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We explore the ideas and present-day relevance of 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, an influential, boundary-crossing voice in American public life. Niebuhr created the term "Christian realism:" a middle path between religious idealism and arrogance. Exploring his wide appeal, three distinctive voices describe Niebuhr's legacy and ask what insights he brings to the political and religious dynamics of the early 21st century. |
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Hear full-length tracks of each song played in the program |
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For the production of this program, Krista spoke with five people who are intimately acquainted with Reinhold Niebuhr's thought and work about how his ideas resonate in their life and work, including his daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, and Max Stackhouse. Here, you can access all the audio and transcripts. |
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Interactive Timeline
We combed through Niebuhr's archives at the Library of Congress and found dozens of artifacts and pictures. See high-quality photographic copies of Niebuhr's fascinating correspondence with leading figures of his time, including Felix Frankfurter, W.H. Auden, and Hubert Humphrey. |
About the Image
On New Year's Day 1951, Reinhold Niebuhr (center) sits with two theological heavyweights at Union Theological Seminary in New York: Paul Tillich (left) and and Henry P. Van Dusen, president of the seminary. (Photo: Gjon Mili/Time Life/Getty Images) |
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Listen to archival audio of Niebuhr speaking and preaching on topics ranging from race relations to communism and human hope. |
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Paul
Elie |
| Elie is senior editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage. |
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Jean
Bethke Elshtain |
| Elshtain is an author and Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School. |
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Robin
Lovin |
| Lovin is Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, and the author of Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism. |
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Niebuhr has been quoted and cited as an influence on Speaking of Faith more often than any other figure, on a wide range of topics, and by thinkers and activists on the right and left. And, whether on the right or the left, invoking Niebuhr invariably adds complexity, even struggle, to religious and political positions. |
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