quote · Legacy record
Just as God's love entered the world, thereby submitting to the misunderstanding and ambiguity that characterize everything worldly, so also Christian love does not exist anywhere but in the worldly, in an infinite variety of concrete worldly action, and subject to misunderstanding and condemnation. Every attempt to portray a Christianity of 'pure' love purged of worldly 'impurities' is a false purism and perfectionism that scorns God's becoming human and falls prey to the fate of all ideologies. God was not too pure to enter the world.
Just as God's love entered the world, thereby submitting to the misunderstanding and ambiguity that characterize everything worldly, so also Christian love does not exist anywhere but in the worldly, in an infinite variety of concrete worldly action, and subject to misunderstanding and condemnation. Every attempt to portray a Christianity of 'pure' love purged of worldly 'impurities' is a false purism and perfectionism that scorns God's becoming human and falls prey to the fate of all ideologies. God was not too pure to enter the world.
Approximate author period: c. 1925 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1925 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1906 to 1945; Wikidata Q76326, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q76326 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 305518; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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