If my sinfulness appears to me in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Appearance Myself Recognition Sin
Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Deep Religious Value Worth
This is the end. For me the beginning of life.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Beginning End Life Myself
The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Creation Destroy Dream Love Person
Sanctification means that the Christians have been judged already, and that they are being preserved until the coming of Christ and are ever advancing towards it.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Judgement Religious
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Action Responsibility

There can be no real attachment to the given creation, no genuine responsibility in the world, unless we recognize the breach which already separates us from it.

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There can be no real attachment to the given creation, no genuine responsibility in the world, unless we recognize the breach which already separates us from it.

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