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54+ Works 5,313 Members 37 Reviews 9 Favorited

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

An Interpretation of Christian Ethics (1935) — Author — 357 copies
Justice and mercy (1974) 81 copies
Pious and secular America (1958) 56 copies
Mississippi Black Paper (1965) 11 copies

Associated Works

The Cost of Discipleship (1937) — Foreword, some editions — 8,579 copies
The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) — Introduction, some editions — 5,157 copies
On Religion (1957) — Introduction, some editions — 257 copies
The Philosophy of History in Our Time (1959) — Contributor — 217 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 (...)"

Members

Reviews

This book concerns the nature of humanity and political and social life. It reevaluates idealistic and realistic social philosophies and analyzes tribalism as a pervasive quality of humankind's societies.
 
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PendleHillLibrary | Mar 8, 2024 |
Deals with the uniqueness of the self and the religious implication and function of the self.
 
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PendleHillLibrary | 2 other reviews | Nov 3, 2023 |
A collection of essays selected and introduced by Dr. D.B. Robertson of Berea College and approved by Professor Niebuhr, is the first collection of Niebuhr's occasional articles on issues affecting the conditions of American Protestantism; the relation of Christianity, morality, and society; the politics of Karl Barth and Barthianism; the power and insufficiency of "the Catholic heresy"; and the dilemma affecting the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches
 
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PendleHillLibrary | Oct 13, 2023 |
sermons on social thought
 
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SrMaryLea | Aug 22, 2023 |

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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

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