Reinhold Niebuhr
Human beings live in the tension between nature and spirit, between knowledge of our mortality and our intimation of transcendent meanings. Our highest hope and calling is to live responsibly in this tension
Reinhold Niebuhr was a man of charity, social justice, and love for his neighbor. He realized that there was evil everywhere in the world, and he was constantly preaching that everyone should follow Christ’s command to love thy neighbor. But he also realized that there was a catch that followed attempts to do good. “Niebuhr tried always to promote action in the interest of social justice, but the paradox was that those good people who took up such a challenge would inevitably sin in the process of doing good.” This inevitable sin Niebuhr called the “Ultimate Paradox.” Because of this, we must always be mindful of how we perform our charity, because “sin accompanies the quest for love and justice.”
From his book, Moral Man and Immoral Society, Niebuhr states that “Individuals may strive to be moral, but collectively human beings are compromised and prone to immorality, even evil.” Thus Niebuhr challenges man to be responsible in the world, to react to each situation with careful reflectance before committing a sin while trying to do good. As we have seen throughout American history with Cuba, Vietnam, and currently in Iraq, Niebuhr warns us against becoming over ambitious in the confrontation of evil and thus bringing about an outcome that is different than the one originally planned. Here, the real concern is about “trying to do more than you reasonably can,” which will bring forth problems of aggressiveness and immorality. His ideas also revolve around the necessity of balance and also critical thinking. In Mr. Richard Wightman Fox's book A Biography of Reinhold Niebuhr, he says that Niebuhr "exhorted his readers and listeners to take responsibility for their world while warning them against the temptation to perfect it." Niebuhr encouraged people to act to try and repair their damaged society, but he cautioned them not to be overly enthusiastic as to aim for perfection, as this is impossible. Niebuhr believed that perfection was impossible because humans, who are themselves imperfect, cannot create anything perfect, and thus a quest for perfection was dangerous.
With our willing to help others, the vice of hubris is also introduced, and we may become so engaged in a charitable act that it becomes evil. In part to this confusion is Original Sin which has made the world tainted. We do not have the decisions to make between moral or immoral, but immoral and more immoral; therefore we are bound to make immoral choices, we just have to make a responsible decision of which to make. We must always ask for forgiveness and make sure we avoid hubris because an excessive pride is our ultimate downfall. “Christ’s kingdom is not of this world and yet Christians are called to try to achieve some relative justice, some approximation of that kingdom on this earth.” We cannot try and solve every problem in the world, but we should be responsible when attempting to solve these problems.
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Other Interesting Sites on Reinhold Niebuhr
Biography of Reinhold Niebuhr
Timeline of Reinhold Niebuhr's Life
Other Segments of Speaking of Faith Concerning Niebuhr
Niebuhr Quotes
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