I increasingly realize how old testamentally I think and feel; however, I have also read much more of the Old Testament than the New Testament in recent months.
Only he who knows that God's name cannot be pronounced may pronounce the name of Jesus Christ;
only he who loves life and the earth as if everything ends with it and loses its meaning can believe in the resurrection of the dead and the new world;
only he who has submitted to God's law can also speak of grace;
and only recognizing God's anger and vengeance upon his enemies as valid realities can something of forgiveness and love for enemies penetrate to his heart.
He who wants to live and think in a new testament way too quickly and immediately is, in my view, not a Christian.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer /1906–1945/, letter from Nazi prison to a friend, December 5, 1943;
quoted from the book Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Resistance and Submission, Letters from Prison. Kalich 2023)
