Brownwood "Christian realism" ?

Niebuhr's 'Christian realism'
02:44 PM CST on Friday, February 10, 2006
By SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News
Where would Reinhold Niebuhr stand on the Iraq War?
It's an interesting question, since Niebuhr, a major figure in 20th-century theology, was a leading proponent of "Christian realism." That school of thought holds that Christians must be tough-minded – but also humble – in trying to bring about a more just world.
He was born in Missouri in 1892, the son of a German immigrant pastor. Both he and his younger brother Richard would attend Yale University and become esteemed theologians.
Reinhold Niebuhr was a pastor in Detroit before joining the faculty at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Through his speaking and writing there, he influenced Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., and others. He died in 1971.
It's not widely known, but Niebuhr also wrote the famous Serenity Prayer ("God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed ..."), adapted by Alcoholics Anonymous.
Robin Lovin of Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology will lead a seminar on Niebuhr in downtown Dallas on Wednesday. Dr. Lovin, the author of Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism, published by Cambridge University Press, was interviewed via e-mail by Staff Writer Sam Hodges. Here are excerpts.
What was Niebuhr's path to Christian realism, and how is that term best defined?
Niebuhr was part of a generation that was deeply troubled by the failure of Christian idealism to prevent World War I and to solve the international conflicts that grew up afterwards. He was a pastor in Detroit in the 1920s, so he also experienced the racial tensions and labor conflicts in American cities. He started to speak about the need for "Christian realism" that would recognize the persistence of sin, self-interest and power, especially in large social conflicts.
What Niebuhr meant by Christian realism was that instead of just exhorting people to be generous, loving and Christian, we should create systems of justice that keep power in check and enable the poor to make their own claims on society. He also insisted that even those who want to do justice are subject to self-interest and self-righteousness.
Niebuhr was not the only theologian at the time who spoke about "biblical realism" or "realistic Christianity," but he put the message more sharply, especially the part about remembering our own tendency to self-righteousness.
Was it just his nature to be concerned about political and social problems, or did he find a Christian imperative to speak out?
For Niebuhr, the heart of biblical faith was a prophetic tradition that is never afraid to proclaim God's judgment, even to those who seem to be most powerful or most holy. Christians could never rest content with the justice their society has achieved. They have to be ready to demand more, not just on the edges of society where the evils and injustices are obvious, but at the centers of power where people are too confident of their own moral authority.
Niebuhr saw Jesus as the high point of this biblical faith, but he insisted that the tradition was deeply rooted in the Hebrew prophets. For that reason, he thought Christians and Jews share the same imperatives when it comes to working for justice. If alive today, he would be pushing for all three of the Abrahamic faiths to make that prophetic tradition relevant on a global scale.
He managed to confound both liberals and conservatives at times.
Niebuhr infuriated anybody who was convinced that they were completely right and their opponents were completely wrong.
He told the auto executives in Detroit that they were wrong to oppose the unions, but then he would tell the unions that they were just protecting their own interests against other workers who were poorer and less organized than they were. Even in the middle of the Cold War, when he was strongly anti-Communist, he insisted that the Western democracies had to recognize an element of truth in Communist claims that capitalism and colonialism were the cause of many evils in the world.
What would Niebuhr say about our current foreign policy, specifically the war in Iraq?
This is a disputed question among those of us who study Niebuhr. He was never a pacifist, and he argued that Christians sometimes have to support the use of force to restrain evil and prevent greater injustices. But he also warned against overestimating our capacity to do good. Later in his life, he was particularly alert to what he called "the irony of history," the fact that when we try to do things without full knowledge and without awareness of our limitations, we often get the opposite of the results we intend. I think that's what would worry him most about what America is doing in Iraq.
What other political or social issues of the 21st century would prompt him to speak out?
"Globalization" would fascinate and worry him in equal measure. No doubt questions about worker rights and global commerce would remind him of the struggles that American workers faced in the early days of the union movement. I think he would be paying equal attention to the power that trans-national corporations and worldwide cultural movements have to shape our lives.
Any "public theologian" today who has Niebuhr's stature?
Niebuhr has no real successor in America today. Our most public religious voices are sometimes so concerned to stake out a "Christian" position against what they see as "secularism" that Christianity comes across as just another group protecting its own interests.
On the world scene, however, there are people like Archbishop [Desmond] Tutu who can lead a struggle for justice and then become a voice for reconciliation.
What is your favorite Niebuhr quotation?
The Serenity Prayer is a great summary of Niebuhr's realism. It talks about having the courage to change what we can change, the serenity to accept what we cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference. Niebuhr sought that kind of courage, serenity and wisdom in public life as well as in personal struggles.
But my favorite Niebuhr quotation is from The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible. Man's tendency to injustice makes democracy necessary."
Which book by Niebuhr should a layperson start with and why?
The indispensable guide to his thought is The Nature and Destiny of Man, a two-volume work based on lectures he delivered just as World War II was beginning. There is a collection of shorter writings called Love and Justice that shows how he dealt with many practical and political questions. Beyond Tragedy is a collection of essays based on his sermons. It shows the influence of the Bible on his thinking.
E-mail samhodges@dallasnews.com
DETAILS: Robin Lovin's seminar, "Realism Precedes Hope," will be from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Sammons Hall of Thanks-Giving Square, 1627 Pacific Ave. Admission is $5, or $10 with lunch. Call 214-969-1977.
SERENITY PRAYER
The Internet is full of speculation that Reinhold Niebuhr adapted the "Serenity Prayer" from a prayer or prayers that go back centuries. But his daughter, publishing executive Elisabeth Sifton, asserts in her 2003 book The Serenity Prayer that the prayer is original to Niebuhr, and that he wrote it in 1943 for a church service in Heath, Mass. She notes that it was soon adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous.
"I think Elisabeth Sifton's account is now generally accepted," said Robin Lovin, a professor at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology and an authority on Niebuhr. "People keep coming up with alternative versions of the `Serenity Prayer' or alternative accounts of where it came from, but there seems little doubt that the prayer now used by Alcoholics Anonymous came originally from Reinhold Niebuhr."
Below, in order, are Niebuhr's prayer; a version adopted with Niebuhr's permission by Alcoholics Anonymous (often used to open or close meetings); and a longer, widely reprinted version whose origins aren't clear.
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things
that cannot be changed, courage to change the things
that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
•
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
•
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with him forever in the next.
Sam Hodges

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