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By his willingly renouncing self-defence, the Christian affirms his absolute adherence to Jesus, and his freedom from the tyranny of his own ego. The exclusiveness of this adherence is the only power which can overcome evil.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Age: 39 †
Born: 1906
Born: February 4
Died: 1945
Died: April 8
Pastor
Philosopher
Poet
Resistance Fighter
Theologian
Breslau
Bonhoeffer
Overcoming
Adherence
Freedom
Willingly
Jesus
Defence
Evil
Overcome
Christian
Ego
Power
Tyranny
Exclusiveness
Self
Absolutes
Renouncing
Absolute
Affirms

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A righteous person is one who lives for the next generation.
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A king who dies on the cross must be the king of a rather strange kingdom.
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The Psalter is the great school of prayer.
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A Christian is someone who shares the sufferings of God in the world.
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Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.... Hoarding is idolatry.
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Anything I cannot thank God for for the sake of Christ, I may not thank God for at all to do so would be sin. ... We cannot rightly acknowledge the gifts of God unless we acknowledge the Mediator for whose sake alone they are given to us.
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A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.
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Every call of Christ leads into death.
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It is a blessed thing to know that no power on earth, no temptation, no human frailty can dissolve what God holds together.
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Jesus' call to bear the cross places all who follow him in the community of the forgiveness of sins. Forgiving sins is the Christ-suffering required of his disciples. It is required of all Christians.
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Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of fellowship.
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It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. … So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work.
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We have learnt, rather too late, that action comes, not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
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We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.
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The limitation of the ethical phenomenon to its place and time does not imply its rejection but, on the contrary, its validation. One does not use canons to shoot sparrows.
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It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can raise the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them.
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It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
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One who loves his community destroys community one who loves its members builds community.
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