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'''Reinhold Niebuhr''' (1892—1971) was the leading [[Neo-Orthodox]] theologian in the United States and the premier American public theologian of the [[Cold War]] era from 1945 to his death. Niebuhr was the archetypal American intellectual of the Cold War era. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920's, he became an anti-utopian socialist in the 1930's and then evolved toward a traditionalist Protestant doctrine of sinfulness. This Christian pessimism continued after 1945 and led him to support US efforts to confront Soviet communism around the world. This change in Niebuhr's thought had a great impact on many Democratic liberals, who came to support both domestic welfarism and a "realist" foreign policy.
'''Reinhold Niebuhr''' (1892—1971) was the leading [[Neo-Orthodox]] theologian in the United States and the premier American public theologian of the [[Cold War]] era from 1945 to his death. Niebuhr was the archetypal American intellectual of the Cold War era. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920's, he became an anti-utopian socialist in the 1930's and then evolved toward a traditionalist Protestant doctrine of sinfulness. This Christian pessimism continued after 1945 and led him to support US efforts to confront Soviet communism around the world. This change in Niebuhr's thought had a great impact on many Democratic liberals, who came to support both domestic welfarism and a "realist" foreign policy. He is a favorite thinker of both [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Barack Hussein Obama]].<ref>Frank A. Ruechel, "Politics And Morality Revisited: Jimmy Carter and Reinhold Niebuhr." ''Atlanta History'' 1994 37(4): 19-31; also [http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14256 "Reinhold Niebuhr is Unseen Force in 2008 Elections"], September 27, 2007, Benedicta Cipolla, ''Religion News Service'' of the ''Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life'' </ref>. [[File:Niebuhr1.jpg|thumb|270px]]
==Career==
==Career==
Niebuhr grew up in Lincoln, Illinois, where his father was a pastor in a German-speaking Evangelical congregation; his brother H. Richard Niebuhr became a famous historian of religion. He attended Elmhurst College and Yale Divinity School, claiming he learned far more at Yale.
Niebuhr grew up in Lincoln, Illinois, where his father was a pastor in a German-speaking Evangelical congregation.<ref>The Evangelical denomination was the American branch of the established Reformed Church in Germany; it is now part of the United Church of Christ.</ref> His brother H. Richard Niebuhr became a famous historian of religion, and another brother Hulda Niebuhr became a divinity professor in Chicago. He attended Elmhurst College, Eden Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity School, noting that Yale gave him intellectual liberation. Ordained in the Evangelical Synod of North America (1915), he served as pastor of the Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, until 1928, when he became professor of Christian ethics and the philosophy of religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York City until his retirement in 1960.
===World War I===
===World War I===
As America entered the World War in 1917, Niebuhr was recently ordained in the German Evangelical Synod of North America and had just become pastor of a congregation in Detroit. During the war he repeatedly stressed the need to be loyal to the nation of one's birth or adoption. Theologically, however, he went beyond the issue of national loyalty as he endeavored to fashion a realistic ethical perspective of patriotism and pacifism. He endeavored to work out a realistic approach to the moral danger posed by aggressive powers which many idealists and pacifists failed to recognize. During the war he also served his denomination as Executive Secretary of the War Welfare Commission while maintaining his pastorate in Detroit. A pacifist at heart, he saw compromise as a necessity and was willing to support war in order to find peace - compromising for the sake of righteousness.<ref> William G. Chrystal, "Reinhold Niebuhr and the First World War." ''Journal of Presbyterian History'' 1977 55(3): 285-298. 0022-3883 </ref>
As America entered the World War in 1917, Niebuhr was recently ordained in the German Evangelical Synod of North America and had just become pastor of a congregation in Detroit. He preached the [[Social Gospel]]. During the war he repeatedly stressed the need to be loyal to the nation of one's birth or adoption. Theologically, however, he went beyond the issue of national loyalty as he endeavored to fashion a realistic ethical perspective of patriotism and pacifism. He endeavored to work out a realistic approach to the moral danger posed by aggressive powers which many idealists and pacifists failed to recognize. During the war he also served his denomination as Executive Secretary of the War Welfare Commission while maintaining his pastorate in Detroit. A pacifist at heart, he saw compromise as a necessity and was willing to support war in order to find peace - compromising for the sake of righteousness.<ref> William G. Chrystal, "Reinhold Niebuhr and the First World War." ''Journal of Presbyterian History'' 1977 55(3): 285-298. 0022-3883 </ref>
As a pastor in industrial Detroit (1915-1928), he took stands against [[Henry Ford]] and the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. He then became an internationally recognized academic as a theologian at [[Union Theological Seminary]] in [[New York]], working there for over 30 years. Early on he was a left-leaning social activist; he later dropped the Marxism and socialism. He was a star within the [[Neo-orthodoxy|neo-orthodox]] movement. He is a favorite thinker of both [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Barack Hussein Obama]].<ref>Frank A. Ruechel, "Politics And Morality Revisited: Jimmy Carter and Reinhold Niebuhr." ''Atlanta History'' 1994 37(4): 19-31; also [http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14256 "Reinhold Niebuhr is Unseen Force in 2008 Elections"], September 27, 2007, Benedicta Cipolla, ''Religion News Service'' of the ''Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life'' </ref>. He rejected the liberalism that dominated mainstream Protestantism in the 1920s.
As a pastor in industrial Detroit (1915-1928), he took stands against the brutalization and insecurity of auto workers and attacked the appeal of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] to Protestants. He abandoned the Social Gospel for a form of socialism in the 1920s; by 1932 he had dropped the Marxism and socialism.
===Theology===
===Theology===
In the 1930s Niebuhr emerged as a leader of the [[Neo-orthodoxy|neo-orthodox]] movement in theology.
Inflienced strongly by [[Karl Barth]] and other dialectical theologians of Europe He began to emphasize the Bible as a human record of divine self-revelation; it offered for Niebuhr a critical but redemptive reorientation of the understanding of man's nature and destiny.
Niebuhr couched his ideas in Christ-centered principles such as the [[Great Commandment]] and the doctrine of original sin.
Niebuhr couched his ideas in Christ-centered principles such as the [[Great Commandment]] and the doctrine of original sin.
In ''Moral Man and Immoral Society'' (1932), Niebuhr argued that to approach religion as the individualistic attempt to fulfill biblical commandments in a moralistic sense is not only an impossibility but also a demonstration of man's original sin, which Niebuhr interpreted as self-love. Through self-love man becomes focused on his own goodness and leaps to the false conclusion--which he calls the "Promethean illusion"-- that he can achieve goodness on his own. Thus man mistakes his partial ability to transcend himself for the ability to prove his absolute authority over his own life and world. Constantly frustrated by natural limitations, man develops a lust for power which destroys him and his whole world. History is the record of these crises and judgments which man brings on himself; it is also proof that God does not allow man to overstep his possibilities.
In radical contrast to the Promethean illusion, God reveals himself in history, especially personified in Jesus Christ, as sacrificial love which overcomes the human temptation to self-deification and makes possible constructive human history.
===History===
===History===
In ''The Irony of American History'' (1952) Niebuhr questioned whether a humane, "ironical" interpretation of American history was credible on its own merits, or only in the context of a Christian view of history. Niebuhr's concept of irony referred to situations in which "the consequences of an act are diametrically opposed to the original intention," and "the fundamental cause of the disparity lies in the actor himself, and his original purpose." His reading of American history based on this notion, though from the Christian perspective, is so rooted in historical events that readers who do not share his religious views can be led to the same conclusion.<ref> Martin E. Marty, "Reinhold Niebuhr and the Irony of American History: A Retrospective." ''History Teacher'' 1993 26(2): 161-174. 0018-2745 </ref>
In ''The Irony of American History'' (1952) Niebuhr questioned whether a humane, "ironical" interpretation of American history was credible on its own merits, or only in the context of a Christian view of history. Niebuhr's concept of irony referred to situations in which "the consequences of an act are diametrically opposed to the original intention," and "the fundamental cause of the disparity lies in the actor himself, and his original purpose." His reading of American history based on this notion, though from the Christian perspective, is so rooted in historical events that readers who do not share his religious views can be led to the same conclusion.<ref> Martin E. Marty, "Reinhold Niebuhr and the Irony of American History: A Retrospective." ''History Teacher'' 1993 26(2): 161-174. 0018-2745 </ref>