Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892- June 1, 1971) was a Protestant theologian best known for his study of the task of relating the Christian faith to the reality of modern politics and diplomacy. He is a crucial contributer to modern just war thinking and a proponent of Karl Barth's neo-orthodoxy.
Niebuhr was born in Wright City, Missouri, USA, the son of a liberally minded German-American pastor, Gustav, and the brother of Helmut Richard Niebuhr. Niebuhr decided to follow in his father's footsteps and enter the ministry. He attended Elmhurst College, Illinois, graduating in 1910 and then going on to Eden Seminary St. Louis, Missouri. Finally he attended Yale University where he received his Batchelor of Divinity Degree in 1914. In 1915 he was ordained a pastor and spent the next thirteen years serving the Evangelical Church in Detroit.
During the outbreak of World War II, the pacifist leanings of his liberal roots were brought under challenge and he began to distance himself from the pacifism of his more liberal colleagues, becoming a staunch advocate for the war.
Works
- Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study of Ethics and Politics (1932) ISBN 0664224741
- Beyond Tragedy: Essays on the Christian Interpretation of Tragedy (1937) ASIN 0684718537
- The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation (1941) ISBN 0664257097 Volume one: Human Nature, Volume two: Human Destiny; from the Gifford Lectures.
- Faith and History (1949) ASIN 0684153181
- The Irony of American History (1952) ASIN 0684151227
- Christian Realism and Political Problems (1953) ASIN 0678027579
- Pious and Secular America (1958) ASIN 0678027560
- The Structure of Nations and Empires (1959) ISBN 0678027552
- The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1974) ASIN 0023875305
- The Self and the Dramas of History ASIN B00005WST3
Niebuhr is often credited with authorship of the Serenity Prayer used by Alcoholics Anonymous. On this he said: "Of course, it may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself."
While teaching theology at Union Theological Seminary Niebuhr influenced Dietrich Bonhoeffer of the anti-Nazi Confessing Church.
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