Christ & the Earth
"It is to this cursed earth that Christ has come ... the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom, that coming from above, is sunk down into the cursed ground.
The earth may be cursed, but into the cursed land Christ has come, building his Church in the land's hidden recesses."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
From his lecture on "Thy Kingdom Come" in November of 1932.
I also read of his radio address two days after Hitler took office (January 30, 1933) where he warned that a fixation to the person rather than the office would lead to idolatry. The radio message was cut short, and from the outset Bonhoeffer was labelled an enemy of the Third Reich.
A year later Barth and Bonhoeffer framed the Barmen Declaration:
Jesus Christ, as he is testified to us in the Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God, whom we are to hear, whom we are to trust and obey in life and in death.
We repudiate the false teaching that the Church can and must recognize yet other happenings and powers, images and truths as divine revelation alongside this one Word of God, as a source of her preaching. . .
We repudiate the false teaching that there are areas of our life in which we belong not to Jesus Christ but to another lord, areas in which we do not need justification and sanctification through him.
And then in June of 1933, the day of the church elections where Hitler won victory for his Army Chaplain Ludwig Muller to become the governing figure in the German Evangelical Church, Bonhoeffer preached: "But it is not we who build. He builds the Church. No man builds the Church but Christ alone. Whoever is minded to build the Church is surely well on his way to destroying it; for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing it. We must confess--He builds."
More from Bonhoeffer is bound to come (I am reading a biography of him which claims that it is nearly impossible to make a separation from his life and thought ... the two were so seamlessly connected.)
The earth may be cursed, but into the cursed land Christ has come, building his Church in the land's hidden recesses."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
From his lecture on "Thy Kingdom Come" in November of 1932.
I also read of his radio address two days after Hitler took office (January 30, 1933) where he warned that a fixation to the person rather than the office would lead to idolatry. The radio message was cut short, and from the outset Bonhoeffer was labelled an enemy of the Third Reich.
A year later Barth and Bonhoeffer framed the Barmen Declaration:
Jesus Christ, as he is testified to us in the Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God, whom we are to hear, whom we are to trust and obey in life and in death.
We repudiate the false teaching that the Church can and must recognize yet other happenings and powers, images and truths as divine revelation alongside this one Word of God, as a source of her preaching. . .
We repudiate the false teaching that there are areas of our life in which we belong not to Jesus Christ but to another lord, areas in which we do not need justification and sanctification through him.
And then in June of 1933, the day of the church elections where Hitler won victory for his Army Chaplain Ludwig Muller to become the governing figure in the German Evangelical Church, Bonhoeffer preached: "But it is not we who build. He builds the Church. No man builds the Church but Christ alone. Whoever is minded to build the Church is surely well on his way to destroying it; for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing it. We must confess--He builds."
More from Bonhoeffer is bound to come (I am reading a biography of him which claims that it is nearly impossible to make a separation from his life and thought ... the two were so seamlessly connected.)
Comments
The reason this is noteworthy is because it's so rare. It is the definition of true, inner power.
You should read Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning as a companion to the Bonhoeffer bio!