Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 - June 1, 1971) was a theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more from 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for decades in the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about religious, political, and public policy intersections, with the most influential books -the book includes the Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man , the second in which Modern Library ranks among the top 20 nonfiction books in the 20th century. Andrew Bacevich labeled Niebuhr's The Irony of American History "the most important book ever written on U.S. foreign policy" Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. describes Niebuhr as "the most influential American theologian of the twentieth century" and Time posthumously called Niebuhr "the greatest Protestant theologian in America since Jonathan Edwards."
Beginning as a minister with the sympathy of the working class in 1920 and sharing with many other ministers a commitment to pacifism and socialism, his thinking developed during the 1930s into a neo-orthodox realist theology as he developed a philosophical perspective known as Christian realism. He attacked utopianism as ineffective in the face of reality, writing in the Children of Light and Children of Darkness (1944), "The human capacity for justice allows democracy, but the human tendency to injustice makes democracy necessary. Niebuhr's realism deepened after 1945 and made him support America's efforts to confront Soviet communism around the world. A powerful speaker, he was one of the most influential thinkers of the 1940s and 1950s in public affairs. Niebuhr fought with religious liberals on what he called their naïve views of the contradictions of human nature and the optimism of the Social Gospel, and fought with religious conservatives for what he saw as their naive view of the scriptures and their narrow definition. "the true religion". During this time he was seen by many as intellectual rival John Dewey.
Niebuhr's contribution to political philosophy involves using theological resources to argue for political realism. His work also significantly influenced the theory of international relations, which led many scholars to move from idealism and embrace realism. A large number of scholars, including political scientists, political historians, and theologians, have noted their influence on their thinking. Aside from academics, many politicians, and activists like former US President Barack Obama, and Jimmy Carter; Myles Horton, Martin Luther King Jr., Hillary Clinton, Hubert Humphrey, Dean Acheson, James Comey, Madeleine Albright, and John McCain also cite their influence on their thinking. The past few years have seen a renewed interest in Niebuhr's work, in part because of the admiration Obama expressed for Niebuhr. In 2017, PBS released a documentary about Niebuhr, entitled An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story.
In addition to his political commentary, Niebuhr is also known for composing Serenity Prayer, a much-read prayer popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous. Niebuhr was also one of the founders of both America for Democratic Action and the International Rescue Committee and also spent time at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, while serving as a visiting professor at Harvard and Princeton. He is also the brother of another prominent theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr.
Video Reinhold Niebuhr
Early life and education
Niebuhr was born in Wright City, Missouri, son of German immigrant Gustav Niebuhr, and his wife, Lydia (nÃÆ' Â © e Hosto). His father was a German Evangelical priest; its denomination is a branch of the United States Prussian Church founded in Germany. Now a part of United Church of Christ. The family speaks German at home. His brother, H. Richard Niebuhr, also became a renowned theologian of ethical ethics, and his sister Hulda Niebuhr became a divine professor in Chicago. The Niebuhrs moved to Lincoln, Illinois, in 1902 when Gustav Niebuhr became pastor of the German Synod's Synod. John. Reinhold Niebuhr first served as pastor of the church when he served from April to September 1913 as interim minister St. John's after his father's death.
Niebuhr studied at Elmhurst College in Illinois and graduated in 1910. He studied at Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri, where, as he admits, he was strongly influenced by Samuel D. Press in "biblical and systematic topics", and Yale Divinity School. , where he obtained his Bachelor of Divinity in 1914 and a Master of Arts degree the following year. He always regretted not taking a doctorate. He says that Yale gave him intellectual liberation from his German-American domesticism.
Maps Reinhold Niebuhr
Marriage and family
In 1931 Niebuhr married Ursula Keppel-Compton. He is a member of the Church of England and educated at Oxford University in theology and history. He met Niebuhr while studying for his master's degree at Union Theological Seminary. Over the years, he was at the faculty at Barnard College (a women's college of Columbia University) where he helped found and then headed the department of religious studies. Niebuhrs has two children, Christopher Niebuhr and Elisabeth Niebuhr Sifton. Ursula Niebuhr left evidence in her professional letters at the Library of Congress indicating that she co-wrote some of her later writings.
Detroit
In 1915, Niebuhr was ordained a minister. The German Evangelical mission board sent him to serve at Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Michigan. The congregation was sixty-six on arrival and grew to nearly 700 by the time he left in 1928. This improvement reflects his ability to reach people outside the German American community and among the growing population who are interested in work in the automobile industry is booming. In the early 1900s Detroit became the fourth largest city in the country, attracting many black and white migrants from rural areas in the South, as well as ethnic Jews and Catholics from eastern and southern Europe. They competed for limited jobs and housing, and the city's rapidly changing and increasing social tensions contributed to the growing number of Ku Klux Klan members in the city, which peaked in 1925, and into the Black Legion. During the city's election campaign that year, in which the Clans openly supported several candidates, including for the mayor's office, Niebuhr spoke openly against the Klan to his congregation, describing them as "one of the worst special social phenomena the pride of a person's religion ever developed". Only one of the few candidates they had a place in the city council, and Charles Bowles, the mayoral candidate, was defeated.
World War I
As America entered World War in 1917, Niebuhr was an unknown minister from a small German-speaking congregation in Detroit (stopped using Germany in 1919). All the German American cultures in the United States and nearby Canada were attacked on suspicion of double loyalty. Niebuhr repeatedly stressed the need to be loyal to America, and won audiences in national magazines to appeal to the German States of being patriotic. Theologically, he transcends national loyalty issues as he seeks to form a realistic ethical perspective of patriotism and pacifism. He sought to take a realistic approach to the moral dangers posed by aggressive forces, which were not recognized by many idealists and pacifists. During the war, he also served his denomination as Executive Secretary of the War Welfare Commission, while retaining his pastor in Detroit. A pacifist at heart, he sees compromise as a necessity and is willing to support the war to find peace - compromise for good.
Origins sympathize the working class and labor class Niebuhr
Several attempts have been made to explain the origins of Niebuhr's sympathy from the 1920s to the working class and the working class problem as documented by his biographer Richard W. Fox. One supportive example has focused on the fate of automotive workers in Detroit. This one interest can be summarized briefly below.
After the seminary, Niebuhr preached the Social Gospel, and then began the engagement of what he considered the insecurity of Ford workers. Niebuhr has moved to the left and is distracted by the demoralizing effects of industrialism on workers. He became a vocal critic of Henry Ford and allowed union organizers to use his platform to explain the message of their workers' rights. Niebuhr attacks bad conditions created by assembly lines and uncertain employment practices.
Because of his opinion of factory work, Niebuhr rejected liberal optimism. He wrote in his diary:
We passed one of the big car factories today.... The foundry plant really caught my attention. The heat is amazing. The men looked tired. Here manual work is a tedious job and hard work is slavery. Men are unlikely to find satisfaction in their work. They only work to earn a living. Their sweat and tedious pain are part of the price paid for the nice cars we all run. And most of us run cars without knowing what price is paid to them.... We are all responsible. We all want things manufactured by factories and none of us are sensitive enough to care how deep the human cost-efficiency values ​​of modern factories.
Historian Ronald H. Stone thinks that Niebuhr never talked to the assembly workers (many of his parishes are skilled craftsmen) but projecting feelings to them after discussions with Rev. Samuel Marquis. Niebuhr's critique of Ford and capitalism resonates progressively and helps make it stand out nationally. Her serious commitment to Marxism flourished after she moved to New York in 1928.
In 1923, Niebuhr visited Europe to meet with intellectuals and theologians. The conditions he saw in Germany under French occupation in Rhineland made him anxious. They reinforced the pacifist view he adopted throughout the 1920s after World War I.
1930s: Increased influence in New York
Niebuhr captures his personal experience in Detroit in his book Leaf from the Notebook of Tamed Cynic. He continued to write and publish throughout his career, and also served as editor of the Christianity and Crisis magazine from 1941 to 1966.
In 1928, Niebuhr left Detroit to become Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He spent the rest of his career there, until his retirement in 1960. While teaching theology at Union Theological Seminary, Niebuhr influenced many generations of students and thinkers, including German minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer of the Confessing Anti-Nazi Church.
The Socialist Christian fellowship was held in the early 1930s by Niebuhr and others with the same view. Then he changed his name to Frontier Fellowship and then to Christian Action. The main supporters of the Fellowship in the early days included Eduard Heimann, Sherwood Eddy, Paul Tillich, and Rose Terlin. In the early days the group thought that capitalist individualism was incompatible with Christian ethics. Though not Communist, the group recognizes Karl Marx's social philosophy. Niebuhr is among the group of 51 leading Americans who formed the International Relief Association (IRA) now known as the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The mission of the committee is to help the Germans who are suffering from Hitler's regime policies.
Niebuhr and Dewey
In the 1930s Niebuhr was often seen as an intellectual opponent of John Dewey. Both men are professional polemic and their ideas often clash, though they contribute to the same field of intellectual liberal thought. Niebuhr is a strong proponent of the "Jerusalem" religious tradition as a correction to the secular "Athens" tradition imposed by Dewey. In the book of the Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), Niebuhr strongly criticizes Dewey's philosophy, although his own ideas are still intellectual. Two years later, in the book review of Dewey A Common Faith (1934), Niebuhr was quiet and respectful of Dewey's "religious footnote" on his great educational and pragmatic philosophy.
Neo-orthodox theology
In 1939 Niebuhr described his theological journey:
... Along the center of my ministry extending from the peace of Versailles [1919] to the peace of Munich [1938], measured in terms of Western history, I experienced a complete conversion of thought involving rejection of almost all aspirations the liberal theological ideas and ideas I taught in 1915. I wrote a book [ What Civilization Needed for Religion? ], the first, in 1927 that... contains almost all the current theological windmill I tilt my sword. These windmills must have collapsed shortly afterwards for every volume that has successfully revealed more explicit revolt against what is commonly known as liberal culture.
In the 1930s Niebuhr devised many ideas about sin and grace, love and justice, faith and reason, realism and idealism, and the irony and tragedy of history, which shaped his leadership against the neo-orthodox movement in theology. Influenced by Karl Barth and other dialectic theologians in Europe, he began to emphasize the Bible as the human record of divine revelation; he offers to Niebuhr a critical reorientation but a redemptive understanding of human nature and destiny.
Niebuhr conveyed his ideas in Christ-centered principles such as the Great Commandment and the doctrine of original sin. His main contribution was his view of sin as a social event - as pride - selfishly focused on the root of evil. The sin of pride is clear not only to criminals, but more dangerous to people who feel good about their deeds - more like Henry Ford (who is not named). The human tendency to corrupt the good is the great insight he sees materialized in government, business, democracy, utopian society, and the church. This position is laid out very deeply in one of his most influential books, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932). He is a dissident of hypocrisy and pretense and makes the avoidance of the true self-centered illusion of his mind.
Niebuhr argues that to approach religion as an individualistic attempt to fulfill biblical commandments in a moralistic sense is not only impossibility but also a demonstration of original human sin, which Niebuhr interpreted as self-love. Through self-love man becomes focused on his own good and jumps to the wrong conclusion - which he calls the "Promethean illusion" - that he can achieve his own good. Thus man misrepresents his partial ability to transcend himself for the ability to prove his absolute authority over his own life and world. Frustrated by the limitations of nature, man develops lust for power that destroys him and his whole world. History is a record of the crisis and judgment that man has brought to himself; this is also proof that God does not allow man to transcend his possibilities. Radically different from the Promethean illusion, God declares himself in history, especially personified in Jesus Christ, as a love that transcends human temptation against self-esteem and enables constructive human history.
Politics
Domestic
During the 1930s, Niebuhr was a prominent leader of the militant faction of the American Socialist Party, although he did not like the hard Marxists. He describes their beliefs as a religion and a thin one on it. In 1941, he founded the Union for Democratic Action, a group with a highly militaristic, interventionist, and pro-union international policy, a liberal domestic policy. He was group president until transformed into America for Democratic Action in 1947.
International
Within the framework of Christian Realism, Niebuhr became a supporter of American action in World War II, anti-communism, and the development of nuclear weapons. However, he opposed the Vietnam War.
At the outbreak of World War II, the pacifist component of his liberalism was challenged. Niebuhr began to distance himself from his more liberal passive pacifism and became a staunch supporter of war. Niebuhr soon left the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a peace-oriented group of theologians and ministers, and became one of their harshest critics.
The departure of these friends evolved into a movement known as Christian Realism. Niebuhr is widely regarded as his main supporter. Niebuhr supported the Allies during World War II and debated the United States' involvement in the war. As a popular writer both in the secular and religious arenas and a professor at Union Theological Seminary, he is very influential both in the United States and abroad. While many ministers proclaimed themselves pacifists because of the experiences of World War I, Niebuhr stated that the victories of Germany and Japan would threaten Christianity. He abandoned his socialist relations and convictions and withdrew from the pacifist Reconciliation Guild. He based his argument on Protestant belief that sin is part of the world, that justice must take precedence over love, and that pacifism is the symbolic depiction of absolute love but can not prevent sin. Although his opponents did not describe him well, Niebuhr's exchange with them on this issue helped him become intellectually mature.
Niebuhr argues Charles Clayton Morrison, editor of The Christian Century magazine, about the entry of America into World War II. Morrison and his pacifist adherents state that America's role must be completely neutral and part of the negotiated peace only, while Niebuhr claims himself as a realist, who opposes the use of political forces to achieve moral goals. Morrison and his followers strongly supported the movement to ban the war that began after World War I and the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928. The treaty was strongly challenged by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. With the publication of the Moral Man and Immoral Society > (1932), Niebuhr decided on rankings with The Christian Century and supported interventionism and power politics. He supported the re-election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 and published his own magazine, Christianity and Crisis. However, in 1945, Niebuhr alleged that the use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima was "morally untenable".
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. explains Niebuhr's influence:
Traditionally, the notion of human weakness leads to a demand for obedience to an ordained authority. But Niebuhr rejected the old conservative argument. The ordained authority, he points out, is more subject to the temptations of self-interest, self-deception and self-truth. Power must be balanced by power. He persuaded me and many of my colleagues that original sin provided a much stronger foundation for freedom and self-government than an illusion of human perfection. Niebuhr's analysis is based on the Christianity of Augustine and Calvin, but he, however, has a special affinity with secular circles. His warnings of utopianism, messianism and perfectionism are important today.... We can not play God's role in history, and we must make every effort to achieve decency, clarity, and praxis of justice in an ambiguous world.
Niebuhr's defense of Roosevelt made him popular with liberals, as historian Morton White put it:
The contemporary liberal attractiveness with Niebuhr, I suggest, comes less than Niebuhr's dark theory of human nature and more than his true political statement, from the fact that he is a shrewd, courageous, and straight-thinking on many political questions. Those who value politics are too vulnerable to turn to his theory of human nature and praise him as a philosophical instrument of Niebuhr's political dealings with themselves. But very few of those I call "atheists for Niebuhr" follow this reverse logic to its conclusion: they do not move from praising Niebuhr's theory of human nature to praise its theological land. We may admire them for drawing a line somewhere, but certainly not for their consistency.
After Joseph Stalin signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Adolf Hitler in August 1939, Niebuhr severed his past relationship with a fellow traveler's organization with Communist tendencies. In 1947, Niebuhr helped find the liberal Americans for Democratic Action (ADA). His ideas influenced George Kennan, Hans Morgenthau, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., and other realists during the Cold War on the need to contain Communist expansion.
In his final cover story for Time magazine (March 1948), Whittaker Chambers says about Niebuhr:
Most US liberals regard Niebuhr as a solid socialist who has an unclear relationship with Union Theological Seminary which does not interfere with his political work. Unlike most pastors in politics, Dr. Niebuhr is a pragmatist. James Loeb, the American secretary for Democratic Action: "Most of the so-called liberals are idealists, they let their hearts run with their heads Niebuhr never does, for example, he has always been a passive opponent of pacifism. in the war when pacifism became popular, he defended against him with perseverance. He was also an opponent of Marxism.
In the 1950s, Niebuhr described Senator Joseph McCarthy as an evil force, not for attacking civil liberties, for being ineffective in eradicating Communists and their sympathizers. In 1953, he supported Rosenberg's execution, saying, "The traitor has never been a common criminal and Rosenberg is clearly a very loyal communist... Stealing atomic secrets is an unprecedented crime."
Views about race, ethnicity and other religious affiliations
His views expanded during his pastoral term in Detroit, which has been the site of immigration, migration, competition and development as a major industrial city. During the 1920s, Niebuhr spoke against the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan in Detroit, which has recruited many members threatened by rapid social change. The clan proposed an anti-black, anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic position. Niebuhr preached against the Klan, especially in relation to the mayoral election of 1925, earning him national attention.
Niebuhr's thoughts about racial justice developed slowly after he left socialism. Niebuhr connects people's injustices with human pride and self-love and believes that the innate tendencies for these crimes can not be controlled by humans. But, he believes that representative democracy can increase public illness. Like Edmund Burke, Niebuhr supports the natural evolution of forced change and emphasizes theoretical experience. Burkean's ideology Niebuhr, however, often contradicts his liberal principles, especially regarding his perspective of racial justice. Although strongly opposed to racial inequalities, Niebuhr adopted a conservative position in terms of segregation.
While after World War II most liberally supported integration, Niebuhr focused on achieving equal opportunities. He cautioned against enforcing changes that could lead to violence. The violence that followed the peaceful demonstrations of the 1960s forced Niebuhr to reverse his position against forced equality; witnessing the North ghetto problem then caused him to doubt that equality can be achieved.
Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism rose in Detroit in 1920 in reaction to the growing number of Catholic immigrants from southern Europe since the early 20th century. It was aggravated by the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, which recruited many members in Detroit. Niebuhr defended pluralism by attacking the Klan. During the Detroit mayoral election of 1925, Niebuhr's sermon, "We Protestant-minded can not deny", is published on the front page of both the Detroit Times and Free Press.
This sermon urges people to vote against mayor Charles Bowles, who is openly supported by the Klan. The Catholic custodian John W. Smith won with a narrow 30,000 vote. Niebuhr preached against the Klan and helped influence the decline of his political power in Detroit. Niebuhr preaches:
that it is Protestantism that gave birth to Ku Klux Klan, one of the most specific social phenomena in which religious pride and public prejudice have developed.... I do not deny that all religions are periodically annihilated by bigotry. But I hit the most violent Protestant fanatism this time because it is our sin and there's no point in repenting for the sins of others. Let us repent of ourselves.... We are counseled in the Scriptures to judge men with their fruit, not their roots; and their fruit is their character, their deeds and their achievements.
Martin Luther King Jr.
In "Letter from Birmingham Prison" Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "Individuals can see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture, but, as Reinhold Niebuhr recalls, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals." King was more interested in Niebuhr's social and ethical ideals than others (including Gandhi). The king invited Niebuhr to participate in the third Selma to Montgomery March in 1965, and Niebuhr responded by telegram: "Only a severe stroke prevents me from accepting... I hope there will be a massive demonstration of all citizens with a conscience supporting the human rights of voting and freedom of assembly "(Niebuhr, 19 March 1965). Two years later, Niebuhr defended the King's decision to speak out against the Vietnam War, calling him "one of the greatest religious leaders of our time". Niebuhr asserted: "Dr. King has the right and duty, both as a religious leader and a civil right, to express his concerns in these days about the big human problems like the Vietnam War." From his country's intervention in Vietnam, Niebuhr admitted: "For the first time I fear I am ashamed of my beloved nation."
Judaism
As a young pastor in Detroit, he liked converting Jews to Christianity, scolding anti-Semitic evangelical Christians or ignoring them. He speaks against the "non-Christian attitude of the Christians" and what he describes as his "Christian fanaticism". His article in 1933 at the Christian Century was an attempt to sound an alarm within the Christian community of Hitler's "Jewish cultural extermination". Eventually his theologians evolved to the point where he was the first leading Christian theologian who argued that it was inappropriate for Christians to seek to convert the Jews into their faith.
As a preacher, writer, leader, and advisor to political figures, Niebuhr supports Zionism and Israel's development. The solution to anti-Semitism is a combination of Jewish homeland, greater tolerance, and assimilation in other countries. In early 1942, he advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Palestine and their settlements in other Arab countries. His position may relate to his religious belief that life on earth is imperfect, and his concerns about German anti-Semitism.
History
In 1952, Niebuhr published The Irony of American History, where he interpreted the meaning of the past of the United States. Niebuhr questioned whether the humane "ironic" interpretation of American history is credible in its own ability, or only in the context of the Christian view of history. The concept of the irony of Niebuhr refers to a situation where "the consequences of an action are diametrically opposed to the original intention," and "the underlying cause of the difference lies with the actor himself, and his original purpose." His reading of American history based on this idea, though from a Christian perspective, is deeply rooted in historical events so that readers who do not share their religious views can be drawn to the same conclusion. Niebuhr's greatest enemy is idealism. American idealism, he argues, comes in two forms: non-interventionist anti-war idealism, humiliated by power; and pro-war imperialist idealism, which disguises power as virtue. He said non-interventionist, without mentioning Harry Emerson Fosdick's name, seeks to preserve the purity of their souls, either by denouncing military action or by demanding that any action taken is wholesome. They exaggerate the sins committed by their own country, putting aside the envy of their enemies and, as polemicists have said later, inevitably blame America first. Niebuhr believes this approach is a godly way of refusing to face real problems.
Serenity Prayer
Niebuhr claims he wrote a short Serenity Prayer. Fred R. Shapiro, who had doubted Niebuhr's claim, admitted in 2009 that, "The new evidence does not prove that Reinhold Niebuhr wrote [prayer], but it significantly increases the likelihood that he is the originator." The earliest known version of prayer, from 1937, linked prayers with Niebuhr in this version:
"Father, give us the courage to change what must be changed, the calmness to accept what can not be helped, and the insight to know which one from the other."
The most popular version, the unknown author, reads:
- God gives me the peace to receive things I can not change,
- Courage to change things I can,
- And the wisdom to know the difference.
Influence
Many political scientists, such as George F. Kennan, Hans Morgenthau, Kenneth Waltz, and Samuel P. Huntington and political historians, such as Richard Hofstadter, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., and Christopher Lasch, have noted their impact on their thinking.
Niebuhr had a significant influence on mainstream Protestant ministers in the years after World War II, many of which corresponded to neo-orthodox and related movements. The influence began to diminish and then fell towards the end of his life.
Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. at the end of the 20th century illustrates the legacy of Niebuhr being contested between liberal and conservative Americans, both want to claim it. Martin Luther King Jr. gave praise for Niebuhr's influence. Conservative foreign policy showed Niebuhr's support for containment doctrine during the Cold War as an example of moral realism; progressively cites his opposition later to the Vietnam War.
In recent years, Niebuhr has enjoyed something of a revival in contemporary thought, although it is usually not in Protestant liberal theological circles. The two main party candidates in the 2008 presidential election called Niebuhr its influence: Senator John McCain, in his book Hard Call, celebrates Niebuhr as a paragon of clarity about the cost of a good war. President Barack Obama said that Niebuhr is his "favorite philosopher" and "favorite theologian". Slate magazine columnist Fred Kaplan marked Obama's 2009 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech as a "loyal reflection" from Niebuhr.
Kenneth Waltz's seminal work on the theory of international relations, Man, Country, and War , includes many references to Niebuhr's thought. Waltz emphasized Niebuhr's contribution to political realism, especially the "impossibility of human perfection". Andrew Bacevich's book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism refers to Niebuhr 13 times. Bacevich emphasized Niebuhr's humility and his conviction that Americans are in danger of becoming captivated by US forces.
Other leaders of American foreign policy in the late twentieth and early twentieth centuries have recognized the importance of Niebuhr to them, including Jimmy Carter, Madeleine Albright, and Hillary Clinton.
Inheritance and honor
- During his lifetime, Niebuhr was awarded several honorary doctorates.
- In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave the Niebuhr Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- In honor of Niebuhr, New York City is named West 120th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive Reinhold Niebuhr Place. This is where the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, where Niebuhr has been teaching for over 30 years.
- Elmhurst College, his alma mater , founded the Niebuhr Medal in honor of him and his brother.
Niebuhr's influence was at its peak during the first two decades of the Cold War. In the 1970s, its influence declined because of the rise of liberation theology, anti-war sentiment, conservative evangelical growth, and postmodernism. According to historian Gene Zubovich, "It takes the tragic events of September 11, 2001, to revive Niebuhr."
In the spring of 2017, he speculated (and later confirmed) that former FBI director James Comey used the name Niebuhr as the screen name for his personal Twitter account. Comey, as a religion major in College of William & amp; Mary, wrote her script about Niebuhr and televangelist Jerry Falwell.
Personal style
Niebuhr is often described as a charismatic speaker. Journalist Alden Whitman writes about his speech:
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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