Reinhold Niebuhr Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) was an American theologian and political theorist best known among political scientists for his contributions to the classical realist school of international relations and particularly to its Christian branch.

Niebuhr was born on June 21, 1892, in Wright City, Missouri. The son of a German Protestant pastor, at age fifteen he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and began his theological studies at the Evangelische Proseminar (now Elmhurst College) in Elmhurst, Illinois. After completing his education at Eden Seminary and Yale Divinity School, in 1915 he was ordained pastor of the Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Michigan, where he remained for thirteen years. In this period—recounted in the autobiographical Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (1929)—Niebuhr’s closeness to the city’s working-class communities and his exposure to the injustices of early twentieth-century industrial capitalism (epitomized by the Ford factory) led him to abandon his early liberalism in favor of a growing sympathy with the principles of Marxism. His new convictions resulted in his becoming a leader of the Socialist Party of America.

In 1928, Niebuhr left his pastorate for an academic position at Union Theological Seminary in New York. There he began a twofold intellectual transition that would characterize his thought until the end of his academic career in 1960. First, he became even more interested in the problems and questions of international affairs. Second, from a fundamentally class-based view of society Niebuhr switched to a political realism founded on the idea of the original sin as a unifying and degrading element of humanity—a realism that, however, retained some Marxist nuances, especially when applied to issues of political economy. This vision of politics is expressed in the several works he published during these years, which placed him in the pantheon of classical realism with authors like E. H. Carr, Henry Morgenthau, and George Kennan. These works include Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), Christianity and Power Politics (1940), the two volumes of The Nature and Destiny of Man (1941, 1943), The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944), and Christian Realism and Political Problems (1953).

In addition to his focus on the theory of international relations—and unlike many of his fellow realists—Niebuhr had a strong interest in the problems of morality and its application to political practice. An Interpretation of Christian Ethics of 1935 is perhaps his main work in this field. He was also engaged as a public intellectual by contributing to periodicals such as The New Republic, The Nation, Christianity and Crisis, and The New Leader. Finally, throughout his academic years, Niebuhr remained active in politics as the leader of movements like the Fellowship of Socialist Christians and Americans for Democratic Action and as a consultant to American diplomat George F. Kennan’s policy planning staff.

In 1952, Niebuhr suffered a stroke that gradually debilitated him and eventually led to his retirement from Union Seminary in 1960. After holding a few short-term positions at Harvard, Princeton, and Barnard College, he died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on June 1, 1971.

Bibliography:

Brown, Charles C. Niebuhr and His Age: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Prophetic Role in the Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992.
Fox, Richard W. Reinhold Niebuhr: A Biography. 2nd ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.
Kegley, Charles W., ed. Reinhold Niebuhr: His Religious, Social, and Political Thought. 2nd ed. New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1984.
Merkeley, Paul. Reinhold Niebuhr: A Political Account. Montreal: McGillQueen’s University Press, 1975.

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