Dietrich Bonhoeffer

German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident (1906-1945) · Germany · Academics · Died at 39

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is read about 2,557 times a day, in 62 languages.

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A Lutheran pastor who wrote one of modern Christianity's most-read books, then joined a conspiracy to kill Hitler and was hanged for it three weeks before Germany surrendered.

Religious Figures Academic Philosophy Poetry Religion Germany Europe 20th Century

A life in dates

1945Died9 April 19451944“How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge.”In their words25 May 1944Letter to Eberhard Bethge (25 May 1944), Letters and papers from Prison (1997), p. 311Read the whole statement

1938“Your Yes to God demands your No to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and the poor, to all godlessness and mocking of the holy.”In their words9 April 1938"The Gift of Faith" (9 April 1938), in The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012), p. 203Read the whole statement

1937“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares.”In their wordsp 43Read the whole statement

“Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system.”In their wordsp 43Read the whole statement

“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all he has.”In their wordsp. 45Read the whole statement

“God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”In their wordsp. 49Read the whole statement

1906Born4 February 1906

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1987-074-16, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer Widerstand und Ergebung 1

Bonhoeffer Widerstand und Ergebung 2

Bonhoeffer

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R0211-316, Dietrich Bonhoeffer mit Schülern

Church in Sydenham, where Dietrich Bonhoeffer pastored a German-speaking congregation

Coro Dietrich Bonhoeffer en Culto de Viernes Santo 2023

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (um 1938)

In their own words 10

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

10 statements, newest first

How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge.
May 25, 1944, Letter to Eberhard Bethge (25 May 1944), Letters and papers from Prison (1997), p. 311, Own words
Your Yes to God demands your No to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and the poor, to all godlessness and mocking of the holy.
Apr 9, 1938, "The Gift of Faith" (9 April 1938), in The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012), p. 203, Own words
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares.
1937, p 43, Own words

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Awards

Civil Courage Prize

Family

Parents

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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About this person

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born 4 February 1906 in Germany and became a neo-orthodox theologian and founding member of the Confessing Church. His 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship became a modern classic, reshaping how Christians thought about faith in the secular world. He opposed the Nazi dictatorship openly - challenging the euthanasia program and the genocidal persecution of Jews when silence was safer. The Gestapo arrested him in April 1943 and held him at Tegel Prison for a year and a half before transferring him to Flossenbürg concentration camp. Accused of ties to the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler, he was tried alongside former Abwehr officers and hanged on 9 April 1945, days before the regime collapsed.

Country

Germany

Academics from Germany 6

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