Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhrwas an American theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. The brother of another prominent theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr, he is also known for having composed the Serenity Prayer, He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Among his most influential books are Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man, the second of which Modern Library ranked one of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionReligious Leader
Date of Birth21 June 1892
CountryUnited States of America
I'm not afraid of too many things, and I got that invincible kind of attitude from my father.
Faith is the final triumph over incongruity, the final assertion of the meaningfulness of existence.
Even as rigorous a determinist as Karl Marx, who at times described the social behaviour of the bourgeoisie in terms which suggested a problem in social physics, could subject it at other times to a withering scorn which only the presupposition of moral responsibility could justify.
Despotism, which we regard with abhorrence, is rather too plausible in decaying feudal, agrarian, pastoral societies. That's why we must expect to have many a defeat before we'll have an ultimate victory in this contest with Communism.
I think I should know how to educate a boy, but not a girl; I should be in danger of making her too learned.
I thank heaven I have often had it in my power to give help and relief, and this is still my greatest pleasure. If I could choose my sphere of action now, it would be that of the most simple and direct efforts of this kind.
The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan value and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.
The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
All human sin seems so much worse in its consequences than in its intentions.
A wise architect observed that you could break the laws of architec75tural art provided you had mastered them first. That would apply to religion as well as to art. Ignorance of the past does not guarantee freedom from its imperfections.
All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh.
The significance of the law of love is precisely that it is not just another law, but a law which transcends all law.