Reinhold Niebuhr was born in 1892, as the son of a Protestant minister. At age 23, in 1915, he went to become the pastor of a church in Detroit and once there he became a force for labor rights and race relations movements. He followed the Liberal Protestant tradition of faith, and coined the term "Christian Realism," which described many of his christian brothers. He is also famous for his many original prayers he created, the main one being the Serenity prayer, which is still used by Alchoholics Anonymous today.
The way he preached to the people through his actions and words, Niebuhr embodied they ideal person of public theology. He was known as the person who redefined and saved Liberalism which is evident in his view that "man has always been his own, most vexing problem."
While in Detroit, he tried to promote social justice for the people he preached to, especially the blacks, but understood the ultimate paradox, and that is that sin accompanies the quest for love and justice. He pointed out that most the time, social workers would inevitably sin in a quest to do good.
He also knew that "politics is just the art of finding approximate solutions to basically insoluable problems." In other words, we constantly work for a certain amount of justice, but our society in itself will never be perfectly utopian.
These two understandings he possessed as a social worker allowed for him to be realistic and down to earth with his occupation which was extremely necessary for his ultimate success as a preacher.
On matters of church interest in Detroit, he adamently defended the black people to their unalienable rights. But through it all, he was a gradualist on social change. He essentially thought that spiritual dangers were involved in too much moral clear-sightedness.
He was convinced though that religion was good and necessary but at the same time, very dangerous. "Religions grow out of the real experience in which tragedy mingles with beauty and man learns that the moral values which dignify his life are embettled in his own soul and imperiled in the world."
Niebuhr's most famous writing was moral men and immoral society, in which he thoroughly questioned the world as it was around him. Most of his main theological and moral struggles in his life came during times of war in the world. And on speaking of how to confront war, Niebuhr thought that we should confront evils presented to us, but at the same time, not be overly ambitious and receive bad outcomes because of it.
He also is the author of Christianity and Crisis in which he tackles the arguments that your religion plays a huge impact on the way you think about politics. "Religion is more frequently than not a source of confusion than of light in the political realm."
As is made clear by his many books and sermons, Reinhold Niebuhr was a great teacher. But he considered himself to be the servant to the needs of his students which is in perfect accord with the SLUH motto to become a man for others. Niebuhr most certainly was.
Lastly, Niebuhr is used on both sides of political arguments today, which shows his lasting significance, but would probably tell us to be more hopeful and less anxious about our current time and struggles we face, because it will most likely all work out in the end.