Niebuhr, << NEE boor, >> Reinhold (1892-1971), was a prominent American theologian. He was known for his writings on ethics.
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was born on June 21, 1892, in Wright City, Missouri. After graduating from Yale Divinity School in 1915, he was a pastor at an Evangelical church in Detroit for 13 years. Niebuhr believed that Christian ethical teaching and socialism could offer solutions to social conflicts. He also was a pacifist (somebody opposed to war).
In 1928, Niebuhr became a professor of the philosophy of religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. About this time, he began to abandon his earlier views in favor of a new approach called Christian Realism. According to this philosophy, an ideal society will always be beyond humanity’s grasp, but moral individuals should still work for social justice. In doing so, Christians should apply moral principles in a way that is flexible enough to account for certain situations. For example, the Christian Realist approach led Niebuhr to abandon pacifism when the Nazis came to power in Germany. Niebuhr believed the Nazis were a symbol of an evil greater than the evil of war.
Niebuhr wrote several books on ethics. His most influential work is the two-volume Nature and Destiny of Man (1941, 1943). Niebuhr’s brother, H. Richard Niebuhr, was also a prominent theologian. Reinhold Niebuhr died on June 1, 1971.
See also Niebuhr, H. Richard .
