Misplaced Pages

#965034

78-405: The Century ' s current editor and publisher is Peter W. Marty, while Steve Thorngate is its managing editor. Regular columns include: The Century website hosts podcasts by Grace Ji-Sun Kim , Amy Frykholm, Cassidy Hall, Matt Fitzgerald, Matt Gaventa, and Adam Hearlson. The magazine's editorial stance has been described as "liberal." It describes its own mission as follows: For decades,

156-405: A Disciples of Christ denominational magazine. In 1900, its editor proposed to rename it Christian Century in response to the great optimism of many Christians at the turn of the 20th century that "genuine Christian faith could live in mutual harmony with the modern developments in science, technology, immigration, communication and culture that were already under way." Around this same time,

234-406: A Niebuhrian strategy of power” and “Whenever there was a conversation about power, Niebuhr came up. Niebuhr kept us from being naive about the evil structures of society.” 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

312-409: A commitment to pacifism and socialism , his thinking evolved during the 1930s to neo-orthodox realist theology as he developed the philosophical perspective known as Christian realism . He attacked utopianism as ineffectual for dealing with reality. Niebuhr's realism deepened after 1945 and led him to support American efforts to confront Soviet communism around the world. A powerful speaker, he

390-686: A divinity professor in Chicago. The Niebuhr family moved to Lincoln , Illinois, in 1902 when Gustav Niebuhr became pastor of Lincoln's St. John's German Evangelical Synod church. Reinhold Niebuhr first served as pastor of a church when he served from April to September 1913 as interim minister of St. John's following his father's death. Niebuhr attended Elmhurst College in Illinois and graduated in 1910. He studied at Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves , Missouri, where, as he said, he

468-610: A far stronger foundation for freedom and self-government than illusions about human perfectibility. Niebuhr's analysis was grounded in the Christianity of Augustine and Calvin, but he had, nonetheless, a special affinity with secular circles. His warnings against utopianism, messianism and perfectionism strike a chord today. ... We cannot play the role of God to history, and we must strive as best we can to attain decency, clarity and proximate justice in an ambiguous world. Niebuhr's defense of Roosevelt made him popular among liberals, as

546-555: A human record of divine self-revelation; it offered for Niebuhr a critical but redemptive reorientation of the understanding of humanity's nature and destiny. Niebuhr couched his ideas in Christ-centered principles such as the Great Commandment and the doctrine of original sin. His major contribution was his view of sin as a social event—as pride—with selfish self-centeredness as the root of evil. The sin of pride

624-440: A living. Their sweat and their dull pain are part of the price paid for the fine cars we all run. And most of us run the cars without knowing what price is being paid for them. ... We are all responsible. We all want the things which the factory produces and none of us is sensitive enough to care how much in human values the efficiency of the modern factory costs. The historian Ronald H. Stone thinks that Niebuhr never talked to

702-644: A major human problem as the Vietnam War." Of his country's intervention in Vietnam, Niebuhr admitted: "For the first time I fear I am ashamed of our beloved nation." Throughout his life, Niebuhr cultivated a good reputation and rapport with the Jewish community. He was an early critic of Christian antisemitism, including proselytism, and a persistent critic of Nazism and rising antisemitism in Germany throughout

780-579: A mission to Jews. According to his biographer, the historian Richard Wightman Fox , Niebuhr understood that "Christians needed the leaven of pure Hebraism to counteract the Hellenism to which they were prone". Niebuhr captured his personal experiences in Detroit in his book Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic . He continued to write and publish throughout his career, and also served as editor of

858-783: A movement known as Christian realism. Niebuhr is widely considered to have been its primary advocate. Niebuhr supported the Allies during the Second World War and argued for the engagement of the United States in the war. As a writer popular in both the secular and the religious arena and a professor at the Union Theological Seminary, he was very influential both in the United States and abroad. While many clergy proclaimed themselves pacifists because of their World War I experiences, Niebuhr declared that

SECTION 10

#1732771766966

936-531: A religion and a thin one at that. In 1941, he co-founded the Union for Democratic Action , a group with a strongly militarily interventionist , internationalist foreign policy and a pro- union , liberal domestic policy. He was the group's president until it transformed into the Americans for Democratic Action in 1947. Within the framework of Christian realism, Niebuhr became a supporter of American action in

1014-655: A representative democracy could improve society's ills. Like Edmund Burke , Niebuhr endorsed natural evolution over imposed change and emphasized experience over theory. Niebuhr's Burkean ideology, however, often conflicted with his liberal principles, particularly regarding his perspective on racial justice. Though vehemently opposed to racial inequality, Niebuhr adopted a conservative position on segregation . While after World War II most liberals endorsed integration, Niebuhr focused on achieving equal opportunity. He warned against imposing changes that could result in violence. The violence that followed peaceful demonstrations in

1092-473: A review of Dewey's book A Common Faith (1934), Niebuhr was calm and respectful towards Dewey's "religious footnote" on his then large body of educational and pragmatic philosophy. In 1939 Niebuhr explained his theological odyssey: ... about midway in my ministry which extends roughly from the peace of Versailles to the peace of Munich measured in terms of Western history, I underwent a fairly complete conversion of thought which involved rejection of almost all

1170-693: A sabbatical grant for researchers from the Louisville Institute in 2020. Currently, Kim is Professor of Theology at the Earlham School of Religion. She is the author or editor of over 20 books, most recently, Hope in Disarray; Keeping Hope Alive; Reimagining Spirit and Intersectional Theology co-written with Susan Shaw. She is the co-editor of the book series 'Asian Christianity in the Diaspora', published by Palgrave Macmillan . Kim

1248-474: A solid socialist who has some obscure connection with Union Theological Seminary that does not interfere with his political work. Unlike most clergymen in politics, Dr. Niebuhr is a pragmatist. Says James Loeb, secretary of Americans for Democratic Action: "Most so-called liberals are idealists. They let their hearts run away with their heads. Niebuhr never does. For example, he has always been the leading liberal opponent of pacifism. In that period before we got into

1326-610: A venue for promotion of ideas by Christian activists who opposed the internment of Japanese Americans . Critiques of the internment policy, by writers such as Galen Fisher, appeared regularly in the Century and helped bring awareness to the situation. In 1956 the magazine was challenged by the establishment of Christianity Today by Carl F. H. Henry , which sought to present a theologically conservative evangelical viewpoint, while restoring many social concerns abandoned by fundamentalists. Both magazines continue to flourish, with

1404-526: A victory by Germany and Japan would threaten Christianity. He renounced his socialist connections and beliefs and resigned from the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. He based his arguments on the Protestant beliefs that sin is part of the world, that justice must take precedence over love, and that pacifism is a symbolic portrayal of absolute love but cannot prevent sin. Although his opponents did not portray him favorably, Niebuhr's exchanges with them on

1482-683: 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. During the 1930s, Niebuhr was a prominent leader of the militant faction of the Socialist Party of America , although he disliked die-hard Marxists. He described their beliefs as

1560-460: Is currently the host of https://www.christiancentury.org/madang Madang podcast which is hosted by The Christian Century . Reinhold Niebuhr Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian , ethicist , commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of

1638-816: Is no use repenting for other people's sins. Let us repent of our own. ... We are admonished in Scripture to judge men by their fruits, not by their roots; and their fruits are their character, their deeds and accomplishments. In the " Letter from Birmingham Jail " Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals." King drew heavily upon Niebuhr's social and ethical ideals; according to Andrew Young , “King always claimed to have been much more influenced by Niebuhr than by Gandhi; he considered his nonviolent technique to be

SECTION 20

#1732771766966

1716-451: Is usually known as liberal culture. In the 1930s Niebuhr worked out many of his ideas about sin and grace, love and justice, faith and reason, realism and idealism, and the irony and tragedy of history, which established his leadership of the neo-orthodox movement in theology. Influenced strongly by Karl Barth and other dialectical theologians of Europe, he began to emphasize the Bible as

1794-401: The Century 's offices moved to Chicago. The magazine did not receive widespread support in its denomination and was sold in a mortgage foreclosure in 1908. It was purchased by Charles Clayton Morrison , who soon labeled the magazine nondenominational . Morrison became a highly influential spokesperson for liberal Christianity , advocating higher criticism of the Bible , as well as

1872-457: The Century remaining the major independent publication within ecumenical, mainline Protestantism. The magazine was heavily involved in covering and advocating for the civil rights movement . It sent editors to a march in Selma, Alabama in 1965 and was one of the first national magazines to publish Martin Luther King Jr. 's " Letter from Birmingham Jail " along with six of his other essays. King

1950-614: The Christian Century has informed and shaped progressive, mainline Christianity. Committed to thinking critically and living faithfully, the magazine explores what it means to believe and live out the Christian faith in our time. As a voice of generous orthodoxy, the Century is both loyal to the church and open to the world. The Christian Century was founded in 1884 as The Christian Oracle in Des Moines , Iowa , as

2028-532: The Christian right in the United States. The Institute on Religion and Democracy , a conservative think tank founded in 1981, has adopted Niebuhr's concept of Christian realism on their social and political approaches. Aside from his political commentary, Niebuhr is also known for having composed the Serenity Prayer , a widely recited prayer which was popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous . Niebuhr

2106-712: The Ku Klux Klan and the Black Legion in growing numbers. By 1923, membership in the KKK in Detroit topped 20,000. In 1925, as part of the Ku Klux Klan's strategy to accumulate government power, the membership organization selected and publicly supported several candidates for public office, including for the office of the mayor. Niebuhr spoke out publicly against the Klan to his congregation, describing them as "one of

2184-793: The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Adolf Hitler in August 1939, Niebuhr severed his past ties with any fellow-traveler organization having any known Communist leanings. In 1947, Niebuhr helped found the liberal Americans for Democratic Action . 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 last cover story for Time magazine (March 1948), Whittaker Chambers said of Niebuhr: Most U.S. liberals think of Niebuhr as

2262-660: The Second World War , 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 the pacifism of his more liberal colleagues and became 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

2340-476: The Social Gospel , which included concerns about child labor , women's suffrage , racism , war and pacifism , alcoholism and prohibition , environmentalism , and many other political and social issues. The magazine was a common target for criticism by fundamentalists during the fundamentalist–modernist debate of the early 20th century. During the Second World War , the magazine helped provide

2418-428: The 1930s. When he began as a young pastor in 1923 Detroit, he favored conversion of Jews to Christianity, scolding evangelical Christians who were either antisemitic or ignored them. He spoke out against "the un-Christlike attitude of Christians", and what he called "Jewish bigotry". Within three years, his theological views had evolved, and he spoke out against the practicality and necessity of missionizing Jews . He

The Christian Century - Misplaced Pages Continue

2496-537: The 1960s forced Niebuhr to reverse his position against imposed equality; witnessing the problems of the Northern ghettos later caused him to doubt that equality was attainable. Anti-Catholicism surged in Detroit in the 1920s in reaction to the rise in the number of Catholic immigrants from southern Europe since the early 20th century. It was exacerbated by the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, which recruited many members in Detroit. Niebuhr defended pluralism by attacking

2574-480: The 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man . Starting as a minister with working-class sympathies in the 1920s and sharing with many other ministers

2652-578: The French occupation of the Rhineland dismayed him. They reinforced the pacifist views that he had adopted throughout the 1920s after the First World War. Niebuhr preached about the need to persuade Jews to convert to Christianity . He believed there were two reasons Jews did not convert: the "un-Christlike attitude of Christians" and "Jewish bigotry." However, he later rejected the idea of

2730-478: The German Americans to be patriotic. Theologically, 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

2808-482: The Jews". As a preacher, writer, leader, and adviser to political figures, Niebuhr supported Zionism and the development of Israel . His solution to antisemitism was a combination of a Jewish homeland, greater tolerance, and assimilation in other countries. Unlike other Christian Zionists, Niebuhr's support of Zionism was practical, not theological, and not rooted in fulfillment of Biblical prophesy nor anticipation of

2886-455: The Klan and helped to influence its decline in political power in Detroit. Niebuhr preached that: ... it was Protestantism that gave birth to the Ku Klux Klan, one of the worst specific social phenomena which the religious pride and prejudice of peoples has ever developed. ... I do not deny that all religions are periodically corrupted by bigotry. But I hit Protestant bigotry the hardest at this time because it happens to be our sin and there

2964-547: The Klan. During the Detroit mayoral election of 1925, Niebuhr's sermon, "We fair-minded Protestants cannot deny", was published on the front pages of both the Detroit Times and the Free Press . This sermon urged people to vote against mayoral candidate Charles Bowles , who was being openly endorsed by the Klan. The Catholic incumbent, John W. Smith , won by a narrow margin of 30,000 votes. Niebuhr preached against

3042-482: The Rosenbergs are quite obviously fiercely loyal Communists ... Stealing atomic secrets is an unprecedented crime." His views developed during his pastoral tenure in Detroit, which had become a place of immigration, migration, competition and development as a major industrial city. During the 1920s, Niebuhr spoke out against the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Detroit, which had recruited many members threatened by

3120-533: 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. Several attempts have been made to explicate the origins of Niebuhr's sympathies from the 1920s to working-class and labor issues as documented by his biographer Richard W. Fox. One supportive example has concerned his interest in

3198-656: The World Jewish Congress, claiming he was exaggerating the Holocaust . As late as 1944 the magazine published articles such as "A Reply to Screamers" by Fred Eastman which admonished the suggestion that there was a moral obligation for the United States to aid in the plight of European Jews being murdered during the Holocaust . Marty, writing about the 1940s, described the Christian Century at that time as being an " anti-Zionist " publication. Beginning in 2012, James M. Wall (editor from 1972-1999) served on

The Christian Century - Misplaced Pages Continue

3276-428: The anti- Nazi Confessing Church . The Fellowship of Socialist Christians was organized in the early 1930s by Niebuhr and others with similar views. Later it changed its 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 its early days the group thought capitalist individualism

3354-464: The assembly line workers (many of his parishioners were skilled craftsmen) but projected feelings onto them after discussions with Samuel Marquis. Niebuhr's criticism of Ford and capitalism resonated with progressives and helped make him nationally prominent. His serious commitment to Marxism developed after he moved to New York in 1928. In 1923, Niebuhr visited Europe to meet with intellectuals and theologians. The conditions he saw in Germany under

3432-452: The assembly lines and erratic employment practices. Because of his opinion about factory work, Niebuhr rejected liberal optimism. He wrote in his diary: We went through one of the big automobile factories to-day. ... The foundry interested me particularly. The heat was terrific. The men seemed weary. Here manual labour is a drudgery and toil is slavery. The men cannot possibly find any satisfaction in their work. They simply work to make

3510-515: The atomic bomb on Hiroshima was "morally indefensible". Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. explained Niebuhr's influence: Traditionally, the idea of the frailty of man led to the demand for obedience to ordained authority. But Niebuhr rejected that ancient conservative argument. Ordained authority, he showed, is all the more subject to the temptations of self-interest, self-deception and self-righteousness. Power must be balanced by power. He persuaded me and many of my contemporaries that original sin provides

3588-492: The citizens with conscience in favor of the elemental human rights of voting and freedom of assembly" (Niebuhr, March 19, 1965). Two years later, Niebuhr defended 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 a duty, as both a religious and a civil rights leader, to express his concern in these days about such

3666-515: The city's mayor. When America entered the First World War in 1917, Niebuhr was the unknown pastor of a small German-speaking congregation in Detroit (it stopped using German in 1919). All adherents of German-American culture in the United States and nearby Canada came under attack for suspicion of having dual loyalties. Niebuhr repeatedly stressed the need to be loyal to America, and won an audience in national magazines for his appeals to

3744-627: The editorial board of VNN, an online news and opinion site that the Southern Poverty Law Centre identified as a neo-Nazi hate site. Wall's name was retained on the Christian Century masthead from 2012 to 2017, despite his association with VNN, drawing criticism. In 2017 Wall's name was removed from the masthead. In Christian Century 's 2021 obituary of Wall, Marty conceded "Wall's extensive pro-Palestinian writing at times devolved into anti-Semitism." In recent years,

3822-581: The editorial reign of Morrison in the 1930s and 1940s. It published articles: opposing American intervention in World War II for the benefit of the Jews persecuted under the Nazis; arguing moral equivalence between an alleged Jewish-nationalist crucifixion of Jesus and the Nazi persecution of Jews; condemning American Jews for maintaining their distinct identity; and a rebuttal to Rabbi Stephen Wise, president of

3900-641: The faculty of Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, PA from fall 2004 to July 2013. During her time at Moravian, she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010 and served two terms as Director of the MATS program. Kim was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) on November 13, 2011. She is currently Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. Kim received

3978-528: The faith of the fathers to embrace a faith which is as involved as Christianity is with racialism, Nordicism and gentile arrogance. (...) What we need is an entente cordiale between prophetic Judaism and prophetic Christianity in which both religions would offer the best they have to each other." Niebuhr's 1933 article in The Christian Century was an attempt to sound the alarm within the Christian community over Hitler's "cultural annihilation of

SECTION 50

#1732771766966

4056-439: The false conclusion—one he called 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

4134-409: The historian Morton White noted: The contemporary liberal's fascination with Niebuhr, I suggest, comes less from Niebuhr's dark theory of human nature and more from his actual political pronouncements, from the fact that he is a shrewd, courageous, and right-minded man on many political questions. Those who applaud his politics are too liable to turn then to his theory of human nature and praise it as

4212-464: The issue helped him mature intellectually. Niebuhr debated Charles Clayton Morrison , editor of The Christian Century magazine, about America's entry into World War II. Morrison and his pacifistic followers maintained that America's role should be strictly neutral and part of a negotiated peace only, while Niebuhr claimed himself to be a realist, who opposed the use of political power to attain moral ends. Morrison and his followers strongly supported

4290-401: The liberal theological ideals and ideas with which I ventured forth in 1915. I wrote a book Does Civilization Need Religion? my first, in 1927 which when now consulted is proved to contain almost all the theological windmills against which today I tilt my sword. These windmills must have tumbled shortly thereafter for every succeeding volume expresses a more and more explicit revolt against what

4368-570: The localism of his German-American upbringing. In 1931 Niebuhr married Ursula Keppel-Compton . She was a member of the Church of England and was educated at the University of Oxford in theology and history. She met Niebuhr while studying for her master's degree at Union Theological Seminary. For many years, she was on faculty at Barnard College – the women's college of Columbia University – where she helped establish and then chaired

4446-525: The magazine Christianity and Crisis from 1941 through 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 retirement in 1960. While teaching theology at Union Theological Seminary, Niebuhr influenced many generations of students and thinkers, including the German minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer of

4524-433: The magazine has published both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel authors and argued for a two-state solution to the conflict. Grace Ji-Sun Kim Grace Ji-Sun Kim (born May 4, 1969) is an American theologian and Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion , Richmond, Indiana . She is best known for books and articles on the social and religious experiences of Korean women immigrants to North America . Kim

4602-636: The movement to outlaw war that began after World War I and the Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928. The pact was severely challenged by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. With his publication of Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), Niebuhr broke ranks with The Christian Century and supported interventionism and power politics. He supported the reelection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 and published his own magazine, Christianity and Crisis . In 1945, however, Niebuhr charged that use of

4680-412: The philosophical instrument of Niebuhr's political agreement with themselves. But very few of those whom I have called "atheists for Niebuhr" follow this inverted logic to its conclusion: they don't move from praise of Niebuhr's theory of human nature to praise of its theological ground. We may admire them for drawing the line somewhere, but certainly not for their consistency. After Joseph Stalin signed

4758-533: The plight of auto workers in Detroit. This one interest among others can be briefly summarized below. After seminary, Niebuhr preached the Social Gospel , and then initiated the engagement of what he considered the insecurity of Ford workers. Niebuhr had moved to the left and was troubled by the demoralizing effects of industrialism on workers. He became an outspoken critic of Henry Ford and allowed union organizers to use his pulpit to expound their message of workers' rights. Niebuhr attacked poor conditions created by

SECTION 60

#1732771766966

4836-498: The rapid social changes. The Klan proposed positions that were anti-black, anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic. Niebuhr's preaching against the Klan, especially in relation to the 1925 mayoral election, gained him national attention. Niebuhr's thoughts on racial justice developed slowly after he abandoned socialism. Niebuhr attributed the injustices of society to human pride and self-love and believed that this innate propensity for evil could not be controlled by humanity. But, he believed that

4914-690: The religious studies department. The Niebuhrs had two children, Elisabeth Niebuhr Sifton, a high-level executive at several major publishing houses who wrote a memoir on her father, and Christopher Niebuhr. Ursula Niebuhr left evidence in her professional papers at the Library of Congress showing that she co-authored some of her husband's later writings. In 1915, Niebuhr was ordained a pastor. The German Evangelical mission board sent him to serve at Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit , Michigan . The congregation numbered 66 on his arrival and grew to nearly 700 by

4992-529: The son of German immigrants Gustav Niebuhr and his wife, Lydia (née Hosto). His father was a German Evangelical pastor; his denomination was the American branch of the established Prussian Church Union in Germany. It is now part of the United Church of Christ . The family spoke German at home. His brother H. Richard Niebuhr also became a noted theological ethicist and his sister Hulda Niebuhr became

5070-662: The time he left in 1928. The increase reflected his ability to reach people outside the German-American community and among the growing population attracted to jobs in the booming automobile industry. In the early 1900s Detroit became the fourth-largest city in the country, attracting many black and white migrants from the rural South, as well as Jewish and Catholic people from eastern and southern Europe. White supremacists determined to dominate, suppress, and victimize Black, Jewish, and Catholic Americans, as well as other Americans who did not have western European ancestry, joined

5148-424: The war when pacifism was popular, he held out against it steadfastly. He is also an opponent of Marxism. In the 1950s, Niebuhr described Senator Joseph McCarthy as a force of evil, not so much for attacking civil liberties, as for being ineffective in rooting out Communists and their sympathizers. In 1953, he supported the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg , saying, "Traitors are never ordinary criminals and

5226-403: The worst specific social phenomena which the religious pride of a people has ever developed". Though only one of the several candidates publicly backed by the Klan gained a seat on the city council that year, the Klan continued to influence daily life in Detroit. The KKK's failed 1925 mayoral candidate, Charles Bowles , still became a judge on the recorder's court ; later, in 1930, he was elected

5304-437: Was a debunker of hypocrisy and pretense and made the avoidance of self-righteous illusions the center of his thoughts. 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

5382-727: Was also an editor-at-large to the magazine. In 2008 both Martin E. Marty and former editor James M. Wall concluded long runs as Century columnists. Other writers published by the Century over its long history include Jane Addams , Albert Schweitzer , W. E. B. DuBois , Reuben Markham , C. S. Lewis , W. H. Auden , T. S. Eliot , Reinhold Niebuhr , Richard John Neuhaus , Paul Tillich , John F. Kennedy , Dwight D. Eisenhower , Thomas Merton , James Cone , Rosemary Rutherford , Mary Daly , Billy Graham , Wendell Berry , Henri Nouwen , N. T. Wright , Delores S. Williams , Sarah Coakley , Rowan Williams , and Marilynne Robinson . The magazine has been accused of being antisemitic during

5460-600: Was also one of the founders of both Americans 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 both Harvard and Princeton. He was also the brother of another prominent theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr . Niebuhr was born on June 21, 1892, in Wright City , Missouri,

5538-425: Was apparent not just in criminals, but more dangerously in people who felt good about their deeds—rather like Henry Ford (whom he did not mention by name). The human tendency to corrupt the good was the great insight he saw manifested in governments, business, democracies, utopian societies, and churches. This position is laid out profoundly in one of his most influential books, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932). He

5616-582: Was born on May 4, 1969, in Seoul, South Korea . She immigrated with her family to London, Ontario in 1975. Kim earned a B.Sc. in Psychology from Victoria University at the University of Toronto , a Master of Divinity degree from Knox College, University of Toronto in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from St. Michael's College, University of Toronto in 2001. Kim served on

5694-465: Was deeply influenced by Samuel D. Press in "biblical and systematic subjects", and Yale Divinity School , where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1914 and a Master of Arts degree the following year, with the thesis The Contribution of Christianity to the Doctrine of Immortality . He always regretted not earning a doctorate degree. He said that Yale gave him intellectual liberation from

5772-557: Was incompatible with Christian ethics . Although not Communist, the group acknowledged Karl Marx 's social philosophy. Niebuhr was among the group of 51 prominent Americans who formed the International Relief Association (IRA) that is today known as the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The committee mission was to assist Germans suffering from the policies of the Hitler regime. In the 1930s Niebuhr

5850-548: Was often seen as an intellectual opponent of John Dewey . Both men were professional polemicists and their ideas often clashed, although they contributed to the same realms of liberal intellectual schools of thought. Niebuhr was a strong proponent of the "Jerusalem" religious tradition as a corrective to the secular "Athens" tradition insisted upon by Dewey. In the book Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), Niebuhr strongly criticized Dewey's philosophy, although his own ideas were still intellectually rudimentary. Two years later, in

5928-402: Was one of the most influential thinkers of the 1940s and 1950s in public affairs. Niebuhr battled with religious liberals over what he called their naïve views of the contradictions of human nature and the optimism of the Social Gospel , and battled with religious conservatives over what he viewed as their naïve view of scripture and their narrow definition of "true religion". During this time he

6006-436: Was the first prominent Christian theologian to argue it was inappropriate for Christians to seek to convert Jews to their faith, saying this negated “every gesture of our common biblical inheritance.” His experience in Detroit led him to the conclusion that the Jewish community was already sincerely committed to Social Justice. In a 1926-01-10 lecture, Niebuhr said: "If I were a self-respecting Jew, I certainly would not renounce

6084-802: Was viewed by many as the intellectual rival of John Dewey . Niebuhr's contributions to political philosophy include using the resources of theology to argue for political realism . His work has also significantly influenced international relations theory , leading many scholars to move away from idealism and embrace realism . A large number of scholars, including political scientists, political historians, and theologians, have noted his influence on their thinking. Aside from academics, activists such as Myles Horton and Martin Luther King Jr. , and numerous politicians have also cited his influence on their thought, including Hillary Clinton , Hubert Humphrey , and Dean Acheson , as well as presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter . Niebuhr has also influenced

#965034