Reinhold Niebuhr

Theologian

1892-06-21

Books by Reinhold Niebuhr

The nature and destiny of man
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Moral man and immoral society
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The Irony of American History
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Quotes by Reinhold Niebuhr

Rationality belongs to the cool observer, but because of the stupidity of the average man, he follows not reason, but faith, and the naive faith requires necessary illusion and emotionally potent oversimplifications which are provided by the myth-maker to keep ordinary person on course.
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I wonder if anyone who needs a snappy song service can really appreciate the meaning of the cross.
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Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.
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Religion, declares the modern man, is consciousness of our highest social values. Nothing could be further from the truth. True religion is a profound uneasiness about our highest social values.
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Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values.
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Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure.
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God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
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Religion is so frequently a source of confusion in political life, and so frequently dangerous to democracy, precisely because it introduces absolutes into the realm of relative values.
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Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure.
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God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Read quote
Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.
Read quote
I wonder if anyone who needs a snappy song service can really appreciate the meaning of the cross.
Read quote
Rationality belongs to the cool observer, but because of the stupidity of the average man, he follows not reason, but faith, and the naive faith requires necessary illusion and emotionally potent oversimplifications which are provided by the myth-maker to keep ordinary person on course.
Read quote
Religion, declares the modern man, is consciousness of our highest social values. Nothing could be further from the truth. True religion is a profound uneasiness about our highest social values.
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Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone therefore we are saved by love.
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Our age knows nothing but reaction, and leaps from one extreme to another.
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Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.
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Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice.
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Life is a battle between faith and reason in which each feeds upon the other, drawing sustenance from it and destroying it.
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The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan value and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism.
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