Bonhoeffer on Confession

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran pastor and theologian

If you haven’t noticed already, I have a deep appreciation for the life and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  There’s so much to learn from his life and his musings about Christianity and the church. Recently, I’ve been reading his work “Spiritual Care,” so you should anticipate from time to time an extra post with a quote from this book.

A huge part of Bonhoeffer’s thoughts on spiritual care revolve around the church having people who practice confession of their sins. To that end, I stumbled across this quote:

Sin is, in every instance, something quite concrete. It must be recognized and identified by name. Only the demon which is called by name departs. The word of grace cannot be proclaimed and accepted when a person lives in unrecognized and undisclosed sin.

Photo Credit: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license. Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1987-074-16 / CC-BY-SA 3.0