The Oxford Handbook Of Reinhold Niebuhr

This authoritative Handbook features 38 chapters placing Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) in his historical context to offer readers an appreciation of his insights and how he was received by his contemporaries.

Niebuhr is renowned for his unflinching honesty concerning issues of social ethics, specifically, love and justice. His influence is great both inside and outside the Christian church. Now 64 of Niebuhr's important pieces about the problems of humanity and society are compiled in this single volume.

Annotation What are the practical and theoretical issues that concern and shape theological ethics? This handbook offers a guide to the discipline. Written by an international group of 30 scholars, the book is aimed at all students and academics who want to explore more fully essential topics in Christian ethics.

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 illuminator of the dark conundrums of human nature, history and public policy.”—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.“Sparkling gems. . . brought from the shadows of history into contemporary light. Beautifully selected and edited, they show that Niebuhr’s fiery polemics and gracious assurances still speak with power to us today.”—Roger L. Shinn“An extremely useful volume.”—David Brion Davis, New York Review of Books“This collection, which brings together Niebuhr’s most penetrating and enduring essays on theology and politics, should demonstrate for a new generation that his best thought transcends the immediate historical setting in which he wrote. . . . [Brown’s] introduction succinctly presents the central features of Niebuhr’s life and thought.”—Library Journal

Renowned theologian Reinhold Niebuhr began his career as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Michigan, where he served from 1915–1928. Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic is Niebuhr's account of the frustrations and joys he experienced during his years at Bethel. Addressed to young ministers, this book provides reflections and insights for those engaged in the challenging yet infinitely rewarding occupation of pastoral ministry. With a foreword from Jonathan Walton on Niebuhr's enduring insights into the challenges and relevance of pastoral ministry, this powerful book remains as useful today as it was last century.

Analysis of the political, economic, and religious views of a major American Protestant theologian, by a professor at Drew University.

A primer on the current "Niebuhr revival" of the political left and right, this book traces the significance of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought for secular as well as deeply Christian minds. Placed in the context of religious and cultural history, Niebuhr's theological views deepen and challenge contemporary expertise on issues of war, peace, economic, and personal security.While rejecting cynical pessimism and naive optimism, Niebuhr's Christian realism reinvigorates age-old teachings of the Bible, St. Paul, Augustine, and Kierkegaard. His thought enriches present-day debates between science and religion and between atheists, agnostics, and believers. To live with Niebuhr's legacy is to combine critical acumen with humble self-awareness. It is to pursue a larger common good - for him, God-given - that is shared among individuals, nations, and the world community.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) was an inner-city pastor, ethics professor, and author of the famous Serenity Prayer. Time magazine's 25th anniversary issue in March 1948 featured Niebuhr on its cover, and Time later eulogized him as "the greatest Protestant theologian in America since Jonathan Edwards." Cited as an influence by public figures ranging from Billy Graham to Barack Obama, Niebuhr was described by historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. as "the most influential American theologian of the twentieth century." In this companion volume to the forthcoming documentary film by Martin Doblmeier on the life and influence of Reinhold Niebuhr, Jeremy Sabella draws on an unprecedented set of exclusive interviews to explore how Niebuhr continues to compel minds and stir consciences in the twenty-first century. Interviews with leading voices such as Jimmy Carter, David Brooks, Cornel West, and Stanley Hauerwas as well as with people who knew Niebuhr personally, including his daughter Elisabeth, provide a rich trove of original material to help readers understand Niebuhr's enduring impact on American life and thought. CONTRIBUTORS (interviewees) Andrew J. Bacevich David Brooks Lisa Sowle Cahill Jimmy Carter Gary Dorrien Andrew Finstuen K. Healan Gaston Stanley Hauerwas Susannah Heschel William H. Hudnut III Robin W. Lovin Fr. Mark S. Massa, SJ Elisabeth Sifton Ronald H. Stone Cornel West Andrew Young

A definitive collection of writings by the theologian and public intellectual who was the conscience of the American Century “One of my favorite philosophers,” remarked Barack Obama about the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) in 2007. President Obama is but one of the many American political leaders—including Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King Jr.—to be influenced by Niebuhr’s writings. Throughout the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, Niebuhr was one of the most prominent public voices of his time, probing with singular style the question of how to act morally in a fallen world. This Library of America volume, prepared by Niebuhr’s daughter, is a collection of four indispensable books—Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (1929), Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944), and The Irony of American History (1952)—and other essays, sermons, and lectures. Notable entries include Niebuhr's world-famous Serenity Prayer, plus his writings on Prohibition, the Allied bombing of Germany, apartheid in South Africa, and the Vietnam War—many of which are collected here for the first time. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Niebuhr sought to appeal to the intellectual community by presenting an analysis of the human predicament that would resonate with their deepest insights on human life and destiny. In his sermons in particular he tried to show that human hubris leads ineluctably to divine retribution and that our only hope is trust in the mercy and forbearance of the God revealed in biblical history and preeminently in Jesus Christ. From the Foreword