QUOTE: We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds: we
have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of
equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept
us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and
even made us cynical. Are we still of
any use? What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or
clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straightforward men. Will our inward power
of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remoreseless
enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?
[Are
we still of any use?]
AUTHOR: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German: [ˈdiːtʁɪç ˈboːnhœfɐ]; February 4,
1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident
anti-Nazi and founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on
Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and
many have labelled his book The Cost of Discipleship a modern classic.
Apart from his theological
writings, Bonhoeffer became known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi
dictatorship. He strongly opposed Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal
persecution of the Jews. He was also involved in plans by members of the Abwehr
(the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was
arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and executed by hanging in April 1945
while imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp, just 23 days before the German
surrender.
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