Lecture on H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962)

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Lecture on H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962)

[summary of Holbrook article]

MAJOR PUBLICATIONS

H. Richard Niebuhr's first major work was The Social Sources of Denominationalism (1929). In this work he analyzes the non-religious factors which have shaped American Christianity. Such factors include race, class, geography, ethnic background, and education. This work was widely discussed in seminaries and led to his appointment as a professor at YaleDivinitySchool.

In his second major work, The Kingdom of God in America (1937), he discusses the motifs of religious revolution which have had a great impact on American culture. This is a counter-balance to the first work which showed the impact of the world on the church; here it is the church which has influenced the world. He interpreted Christianity as a dynamic process in history rather than as simply a set of institutions. He noted a dialectical interplay between the relativism of human cultures and the basic beliefs of the Christian faith.

His next major work was The Meaning of Revelation (1941). This is a focused treatise on the concept of revelation in connection with the challenge of modern relativism. He does not see Christian thought as needing to fight against relativism; rather, the revelation of God in Jesus Christ does actually relativize all human ideas and cultures, including Christian ones. Revelation is not a private, subjective event; it is communal and thus entails the correction of Christian beliefs by the witness of other Christians. The Christian community thus has a sense of historical continuity and stability, without being rigidly doctrinaire.

In his best known work, Christ and Culture (1951), he continues to wrestle with the problem of revelation, here in connection with the structure of the Christian church and the calls of the contemporary culture. This work is rooted in the writings of Ernst Troeltsch, but it also expands his perspective. Where Troeltsch saw three types-church, sect, and mystical community-Niebuhr saw five types: Christ against culture, the Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox, and Christ the transformer of culture. The first type is analogous to the sect, it involves a separation of the holy Christian community from the sinful world. The second type is accomodationism between Christianity and the world, such as 19th century Protestant liberalism. The third type is the Medieval synthesis which regards Christ as above culture, the supernatural guide to human aspirations. The fourth type is called dualistic; Niebuhr has in mind Luther and Kierkegaard, who recognize the authority of social structures, but also place them under the judgment of God. The fifth type is conversionist in that it recognizes the fallenness of human beings, but it also believes that transformation in this world is possible, through God's grace. Niebuhr tried to provide an objective evaluation of all of these types, but his sympathies lay with the fifth option.

His next work was Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960). He here defends the basic idea of monotheism, which is that ultimate reality cannot be equated with any earthly cultural form. The God of monotheism always transcends the multiplicity of beings and is their ultimate source and goal. Faith in the One God is considered in contrast with the many forms of idolatry which are open to the human spirit in the spheres of religion, politics, and science. The natural tendency of human beings is to some form of polytheism, whether acknowledged or not. Faith in the transcendent God thus always has a prophetic edge to it.

Niebuhr never wrote a major systematic treatise on Christian ethics. The posthumously published The Responsible Self provides a prologue to such a work. Here he describes the moral self as being one who responds appropriately to a given situation. This is an alternative to a conception of ethics as either a matter of obedience to rules and commands, or as a matter of developing virtuous habits. The Christian's task is to act in the manner of sensitively unifying people which Jesus himself embodied. [chart]

The basic elements of Niebuhr's ethics are these: 1) the revelational foundation of the Christian life, which is the life and teaching of Jesus, 2) the existential character of ethical reflection, decision, and action, 3) the concern for social relevance and realism, and 4) the sense of the dynamic interrelatedness of personal, religious, and social factors in human history.

BACKGROUNDS OF NIEBUHR'S THOUGHT

Thinkers who have influenced Niebuhr include Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Troeltsch. Although Niebuhr was trained within Protestant liberalism, he had a sensitive perception of the significance of neo-orthodoxy. He saw the writings of Barth and Brunner as providing important insights into the human condition in the modern world. The Enlightenment did truly need to be questioned in the light of its weakness in the face of modern war and economic disruption. A reaffirmation of traditional religious insights was needed. But Niebuhr was never as narrowly focused on the Bible as Barth was. Niebuhr was a kind of mediator between neo-orthodoxy and liberalism, along with his brother and Paul Tillich. These three together were at the forefront of American theology between 1935 and 1970.

In the background of liberal thought lies the writings of Kant and Schleiermacher. Niebuhr wrestled throughout his career with the questions which they raised. Niebuhr also read Kierkegaard and responded to his ideas on existential decision, the reduplication of thought in life, and participative knowledge. Perhaps the greatest influence on Niebuhr was wielded by Troeltsch, who raised deep questions concerning historical method and the validity of Christian truth claims. Hans Frei has described Niebuhr's thought as occurring in the tension between Barth's emphasis on God's revelation in Christ, and the endlessly varied historical experiences of human beings, which was displayed by Troeltsch.

Other influences on Niebuhr include Jonathan Edwards, Josiah Royce, F. D. Maurice, and Martin Buber.

MOTIFS IN NIEBUHR'S THEOLOGY

One main theme in Niebuhr's thought is undeniably theocentrism. Faith in the One God who has created the universe is not something which can be rationally proven. But it can provide the individual and the community which a transcendent source of meaning and value in a chaotic world. To develop trust in God is the highest human achievement. For Niebuhr, "What is known and knowable in theology is God in relation to self and to neighbor, and self and neighbor in relation to God."

The second main motif in Niebuhr's thought is revelation. Revelation is the basic source of Christian vitality and the on-going self-correction of the church. But revelation does not mean that the theologian is outside of the stream of history. All believers are in history and are thus conditioned in some way by its changing forces. Faith is a conditioned standpoint, but this does not mean that what is seen from this standpoint is not true. This is the basic tension at the root of Niebuhr's thought. Faith is not a form of absolute knowledge, but it is a form of stable and true knowledge for believers. Christian theology should be confessional without being defensive. Revelation is that event in the internal history of the Christian community which makes sense of human existence, which itself is intelligible, and which sets in motion an on-going transformation of mind and life.

While Christ is the central vehicle of revelation, Christ does not take God's place. Christians should seek to work for Christ's cause, which is the coming of the kingdom, but they should not replace God with Christ. To follow Christ is not to idolize him, but to serve the Lord whom Christ called on his disciples to follow.

Revelation happens in the space between internal history and external history. Internal history is the life of the human spirit before God. External history is the sum total of the observable events which have taken place in the world. Christians are part of that external history, but theyare also shaped in their actions and thoughts through that internal history which is the presence of God to the world. "External history is the medium in which internal history exists and comes to life."