Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings are rich sources for this. Here's a sampling (created with GPT):
Bonhoeffer on Christ, the Church, and Resistance
On Christ vs. ideology (from *The Cost of Discipleship*):
"The church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren. Not in the former, but in the latter is the lack."
→ Echoes Barmen’s rejection of the Führer principle in the Church (Thesis IV).
On the State’s limits (from *Ethics*):
"The Church is the Church only when it exists for others… not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others."
→ Matches Barmen’s insistence that the State has a role under God, but cannot claim total control (Thesis V).
On responsibility when the State becomes lawless (1933 sermon):
"The church has three possible ways it can act toward the state: in the first place it can ask the state whether its actions are legitimate… in the second place it can aid the victims of the state’s actions; and in the third place it can jam a spoke in the wheel itself."
→ One of his most famous early statements, showing obedience to Christ may require resistance.
On ultimate allegiance (*Letters and Papers from Prison*):
"We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself."
→ A vivid, quotable summary of his stance.
On Christ as Lord alone (*The Cost of Discipleship*):
"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
→ The sharpest summary of why allegiance to Christ cannot be mixed with allegiance to Hitler.
