Theologian, prolific and influential author, anti-Nazi double-agent spy, martyr, and non-thought lineage holder; Bonhoeffer worked against Hitler and the Third Reich when almost everyone around him was either seduced, bullied or exterminated and his fellow pastors were preaching, "Christ has come to us through Adolph Hitler." Leaving a safe home in America; he helped smuggle Jews into the neutral Switzerland, vocally and secretly opposed the Nazis, and was tortured and killed in a concentration camp. A deeply religious Christian, he taught a “religionless Christianity” without a metaphysical God confused by concepts and belief.
After Ten Years, 1953
Letter, 1943
Letters from prison, 1953
“the false serpent persuaded Adam that he must still do something to become like God… to make himself what God had already made him. That was the Fall of man.”
Chapters:
10. The Power of Goodness
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“There can be no more wars of faith. The only way to overcome our enemy is by loving him.”
Chapters:
30. No War
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“By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
Chapters:
33. Know Yourself
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“Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected. Hoarding is idolatry.”
Chapters:
44. Fame and Fortune
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“Music... will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.”
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“Optimism disregards the present but is a source of inspiration, of vitality, and hope when other have given up. It empowers us with confidence and enables us to claim the future instead of abandoning it to an enemy.”
from After Ten Years, 1953
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“Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment and suffering.”
from Letters from prison, 1953
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“I fear that Christians who stand with only one leg upon earth, also stand with only one leg in heaven.”
from Letter, 1943
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“Bonhoeffer believed that God had been driven from the world and had abandoned it. This belief allowed him to come to grips with the concept of evil. He explored the question of why evil flourishes and whether evil exists. He believed that the individual must take action and in that action find his own God. His Christianity, therefore, became a Christianity without formulas of religion.”
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