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It may be hazardous to give an account of my experiences, and my changed perspectives and views, following a stroke that lamed my left side in 1952, in the 60th year of my life. Perhaps the simile “from the sidelines” is inadequate to describe the contrast between my rather too-hectic activities as a member of …
Book Chapter
Along with relevant biographical facts, this chapter outlines the development of Niebuhr’s thought over a fifty-year period, and discusses briefly his more significant books as they throw light on his evolving ideas from liberalism to the more classical theological concepts that have profoundly affected American thought in both Christian and secular life.
Book Chapter
Niebuhr’s theology is based on his doctrine of man as self-transcending yet finite and capable of evil in not accepting his finitude. This anthropology forms the basis of Niebuhr’s ethics, view of history, Christology and eschatology, and is the foundation of his rejection of idealism, naturalism and romanticism as inadequate to deal with man’s paradoxical nature.
Book Chapter
Niebuhr’s inordinate emphasis on the doctrine of sin derives from the anxiety inherent in the paradox created by the conflict between man’s freedom and his tendency toward the prideful self-dependency which is a universal human tendency.
Book Chapter
Niebuhr’s later writings reveal a shift in emphasis from human sinfulness to God’s grace as found in Christ who offers both the truth that clarifies man’s inadequate reason as well as the power to obey this truth. This grace is paradoxical in that man can never achieve righteousness himself, and must await full completion of his life eschatologically in divine action beyond history.
Book Chapter
Niebuhr’s later writings reveal a shift in emphasis from human sinfulness to God’s grace as found in Christ who offers both the truth that clarifies man’s inadequate reason as well as the power to obey this truth. This grace is paradoxical in that man can never achieve righteousness himself, and must await full completion of his life eschatologically in divine action beyond history.
Book Chapter
With an acknowledgment that some of Niebuhr’s thought and actions were flawed and dated, the author insists he remains relevant, and emphasizes five things we might consider. First, he was a thinker and doer who united faith and practice. Second, he defined the basic sin as pride rather than sensuality. Third, sin persists on every level of human achievement. Fourth, we can be ruggedly realistic about our illusions and those of others. Fifth, we can learn something about how to communicate the gospel in a secular age by taking seriously the biblical revelation that God revealed in Christ.
Book Chapter
The editor gives the rationale for the series Makers of the Modern Theological Mind that includes this volume on the thinking of Reinhold Niebuhr.
Article
Recently a well-known liberal clergyman returned from Europe and reported that he was highly gratified to find so many evidences of conciliation in Europe’s political and religious life. He gave it as his opinion that the Continent was slowly but surely approaching the longed-for goal of harmony and peace. It so happens that the …
Continue reading “Let Liberal Churches Stop Fooling Themselves”
Article
Unqualified optimism on the present state or future prospect of religion in modern civilization can emanate only from a very superficial analysis of modern life. In America such optimism is justified by the undeniable prestige of the church in the popular mind and the vitality of the institutions of religion. In Europe optimism is not …
Book Chapter
The author.who is also editor of this series Makers of the Modern Theological Mind, explains his reasons for writing this volume.
Article
It is now 50 years since Reinhold Niebuhr published his little book Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic. Certainly it is one of his lesser works, but its influence may have been as great as that of his Gifford Lectures, published 14 years later; for of all his writings, Learns has had the …
Continue reading “Reflections on ‘Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic’”
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(ENTIRE BOOK) Dr. Patterson presents an overview and summary of Niebuhr’s thought and its relevance to the theological and secular issues of his day, and offers a running dialectical critique that also reveals areas Niebuhr neglected or even misunderstood.
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Book Review: Reinhold Niebuhr: A Biography by Richard Wightman (Pantheon, 340 pp. $19.95) It is easy to imagine Reinhold Niebuhr reading Richard Wightman Fox’s Reinhold Niebuhr: A Biography (Pantheon, 340 Pp., $19.95) — delighted at some of its insights, embarrassed at its appreciation of his achievements, snapping back at some of its criticisms, responding to …
Article
The editor offered a subtitle: “Why Am Still a Niebuhrian.” After due reflection, I declined the offer. In my seminary days, the self-styled “Niebuhrians” were not above carving Niebuhr’s offhand comments in stone in order to crush their opponents in dormitory debates, often betraying rather than emulating their mentor, and their contemporary counterparts frequently seem …
Continue reading “Reinhold Niebuhr: His Theology in the 1980s”
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Book Review: The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics In Times of Peace and War. By Elsabeth Sifton. Norton. 349 pp. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s Reinhold Niebuhr spent his summers in the northwestern Massachusetts village of Heath, where he often spoke at the Heath Union Church. In the summer of 1943 he wrote …
Book Chapter
PRINCIPAL WORKS OF REINHOLD NIEBUHR Does Civilization Need Religion? — A Study in the Social Resources and Limitations of Religion in Modern Life. New York: Macmillan Co., 1927. Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic. Living Age Books. New York: Meridian Books, 1959. The Contribution of Religion to Social Work. New York: Columbia University …
Article
The most obvious fact in thc spiritual climate of our age, to which the preaching of the Christian gospel must adjust itself, is that a world view, usually defined as scientific, is discredited in its interpretation of the human situation by contemporary events. It is discredited though it boasted tremendous triumphs in the technical conquest …
