An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story

Short Review: This is an introduction to Reinhold Niebuhr, particularly his writing and a companion to the PBS documentary of the same name (can be streamed free at http://www.pbs.org/video/2365984011/ )

Niebuhr is one of those 20th century theologians that keeps coming up recently. He was a wide ranging thinking and his Irony of American History has been very influential in political circles.

Much of his influence is about the influence of sin on human institutions. And I think he is particularly helpful for progressive Christians to read to balance some of our optimism for what can be changed. Niebuhr himself was a progressive, but one that was very cautious about what it was that he thought could be achieved through either the church or the state.

I have read the Armchair Theologians's guide to The Niebuhr Brothers and I think this is much better and more readable than that. The primary focus here is Reinhold. But there is a lot of discussion about H Richard as well. And this is much less of a book report format.


My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/an-american-conscience-the-reinhold-niebuhr-story-by-jeremy-sabella/