In the New Testament our enemies are those who harbour hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility, for Jesus refuses to reckon with such a possibility. The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother, and requite his hostility with love. His behaviour must be determined not by the way others treat him, but by the treatment he himself receives from Jesus; it has only one source, and that is the will of Jesus.

He observed "Here one can truly speak and hear about sin and grace and the love of God. Bloesch. His father Karl Bonhoeffer was a distinguiDietrich Bonhoefferd neurologist.

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. He was also involved in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. 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.