On Niebuhr: A Theological Study - Hardcover

Gilkey, Langdon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226293416 ISBN 13: 9780226293417

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2001

Synopsis

Langdon Gilkey's insightful, engaging book offers a detailed—and not uncritical—examination of one of the most influential American theologians of the twentieth century.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

For those living in the 1930s and 1940s who endured the devastation of the Depression, racial and social unrest, and the two World Wars ending in the Holocaust, the question of how to carry on the struggle for justice in a world seemingly filled with self-interest and evil became all-consuming. Many turned for an answer to the realistic, yet also optimistic, political and ethical writings of Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971).

As the eminent theologian Langdon Gilkey demonstrates in this book, Niebuhr was able to provide such a persuasive answer because his social understanding was a theological understanding, one accomplished by viewing human being in relation to God as well as in its political and economic relations. This "Biblical" understanding of human nature, while acknowledging the often deep ambiguity and hypocrisy of the real historical world, also revealed a divine hand guiding that history. To Niebuhr, it is God's participation in history that gives it meaning and a promise of fulfillment, and presents believers the possibility of a social realism that maintains its moral nerve rather than succumbing to cynicism or despair.

On Niebuhr provides the first systematic treatment of Niebuhr's mature theology in relation to his political theory and the crises of the 1930s and 1940s by a scholar who both understands the theology deeply and knew Niebuhr personally. The book begins with a look at Niebuhr's early political writings, then moves to Niebuhr's later understanding of human nature and history. On Niebuhr also presents a moving account of the role that Niebuhr's thought played in Gilkey's own experience as a prisoner of war and in his subsequent life's work. The result is an indispensable book for the many students and admirers of both these religious thinkers.

About the Author

Langdon Gilkey has taught most recently at Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he is the Shailer Mathews Professor of Theology (emeritus). He is the author of a number of books, including Shantung Compound, Gilkey on Tillich, and Nature, Reality, and the Sacred.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0226293416
• ISBN 13: 9780226293417
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276