If we ask how we can begin a life with God, the Bible answers that God has long since begun a life with us.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), Theologe und Widerstandskämpfer

Topics: The Bible & the Word of God, Grace & Redemption

Occasions: For Reflection, Baptism, Confirmation & Blessing

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) war ein deutscher lutherischer Theologe, Pfarrer und führender Vertreter der Bekennenden Kirche, der unter anderem in Berlin, London und Finkenwalde wirkte. Er prägte den Begriff der „teuren Gnade“ und schloss sich aus christlicher Überzeugung dem Widerstand gegen das nationalsozialistische Regime an, weshalb er 1945 im Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg ermordet wurde. Seine Schriften fordern Bibelleser bis heute heraus, theologische Erkenntnis mit gelebter Nachfolge und ethischer Zivilcourage in Krisenzeiten zu verbinden.

All quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (630)

More on this topic

[The Bible is] shallow enough for a child not to drown, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim.

Augustine of Hippo

A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.

Unknown

The Bible in the pulpit must never supersede the Bible at home.

John Charles Ryle

The Bible is almost bursting with good news for bad people.

Corrie ten Boom

I read the Bible the way I harvest my apple tree: I shake it, and what falls down and is ripe, I take. The rest I leave hanging for now.

Martin Luther

The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.

Martin Luther

The law is divine and holy. Let the law have its glory, but yet no law, be it never so divine and holy, ought to teach me that I am justified, and shall live through it. I grant it may teach me that I ought to love God and my neighbor; also to live in love, soberness, patience, etc., but it ought not to show me how I should be delivered from sin, the devil, death, and hell. Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teaches me, not what I ought to do but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel wills me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.

Martin Luther

Jesus was not a theologian. He was God who told stories.

Madeleine L'Engle

All quotes · lumen.bible