Richard R. Niebuhr – författare

This important book makes available the last major unpublished writings of H. Richard Niebuhr, one of the leading American theologians of this century. Edited by the author’s son, this powerful and moving book represents Niebuhr’s most accessible, systematic, and detailed statement on faith.

A distinguished American theologian provides a firm theoretical basis for understanding the widespread quest for religious experience in the midst of a technological society. The book describes elements of experience common to people today and presents them as moments of possible awakening to a new quality of perception. Religion is the perennial striving of men and women for orientation in a world they experience as a field of assailing powers. Dr. Niebuhr interprets human faith as a sense of alignment with general patterns of action within thispower-world. In our electronically amplified age, we share in the experience of others to an extent that strains the resilience of the human spirit. Whatever else people in this age require, one is the capacity for inclusiveness or generosity on a new scale. Within this perspective, the author interprets the contemporary meaning of Jesus of Nazareth as a persuasive pattern of generous life manifesting the direction of true power.

This work represents the first study in English in over twenty years on the theological thinking of Friedrich Schleiermacher. It invites the reader to try on the "e;thinking in motion"e; of a pivotal figure in Protestant theology. The author believes that Schleiermacher has been misunderstood and misinterpreted first by Brunner and Barth, and consequently by other present-day theologians. Because so few of the "e;Barthian captives"e; have themselves troubled to undertake the eminently worthwhile study of the man's mind, Dr. Niebuhr, with meticulous attention to Schleiermacher's own words, documents and assesses anew his thinking on Christ, religion, and theology. Schleiermacher's thought is described here through a series of "e;moments."e; The first is his little-known dialogue, The Christmas Eve, which discusses human religion. The second and the third are his lectures on hermeneutics, which develop his conception of speech and understanding, and his lectures on ethics, which reflect on human reason and history. Part II of the book concentrates on the fourth "e;moment,"e; his magnum opus, The Christian Faith. What emerges is a systematic theology which organizes and focuses, in and for its own age--using, as it must, its own age's words, symbols, and concepts--the content of the consciousness of the church. To acquaint oneself with Schleiermacher's "e;unending dialectic of nature and grace"e; is an intriguing and rewarding experience.