Quotes from Stephen J. Nichols

To understand Bonhoeffer, we must understand, on the one hand, the limits of oneself and, on the other hand, the utter absence of limits of God.

To understand Bonhoeffer, we must first and foremost understand living by faith.

Costly discipleship is held captive to Christ; it is Christ-centered.

Robert Caro, author of the (yet) unfinished monumental biography of Lyndon Baynes Johnson, has noted, "The importance of a sense of place is commonly accepted in the world of fiction. I wish that were also true about biography and history.

This poem, "Stations on the Road to Freedom," echoes the Christ-centered or christotelic emphasis we have come to see in so much of Bonhoeffer's writings. In Christ's humiliation we see discipline, action, suffering, and ultimately death. In Christ's crucifixion we see all four as well. And in Christ's resurrection we see his triumph over death and over suffering. In the risen and living Christ we see the triumph of freedom.

These sentences, heavily underlined by R. C., present Luther's idea that the law is a "schoolmaster" that points us to Christ. To put it existentially, as Luther does, the law makes us despair over our inability. Therefore, we need a righteousness extra nos, outside of us. This stresses, again, the necessity of the doctrine of imputation. Luther was the original imputationist.

His ecclesiology, though, is never an independent topic. It always flows from and back to Christ and his christology. Neither is Bonhoeffer content with mere academic work on ecclesiology. For his ecclesiology is never independent of practice or action. Christ always and necessarily stands before and above and over Bonhoeffer's ecclesiology; and ethics, which for him can be summed up in love, always and necessarily pours out from and surrounds his ecclesiology.

This life from the cross (Bonhoeffer's christology) and life in the church (his ecclesiology) together lead to the disciplines of the Christian

He labored to help others know what they believe and why they believe it, because, as he would often say, it's not a matter of life and death; it's a matter of eternal life and eternal death.

This life from the cross (Bonhoeffer's christology) and life in the church (his ecclesiology) together lead to the disciplines of the Christian life.

one of the dates that historians like best is October 31, 1517. On that day one monk with mallet in hand nailed a document to the church door in Wittenberg. It contained a list of Ninety-Five Theses for a debate. The

Leaning on Augustine's insight, Bonhoeffer sees the sanctorum communio as "the community of loving persons who, touched by God's Spirit, radiate love and grace."17

I offer this succinct synopsis of Bonhoeffer on the Christian life: We live in love by grace as the church-community—in, through, and toward Christ.

Gratitude is equally underrated and under-practiced. It too requires humility to say "thank you." Saying "thank you" means one is dependent on the other, that one needs the other.

If this earth was good enough for the man Jesus Christ, if such a man as Jesus lived, then, and only then, life has a meaning for us.

We are also brought into the church-community as a result of Christ's death on the cross—a community of the forgiven, who should be quick to forgive, a community of those who have been interceded for and should be, likewise, quick to intercede, and a community whose burdens have been lifted and who should be quick to bear the burdens of others. Bonhoeffer

We seem especially susceptible to this pitting of spirituality against theology in American evangelical contexts. Perhaps we can chalk this up to the influence of pietism, which courses through the veins of many evangelicals. Pietism should not be confused with piety. Piety means simply the spiritual practices of praying, Bible reading and meditation, fasting, and gifts of charity.

It would be safe to say that by the nineteenth century, pietism had long since dislodged Puritanism as the dominant force in American religious life.

The idea is that we are "meritorious," righteous before God, by both justification and infusion. Christ's strength is infused, it fills us, and then we are enabled to do good works. This is salvation by cooperation. God works and God infuses us to do good works. Salvation is by faith and works, not by faith alone. Infusion is about cooperation. Imputation, on the other hand, is the work of one.

A congregation that does not pray for the ministry of its pastor," Bonhoeffer warns, "is no longer a congregation."11 He then adds, "A pastor who does not pray daily for his congregation is no longer a pastor."12

God draws near to the lowly, loving the lost, the unnoticed, the unremarkable, the excluded, the powerless, and the broken."15

Perhaps Bonhoeffer shapes us best by showing us in word and in deed, as a theologian and in his life, how to live the Christian life, how to be a disciple of Christ, how to live in the Christuswirklichkeit.

have the Holy Spirit. I have the Spirit's wonderful work of illumination. I don't need commentaries; I don't need to rely on the thoughts of others. I can go right to the source. To that objection, Spurgeon replied, "It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should