Books by Reinhold Niebuhr

Does Civilization Need Religion? sets out from the fact that religion's inability to make its ethical and social resources available for the solution of the moral problems of modern civilization is one, and the neglected one, of the two chief causes responsible for its debilitated condition. It is convinced that if Christian idealists are to make religion socially effective they will be forced to detach themselves from the dominant secular desires of the nations as well as from the greed of economic groups. It aims to show that though neither the orthodox nor the modern wing of the Christian Church seems capable of initiating a genuine revival which will evolve a morality capable of challenging and maintaining itself against the dominant desires of modern civilization's needs, there are resources in the Christian religion which make it the inevitable basis of any spiritual regeneration of Western civilization. Does Civilization Need Religion? maintains that the task of redeeming Western society rests in a peculiar sense upon Christianity, which has reduced the eternal conflict between self-assertion and self-denial to the paradox of self-assertion through self-denial and made the Cross the symbol of life's highest achievement. It is persuaded that the idea of a potent but yet suffering divine ideal which is defeated by the world but gains its victory in the defeat must continue to remain basic in any morally creative worldview.

Description:This book centers on the major theme of Reinhold Niebuhr''s lifework, the nature of humanity and the political and social life. Idealistic and realistic social philosophies are reevaluated and tribalism is analyzed as a pervasive quality of humankind''s societies. A thinker who has always advanced by criticizing his own assumptions, Dr. Niebuhr continued to break new ground and to reconsider some of his earlier judgments.In this book, Dr. Niebuhr reviews the doctrines of the political order advanced by religious and secular interests; he traces the long history of the paradox of man''s obvious universal humanity and the tribal loyalties which are the roots of human inhumanity; and he deals with the complex relation between ambition and creativity. Adding to and modifying his remarkable contribution to contemporary thought, Dr. Niebuhr has written a book that is of fundamental importance. About the Contributor(s):Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), ethicist, theologian, and political philosopher, taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City from 1928 to 1960. Prior to that, he was a minister of Detroit''s Bethel Evangelical Church for thirteen years. Among his many books are Faith and History, Moral Man and Immoral Society, Beyond Tragedy, and The Irony of American History.

The Nature and Destiny of Man issues a vigorous challenge to Western civilization to understand its roots in the faith of the Bible, particularly the Hebraic tradition. The growth, corruption, and purification of the important Western emphases on individuality are insightfully chronicled here. This book is arguably Reinhold Niebuhr's most...

Reinhold Niebuhr is renowned for his unflinching honesty concerning issues of social ethics, specifically, love and justice. Humans, Niebuhr says, are incapable of perfect love. Therefore, their struggle against evil and injustice is doomed to only relative victory, although they strive to live in the ideal world. Niebuhr's concern with this...

An important theologian and social critic argues for the involvement of the Church in social reforms.

Written during the prolonged world war between totalitarian and democratic forces, this book takes up the question of how democracy as a political system can best be defended.

Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, this title focuses on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality which is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue.