H. Richard Niebuhr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Helmut Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962) was an American Christian ethicist best known for his 1951 book Christ and Culture and his 1960 book Radical Monotheism and Western Culture. The younger brother of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Richard Niebuhr taught for several decades at Yale Divinity School. His theology (together with that of his colleague at Yale, Hans Frei) has been one of the main sources of post-liberal theology, sometimes called the "Yale School".

[edit] Life

Niebuhr was raised in Missouri, the son of Gustav Niebuhr, a minister in the Evangelical Synod of North America. He attended Elmhurst College and Eden Theological Seminary. He was ordained a minister in the Evangelical Synod in 1916. (The Synod merged in 1934 with the [German Reformed Church in the United States]; the subsequently formed Evangelical and Reformed Church united in 1957 with the Congregational Christian Churches to form the United Church of Christ.) He taught at Eden Theological Seminary from 1919 to 1931, with a four-year interruption between 1924 to 1927, when he served as President of Elmhurst College. He taught at Yale from 1931 to 1962, specializing in theology and Christian ethics.

[edit] Teachings

Niebuhr was concerned throughout his life with the absolute sovereignty of God and the issue of historical relativism. He considered Karl Barth and Ernst Troeltsch to be his main influences. He accepted from Barth and neo-orthodoxy the absolute transcendence of God. He believed that God is above history, that he makes commands upon the human being, and that all history is under the control of this God. Niebuhr borrowed often from Paul Tillich's notion of God. He was comfortable describing God as Being-itself, the One, or the Ground of Being. In this regard, Niebuhr held a middle ground between the dogmatic conservativism of Karl Barth and the liberal theology of Paul Tillich.

Niebuhr was also concerned with historical relativism. While God may be absolute and transcendent, human beings are not. Humans are a part of the flux and movement of the world. Because of this, the ways in which God is apprehended are never permanent. God is always understood differently by people at different times in history and in different social locations. Niebuhr's theology shows great sensitivity to the ways in which expressions of faith differ from one religious community to another.

Niebuhr was, by training, a Christian ethicist. In this capacity, his biggest concern was the way in which human being relate to God, to each other, to the communities they are a part of, and to the world. Niebuhr's theological ethics can be described as relational. His greatest ethical treatise is "The Responsible Self", published shortly after his death. It was intended to be the seed of a much larger book on Ethics which was never written due to his sudden death. In "The Responsible Self", Niebuhr deals with the human as a responding agent. Humans are always "in response" to some influence, whether God, another human being, a community, the natural order or history, or their self.

His most famous work is Christ and Culture. It is often referenced in discussions and writings on a Christian's response to the world around him. In the book, Niebuhr gives a history of how Christianity has responded to culture. He outlines five prevalent viewpoints: Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox, and Christ transforming culture.

Christ Against Culture. For the exclusive Christian, history is the story of a rising church or Christian culture and a dying pagan civilization.

Christ of Culture. For the cultural Christian, history is the story of the spirit’s encounter with nature.

Christ Above Culture. For the synthesist, history is a period of preparation under law, reason, gospel, and church for an ultimate communion of the soul with God.

Christ and culture in paradox. For the dualist , history is the time of struggle between faith and unbelief, a period between the giving of the promise of life and its fulfillment.

Christ transforming culture. For the conversionist, history is the story of God’s mighty deeds and man’s response to them. He lives some what less “between the times” and somewhat more in the divine “now” than do his various brothers listed above. Eternity, to the conversionist, focuses less on the action of God before time or life with God after time, and more on the presence of God in time. Hence the conversionist is more concerned with the divine possibility of a present renewal than with conserversion of what has been given in creation or preparing for what will be given in a final redemption.