Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes


There is no social evil, no form of injustice whether of the feudal or the capitalist order which has not been sanctified in some way or other by religious sentiment and thereby rendered more impervious to change.


Citations

Niebuhr, Reinhold. Does Civilization Need Religion? A Study in the Social Resources and Limitations of Religion in Modern Life. Macmillan, 1927.

Related Quotes

He was not only an atheist himself, but he was a major opponent of organized religion which he regarded as one or the major initiators and drivers of slavery, segregation and discrimination. For this reason he was critical of Martin Luther King—{583307}. His irreligiosity had always prevented his gaining much support from his fellow African Americans even though a great writer like H. L. Menken considered Schuyler, "the best writer in America".


Although English, Cobett spent time in America and published a newspaper, The Porcupine Gazette, in Philadelphia. We was very conservative but on the issue of slavery his resembled a liberal point of view. He never used sugar, coffee, or rum because slave labor produced them. However, he advocated legally enslaving lazy people, blacks and whites, who would not work.


Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
  • Born: June 21, 1892
  • Died: June 1, 1971
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Theologian, Ethicist, Political Commentator, Minister (1915–28), Professor (1928–60), Magazine Editor (1941–66)

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man. The latter is ranked number 18 of the top 100 non-fiction books of the twentieth century by Modern Library. Andrew Bacevich labelled Niebuhr's book The Irony of American History "the most important book ever written on U.S. foreign policy." The historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. described Niebuhr as "the most influential American theologian of the 20th century" and Time posthumously called Niebuhr "the greatest Protestant theologian in America since Jonathan Edwards."