“Is the invisible presence of the Christian fellowship a reality and a help to the individual? Is the Word of God close to him as a comfort and a strength? Or does he misuse his aloneness contrary to the fellowship, the Word, and the prayer? The individual must realize that his hours of aloneness react upon the community. In his solitude he can sunder and besmirch the fellowship, or he can strengthen and hallow it. Every act of self-control of the Christian is also a service to the fellowship. One who returns to the Christian family fellowship after fighting the battle of the day brings with him the blessing of his aloneness, but he himself receives anew the blessing of the fellowship. Blessed is he who is alone in the strength of the fellowship and blessed is he who keeps the fellowship in the strength of aloneness. But the strength of aloneness and the strength of the fellowship is solely the strength of the Word of God, which is addressed to the individual in the fellowship.”

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About Dietrich Bonhoeffer

German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident, active in the 20th century. He was a founding member of the Confessing Church, and his writings made him widely known beyond theology. He is especially remembered for work on Christianity in the secular world, and for The Cost of Discipleship, published in 1937 and often described as a modern classic. He also stood firmly against the Nazi dictatorship, speaking out against the euthanasia program and the persecution of Jews. Arrested by the Gestapo in April 1943, he was held at Tegel Prison for a year and a half before being moved to Flossenbürg concentration camp.

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Books by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Nachfolge

1983

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Love letters from cell 92

1995

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Schöpfung und Fall

2004

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