Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was a Protestant theologian best known for his study of the task of relating the Christian faith to the reality of modern politics and diplomacy. He is a crucial contributor to modern just war thinking.

Related Topics:
June 21 - 1892 - June 1 - 1971 - Protestant - Theologian - Christian - Just war

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Niebuhr was born in Wright City, Missouri, USA, the son of a liberally minded German-American pastor, Gustav, and the brother of Helmut Richard Niebuhr. Niebuhr decided to follow in his father's footsteps and enter the ministry. He attended Elmhurst College, Illinois, graduating in 1910 and then going on to Eden Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. Finally he attended Yale University where he received his Bachelor of Divinity Degree in 1914. In 1915, he was ordained a pastor and spent the next thirteen years serving the Evangelical Church in Detroit.

Related Topics:
Wright City, Missouri - USA - Helmut Richard Niebuhr - Elmhurst College - Illinois - 1910 - Eden Seminary - St. Louis - Missouri - Yale University - 1914 - 1915 - Evangelical Church - Detroit

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During the outbreak of World War II, the pacifist leanings of his liberal roots were brought under challenge, and he began to distance himself from the pacifism of his more liberal colleagues, becoming a staunch advocate for the war. Niebuhr soon left the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a peace oriented group of theologians and ministers, and became one of their harshest critics. This departure from his peers evolved into a movement known as Christian Realism and Niebuhr is acknowledged as its primary advocate. Christian Realism provided a more tough-minded approach to politics than the idealism that was held by many of Niebuhr's contemporaries. Within the framework of Christian Realism, Niebuhr became a suppporter of US action in World War II, anti-communism, and the development of nuclear weapons.

Related Topics:
World War II - Pacifist - Fellowship of Reconciliation - Christian Realism - Anti-communism - Nuclear weapons

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The writings of Niebuhr are placed squarely in the middle of a very painful time in the history of the world and of America. Having suffered one World War and a Great Depression, Niebuhr wrote about the injustice of humanity and the need for people to tear down the systems that increased the injustice in the world. In the rise of totalitarian fascism and the horrors of World War II Europe, Niebuhr saw an evil which demanded opposition by force, even by Christians. Taking this lesson further, he wrote concerning the need for a form of democracy that empowered people and rid the world of the human sin of lording power over others. In the beginnings of his work as a vocal social justice proponent, he was a strong democratic socialist. Railing against Franklin Delano Roosevelt?s ?New Deal? as being unattainable, after the war he saw his writing as too idealistic and began to fall into line with the ?New Deal? and the ?Vital Center? of the Democratic party in America. Niebuhr?s work was a great voice within the rising tide of welfare capitalism.

Related Topics:
Great Depression - Fascism - World War II - Democracy - Social justice - Democratic socialist - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - New Deal - Vital Center - Welfare capitalism

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Niebuhr was read widely by Christian leaders in the postwar years, most famously by Martin Luther King, Jr., influencing the evolving American postwar national identity. He unintentionally developed in the American psyche a sort of mythological worker of justice in the world—a notion that he stressed was a vision of what might be, not a description of America at the time. Niebuhr saw America as moving in the direction of justice, despite failures such as racial equality and foreign policy in Vietnam. Writing about class equality, he wrote that ?We have attained a certain equilibrium in economic society by setting organized power against organized power.?

Related Topics:
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Vietnam

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Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.

Related Topics:
Presidential Medal of Freedom - 1964

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Niebuhr is often credited with authorship of the Serenity Prayer used by Alcoholics Anonymous. On this he said: "Of course, it may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself."

Related Topics:
Serenity Prayer - Alcoholics Anonymous

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While teaching theology at Union Theological Seminary, Niebuhr influenced Dietrich Bonhoeffer of the anti-Nazi Confessing Church.

Related Topics:
Union Theological Seminary - Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Nazi - Confessing Church

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