Reinhold Niebuhr was a twentieth-century American theologian who was known for his commentary on public affairs. One of his most influential ideas was the relating of his Christian faith to realism rather than idealism in foreign affairs. His perspective influenced many liberals and is enjoying a resurgence today; most recently Barack Obama has acknowledged Niebuhrs importance to his own thinking. In this book, Kenneth Hamilton makes a claim that no other work on Niebuhr has madethat Niebuhrs chief and abiding preoccupation throughout his long career was the nature of humankind. Hamilton engages in a close reading of Niebuhrs entire oeuvre through this lens. He argues that this preoccupation remained consistent throughout Niebuhrs writings, and that through his doctrine of humankind one gets a full sense of Niebuhr the theologian. Hamilton exposes not only the internal consistency of Niebuhrs project but also its aporia. Although Niebuhrs influence perhaps peaked in the mid-twentieth century, enthusiasm for his approach to religion and politics has never waned from the North American public theology, and this work remains relevant today. Although Hamilton wrote this thesis in the mid-1960s it is published here for the first time. Jane Barter Moulaison, in her editorial gloss and introduction, demonstrates the abiding significance of Hamiltons work to the study of Niebuhr by bringing it into conversation with subsequent writings on Niebuhr, particularly as he is re-appropriated by twenty-first-century American theology.
- ISBN10 1554586445
- ISBN13 9781554586448
- Publish Date 27 August 2014 (first published 1 January 2011)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country CA
- Imprint Wilfrid Laurier University Press
- Format eBook
- Pages 260
- Language English