Reinhold Niebuhr

The Reverend Reinhold Niebuhr
Born	Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-06-21)June 21, 1892 Wright City, Missouri, U.S.
Died	June 1, 1971(1971-06-01) (aged 78) Stockbridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Years active	1915–1966
Spouse	Ursula Keppel-Compton ​ ​ (m. 1931)​
Relatives	H. Richard Niebuhr (brother)
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964)
Ecclesiastical career
Religion	Christianity (Protestant)
Church	Evangelical Synod of North America
Ordained	1915
Academic background
Education	Elmhurst College (BA) Eden Theological Seminary Yale University (BDiv, MA)
Academic advisors	Douglas Clyde Macintosh[1][2]
Influences	Augustine of Hippo[3] Karl Barth Martin Buber[4][5] Immanuel Kant[6] Søren Kierkegaard[6] Samuel D. Press Walter Rauschenbusch[7] Paul Tillich[3][8]
Academic work
Discipline	Theology
School or tradition	Christian realism neo-orthodoxy
Institutions	Union Theological Seminary
Doctoral students	Langdon Gilkey[9] William Hordern[10]
Notable students	Tom Collings
Notable works	Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932) The Nature and Destiny of Man (1943)
Notable ideas	Christian realism
Influenced	Masao Abe[11] W. H. Auden[12][13] Dietrich Bonhoeffer Robert McAfee Brown[14] Frederick Buechner[15] E. H. Carr Jacques Ellul Jimmy Carter Hillary Clinton William Sloane Coffin Nelson Cruikshank Gary Dorrien[16] Jean Bethke Elshtain[17] Samuel Ifor Enoch Gabriel Fackre[18] J. King Gordon[19] Douglas John Hall Richard Hofstadter Myles Horton[20] Samuel P. Huntington George F. Kennan Howard Kester Martin Luther King Jr. Christopher Lasch Alexander Miller William Lee Miller Hans Morgenthau Barack Obama Samuel DeWitt Proctor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.[21] Seymour Siegel[22] Alec Vidler[23] Kenneth Waltz Cornel West[24]

Part of a series on
Dialectical theology
Background Liberal Christianity Existentialism
Precursors Søren Kierkegaard Fyodor Dostoevsky Friedrich Nietzsche Franz Overbeck Martin Kähler Martin Heidegger
Theological Figures Karl Barth Emil Brunner Rudolf Bultmann Dietrich Bonhoeffer Paul Tillich Reinhold Niebuhr Ernst Fuchs Gerhard Ebeling
Beliefs Total transcendence of God New hermeneutic Demythologization Monergism Fideism Leap of faith
Related movements Christian existentialism Confessing Church Postliberal theology Radical orthodoxy
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Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr^[a] (1892–1971) 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 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 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.^{[27][verification needed]} He attacked utopianism as ineffectual for dealing with reality, writing in The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944), "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary." Niebuhr's realism deepened after 1945 and led him to support American 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.^[28] 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 was viewed by many as the intellectual rival of John Dewey.^[29]

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.^[b] 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,^{[30][31][32][33]} including Hillary Clinton, Hubert Humphrey, Dean Acheson, James Comey, Madeleine Albright, and John McCain, as well as presidents Barack Obama^[34][35] and Jimmy Carter.^[36] Recent years have seen a renewed interest in Niebuhr's work, in part because of Obama's admiration.^[37]

Niebuhr has also influenced 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.^[38]

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.^[39][40] Niebuhr 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.^[41][42][43] He was also the brother of another prominent theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr.

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