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Th.--Lettres et sciences humaines--Bordeaux 3, 1982. / Bibliogr. p. 595-628. Index.

Thesis advisor: Michael J. Himes / Reinhold Niebuhr is among the most politically and theologically influential--and most misunderstood--American thinkers of the twentieth century. This misunderstanding is the product of a tendency among Niebuhr's admirers and critics alike to overlook the elaborate interplay of the theology and politics in Niebuhr's thought. I argue that Niebuhr understood himself as a preacher to religion's "cultured despisers," and that Niebuhr construed this role in fundamentally theological terms. As a consequence, there is a dynamic theology underlying his political engagement with the broader culture. Chief among the "cultured despisers" drawn to Niebuhr's thought were the political realists who dominated early Cold War politics. They were particularly compelled by the political insights of Niebuhr's Christian Realism, and proceeded to incorporate these insights into own realist visions. I argue that in the act of appropriating Niebuhr the political realists unwittingly absorbed much of his theology; and in neglecting to recognize the theological underpinnings to Niebuhr's political insights, they ended up misconstruing Niebuhr in important ways. I seek to demonstrate that fully appreciating Niebuhr's contributions to political discourse requires an awareness of how theology suffuses even his most overtly political writings. This project consists of two parts. Part One examines the theological formation of the concept at the heart of Niebuhr's Christian Realism: namely, the doctrine of original sin. From the outset, Niebuhr maintained that elaborating the full political implications of original sin required a theological structure. Through sustained conversations with theological contemporaries Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Emil Brunner, and his brother H. Richard Niebuhr, Reinhold elaborated the distinctive theological anthropology, understanding of grace and redemption, and account of the dynamic interplay between faith and history underlying his exploration of original sin and its political implications. Niebuhr's Christian Realism, I suggest, is inextricably theological. Part Two analyses Niebuhr's reception among three of the most prominent midcentury political realists: Hans Morgenthau, George Kennan, and Arthur Schlesinger. Although they were among Niebuhr's most astute interpreters, all three figures wrongly presumed that they could extricate the political elements of Niebuhr's thinking on original sin from the theological structure in which this thinking was embedded, and import only these political elements into their own realist visions. Their uses of the concept of original sin indicate that they both adopt far more of Niebuhr's theology than they ever intended to, and misconstrue some of his most profound insights. I close by considering what a theologically grounded Christian Realism has to offer political discourse. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

presented by Lo Kai Ming, Charles. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-110). / An Abstract --- p.i / Foreword --- p.iii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- Reinhold Niebuhr's theological development --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Human nature --- p.17 / Chapter III. --- Man as sinner --- p.26 / Chapter IV. --- Social justice --- p.42 / Chapter 1. --- Love and mutual love --- p.42 / Chapter 2. --- Justice --- p.48 / Chapter 3. --- Middle axioms --- p.61 / Chapter V. --- The applicability of Niebuhr's theological framework for social justice in the context of contemporary Hong Kong society --- p.71 / Chapter VI. --- Conclusion --- p.85 / Notes --- p.89 / Bibliography --- p.106

I offer an interpretation of John Dewey and Reinhold Niebuhr that highlights the role of virtue in the visions of democracy that both writers articulated. Based on this interpretation, I argue that Dewey and Niebuhr both implied that virtue is necessary for democracy to thrive, despite the fact that they spent much of their careers in intellectual conflict with each other. Specifically, I claim that they were both committed to the value of humility and mutuality for democratic society. Humility and mutuality are virtues with profound importance for democracy that logically flow from Dewey's framework of American pragmatism and Niebuhr's Augustinian Christian theology. I argue that their ironic and unnoticed commitment to humility and mutuality as democratic virtues helps us to understand their shared critique of capitalism. For Niebuhr and Dewey, the democratic self stands in contrast with the capitalist self: the moral agent required and rewarded by capitalism is one who is severely deficient in humility and mutuality. I contend that the conception of democratic virtue that Dewey and Niebuhr shared, which informed their common critique of capitalism, led them to revise socially-inherited notions of property ownership, enact political solidarity with the working class, and support the struggles of labor unions. This virtue-ethical interpretation demonstrates that two writers with deeply conflicting worldviews can both hold that democracy and capitalism are irreconcilable at the level of the moral agent.

This thesis concerns the circular epistemology of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and Science of Logic. I argue that these works can be read as epistemologies based on the dialectical structure of their progression. Furthermore, I claim that this dialectical structure is circular. I hold that the epistemology of these works is circular not only because it is anti-foundational, self-justifying, and presuppositionless, but also in these works one instance of knowledge depends on the next for its justification and so on, until the last instance of knowledge returns to the first. Hegel sharply attacks Reinhold in The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's System of Philosophy, but changes his mind in the Science of Logic to embrace elements of Reinhold's philosophy. I argue that, through this circular epistemological reading of the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Science of Logic, we can account for Hegel's changing view. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Philosophy / MA; / Thesis;

Texte remanié de: Doct. th.--Bâle, 1996. Titre de soutenance : Hromadka and Niebuhr on theology of history. / Bibliogr. p. 373-386. Index.

Habil.-Schr.--Fachbereich Germanistik--Kassel--Universität, 2001. / Bibliogr. p. [587]-628. Index.

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In this dissertation it is contended that central to Reinhold Niebuhr's theology and ethics is his understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a revelation of the suffering of God. Keeping in mind the theologia crucis of Martin Luther, Part I examines the significance of the Christian symbol of the cross during Niebuhr's formative years and as he later sought to relate the moral and ethical insights of the Christian faith to the more tragic social and political events of his age. / Part II begins with a systematic appraisal of Niebuhr's theology of the cross in reference to his understanding of Christian anthropology, theology proper, the atonement, history and eschatology. The theological similarities of Niebuhr's thought to the theologia crucis of Luther are made explicit. A delineation is then made of Niebuhr's social ethic of the cross. It is an ethic which seeks to underscore the true but limited relevance of the norm of sacrificial love to issues of relative justice. This ethic is then contrasted to the ethica crucis of Luther. / The dissertation concludes with an examination of the current debate regarding Niebuhr's ultimate political position. It is suggested that an understanding of Niebuhr's theology and ethic of the cross is essential to any thorough appreciation of the major shifts which occurred within his political thought.