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Reinhold Niebuhr was a twentieth-century American theologian who was known for his commentary on public affairs. One of his most influential ideas was the relating of his Christian faith to realism rather than idealism in foreign affairs. His perspective influenced many liberals and is enjoying a resurgence today; most recently Barack Obama has acknowledged Niebuhr’s importance to his own thinking. In this book, Kenneth Hamilton makes a claim that no other work on Niebuhr has made—that Niebuhr’s chief and abiding preoccupation throughout his long career was the nature of humankind. Hamilton engages in a close reading of Niebuhr’s entire oeuvre through this lens. He argues that this p...
Theologian, ethicist, and political analyst, Reinhold Niebuhr was a towering figure of twentieth-century religious thought. Now newly repackaged, this important book gathers the best of Niebuhr’s essays together in a single volume. Selected, edited, and introduced by Robert McAfee Brown—a student and friend of Niebuhr’s and himself a distinguished theologian—the works included here testify to the brilliant polemics, incisive analysis, and deep faith that characterized the whole of Niebuhr’s life.“This fine anthology makes available to a new generation the thought of one of the most penetrating and rewarding of twentieth-century minds. Reinhold Niebuhr remains the great illuminato...
Barack Obama has called him “one of my favorite philosophers.” John McCain wrote that he is “a paragon of clarity about the costs of a good war.” Andrew Sullivan has said, “We need Niebuhr now more than ever.” For a theologian who died in 1971, Reinhold Niebuhr is maintaining a remarkably high profile in the twenty-first century. In Why Niebuhr Now? acclaimed historian John Patrick Diggins tackles the complicated question of why, at a time of great uncertainty about America’s proper role in the world, leading politicians and thinkers are turning to Niebuhr for answers. Diggins begins by clearly and carefully working through Niebuhr’s theology, which focuses less on God’s pr...
Reinhold Niebuhr remains at the center of a national conversation about America's role in the world, and commentators with divergent political and religious positions draw upon his 1951 work, The Irony of American History, in support of their views. In this study Scott R. Erwin argues that an appreciation of Niebuhr's theological vision is necessary for understanding the full measure of Irony. An appreciation of Niebuhr's theology is important because the majority of individuals reading Irony today fail to acknowledge the central role that his Christian beliefs played in its formulation. Niebuhr described his theological vision as being "in the battle and above it," and, in more extensive te...
Now available in paperback, Niebuhr and His Age provides an extensively researched account of Reinhold Niebuhr, and includes a foreword by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The book moves in a nonreductive way between literary and theological criticism to show how drama and religious thought discern the experience of evil. &"Tragic method&" refers to how tragic art functions as inquiry; &"tragic theology&" refers to how drama and theology render in thematic or symbolic form certain irreducible dimensions of evil and negativity. Bouchard defines no single tragic method or any single view of evil but searches for the distinctive interplay of tragic method of theology in each dramatist. The work opens by scrutinizing certain important interpretations of Greek tragedy. Paul Ricoeur's interpretation of &"the Wicked God and the Tragic Vision&" receives major focus, a...
Reinhold Niebuhr and John Dewey frequently have been identified as the most influential American philosophers of their respective times. Although their direct contact in print and in political action was marginal, their substantive conflict over such issues as religion, naturalism, the liberal tradition, and democracy both reflected and shaped much of America's inner dialogue from 1932 to mid-century and beyond. In this intriguing book, Daniel Rice makes a strong case that, although the clash between Niebuhr and Dewey was real and important, in a wider context the two shared more insights than either realized.
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This collection of essays, by world scholars of different faiths and fields of study, eloquently documents the importance and continuing influence of Niebuhr's extensive body of work. Following an "intellectual autobiography" by Niebuhr are twenty essays forming a candid and vigorous discussion spanning the range of Niebuhr's thought. Since Niebuhr first came to the world's attention as a critic of social conditions, the book begins with an examination of his social thought, especially as a Christian ethicist, proceeding from this to the political sphere. Further essays offer critical exposition, criticism, and questions on such topics as Niebuhr's philosophy of history, his role in American political thought and life, his theology, and the historical roots of his thought. For this new edition, there are updated essays by John Bennett, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and Kenneth Thompson, plus new interpretations by Ronald Stone and Richard Fox. Other contributors include Paul Tillich, Emil Brunner, and Abraham I. Heschel. A bibliography of Niebuhr's work has been brought up to date by D. B. Robertson.