“Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer 161

German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi 1906–1945

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Context: Man has his own inclinations and a natural will which, in his actions, by means of his free choice, he follows and directs. There can be nothing more dreadful than that the actions of one man should be subject to the will of another; hence no abhorrence can be more natural than that which a man has for slavery. And it is for this reason that a child cries and becomes embittered when he must do what others wish, when no one has taken the trouble to make it agreeable to him. He wants to be a man soon, so that he can do as he himself likes.

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Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 607.

“Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.”

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer 161

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