Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971)
Author of Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics
About the Author
Walter Lippmann once called Reinhold Niebuhr the greatest mind America had produced since Jonathan Edwards. It was fitting, then, that Niebuhr died at home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the town where Edwards had preached. He was born in Wright City, Missouri, and his father was a German show more immigrant who served those German-speaking churches that preserved both the Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist) traditions and piety. After seminary in St. Louis, he studied for two years at Yale University, and the M.A. he received there was the highest degree he earned. Rather than work for a doctorate, he became a pastor in Detroit, where in his 13 years of service a tiny congregation grew to one of 800 members. Part of his diary from those years was published in 1929 as Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic. During that time he began to attract attention through articles on social issues; as he said, he "cut [his] eyeteeth fighting [Henry] Ford." But the socialism to which he was attracted soon seemed naive to him: human problems could not be solved just by appealing to the good in people or by promulgating programs for change. Power, economic clout, was needed to change the systems set up by sinful groups, a position expressed in his 1932 book, Moral Man and Immoral Society. By this time Niebuhr was teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he spent the rest of his career. Niebuhr's theology always took second place to ethics. He ran for office as a socialist, rescued Paul Tillich from Germany, became a strong supporter of Israel, gave up pacifism, and was often too orthodox for the liberals, too liberal for the orthodox. His The Nature and Destiny of Man is one of the few seminal theological books written by an American. In it he reiterates a theme that led some to place him in the Barthian camp of Neo-orthodoxy: the radical sinfulness of the human creature. The human condition as illumined by the Christian tradition was always the arena in which he worked. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-127158)
Series
Works by Reinhold Niebuhr
The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of Its Traditional… (1944) 360 copies
Love and Justice: Selections from the Shorter Writings of Reinhold Niebuhr (LTE) (Library of Theological Ethics) (1957) 107 copies
Man's nature and his communities; essays on the dynamics and enigmas of man's personal and social existence (1965) 67 copies
The Structure of Nations and Empires: A Study of the Recurring Patterns and Problems of the Political Order in Relation… (1959) 28 copies
Reinhold Niebuhr on politics;: His political philosophy and its application to our age as expressed in his writings (1960) 27 copies
Faith and politics; a commentary on religious, social, and political thought in a technological age (1968) 19 copies
A World Without War - An Inquiry into the Basic Factors Which Underlie Possible Roads to Peace (1961) 17 copies
A Nation so conceived; reflections on the history of America from its early visions to its present power (1963) 8 copies
The godly and the ungodly : essays on the religious and secular dimensions of modern life (1958) 3 copies
Reinhold Niebuhr: His Religious, Social, and Political Thought (The Library of Living Theology, Volume II) (1956) 2 copies
Prophet from America 1 copy
The Nature & Destiny of Man 1 copy
Freiheit und Gleichheit 1 copy
Associated Works
The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now (2008) — Contributor — 152 copies
A Book that Shook the World: Anniversary Essays on Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1958) — Contributor — 13 copies
War As Crucifixion Essays on Peace, Violence and 'Just War' from "The Christian Century". (2002) — Contributor — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Niebuhr, Reinhold
- Legal name
- Niebuhr, Karl Paul Reinhold
- Other names
- NIEBUHR, Karl Paul Reinhold
NIEBUHR Reinhold - Birthdate
- 1892-06-21
- Date of death
- 1971-06-01
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Wright City, Missouri, USA
- Place of death
- Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
- Education
- Elmhurst College (BA|1910)
Eden Theological Seminary
Yale Divinity School (B.Div.|1914|MA|1915) - Occupations
- professor
theologian - Relationships
- Niebuhr, H. Richard (brother)
Niebuhr, Ursula M. (wife)
Sifton, Elisabeth (daughter) - Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 1953)
Union Theological Seminary - Awards and honors
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964)
- Short biography
- Richard Wightman Fox mentioned in his biography that Reinhold Niebuhr was seen, in the late forties, as "(...) the establishment's theologian (...)"
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Statistics
- Works
- 54
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 5,313
- Popularity
- #4,687
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 37
- ISBNs
- 116
- Languages
- 4
- Favorited
- 9