Niebuhr, Reinhold (1892-1971), American Protestant theologian, whose social doctrines profoundly influenced American theological and political thought.
Born in Wright City, Missouri, June 21, 1892, he was educated at Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois; Eden Theological Seminary, Webster Groves, Missouri; and Yale Divinity School. In 1915 he was ordained in the ministry of the Evangelical Synod of North America and made pastor of the Bethel Evangelical Church of Detroit. He held that post until 1928, at which time he joined the faculty of the Union Theological Seminary, New York City, where he taught for 30 years. At the time of his retirement (1960) he held a chair of ethics and theology; he also served as dean (1950-55) and vice president (1955-60). After retiring he continued at Union as a lecturer.
An outstanding, although not a systematic, theologian, Niebuhr was notable primarily for his examination of the interrelationships between religion, individuals, and modern society. Outside the field of theology, he took a keen interest in trade union and political affairs. He was an active member of the Socialist Party in the 1930s, waged a vigorous fight against isolationism and pacifism before and during World War II, and in 1944 helped to found the Liberal Party in New York State. He received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 and was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He died on June 1, 1971.
Niebuhr indicated his overriding interest in what has been called theological anthropology, a concern with the nature of man as a contact point for religion and society, in such major works as Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), Interpretation of
Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Realism has many components to it. Post World War I, he moved away from his usual liberal/pacifist way of thinking after seeing that the war was based on power control and economical concerns, and this was something he did not want to support. He wanted to follow a more proactive way of doing things instead of just waiting for something to happen. Liberal’s pacifist way of thinking utilizing non-intervention ways to deal with evil in the world was naive and could not be used anymore. By doing nothing would allow evil to continue to control everything. According to Niebuhr, humans in this world are self-glorifying, sinful in nature, and will never be equal to God, but should strive through God to be just and do what is moral.
Jesse Moncell Bethel was born in New York City, New York on July 8, 1922. He was born to Jesse M. Bethel and Ethel Williams. His father left the home when he was only six months old and his mother died when he was only three and a half years old. Being an orphan now, he was raised by his grandmother in Arkansas. He then moved to Oklahoma where his family sharecropped cotton and cornfields. Bethel attended elementary school while in Oklahoma and later graduated from Booker Washington High School there too. Bethel attended Tillotson College in Austin, Texas. He graduated there with a Bachelors of Science degree in chemistry. He later attended graduate school in 1944 at the University of California Berkley.
preached against abuses in the church and attempted to shift the focus of religious faith
Nebraska. His father, Reverend Earl Little, was a minister and an organizer for the Universal
... his radical religious beliefs and his liberal political views which now live on in present day society.
Randall Balmer was born on October 22, 1954 in Chicago Illinois. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton University in New Jersey, Balmer was a professor of American Religious History at Columbia University. Later, he became an Arts and Sciences professor at Dartmouth College, and he currently holds the John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College. Along with being a professor, Balmer is also a prize-winning American religious author. One of his most famous works was published in 1989 and his titled Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory.
The pastor Fred Phelps was born as the eldest child to Catherine Johnston and Fred Phelps in Meridian, Mississippi in 1929. He was raised by his aunt after his mom passed away. During his high school years he participated in boy scouts, the school band and newspaper, the schools track and boxing team, a local Methodist church and Junior State Guard. Phelps graduated with honors from high school in 1945 at the age of fifteen. Between 1947 and 151 P...
...eing a lawyer, helping the NAACP so profusely, to name a few. He’s done so much, changed so many things in his life, even after his death, through his teachings.
At the young age of eighteen, King was named a Baptist minister and became assistant minister at his father’s church. After receiving his bachelors degree from Morehouse, King entered the Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He was one of six blacks in a student body of one hundred. King ...
...r. “Niebuhr’s great contribution to contemporary theology is that he has refuted the false optimism characteristic of a great segment of Protestant liberalism.” King found Niebuhr’s critique of pacifism challenging, yet he was fascinated with Niebuhr’s awareness “of the complexity of human motives and the relation between morality and power.” King was intrigued with his teachings of human nature and behavior. This was the foundation of Kings later perspective as he optimistically believing humanity could solve its own social problems; including the social ails of racism. It is unquestionable the ideals of Niebuhr impacted King’s understanding of sin and how it is related to power in a powerless situation. It was these concepts that allowed King to develop an understanding of group behavior, human motivations, and the undeniable link between power and ethics.
He was admitted to Crozer Theologist Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania in September of the same year, to receive his divinity degree. He graduated from Crozer with the honors of being the first African American to be elected president of the student body and the highest GPA in his class. He then went on to graduate school at Boston University where he formed a great devo...
"This is the Hour of Decision with Billy Graham, coming to you from Minneapolis Minnesota" Billy Graham, has preached to more than 210 million people through a live audience, more than anyone else in history. Not only that, but Mr. Graham has reached millions more through live televison, video and film. This has led Billy to be on the "Ten Most Admired Men in the World" from the Gallup Poll since 1955 a total of thirty-nine times. This includes thirty-two consecutive more than any other individual in the world, placing him as the most popular American for about forty years. This essay is going to talk about Graham's personal life, and what kind of family he grew up in and im also going to talk in detail about how he became an evangelist, because I feel it is very important yet interesting. His accomplishments in the fifties are uncomparable, so I will be including a considerable amount of information concerning that topic. Finally I will be talking about his personal achievements, books written, and how he has been a companion to some of the American Presidents. William Franklin Graham Jr. was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 17, 1918. Graham was raised on a dairy farm by William Franklin (deceased 1962) and Morrow Coffey Graham (deceased 1981). In 1943 he married his wife Ruth McCue Bell, and had four children Virginia 1945, Anne Morrow 1948, Ruth Bell 1950, William Franklin, Jr. 1952, and Nelson Edman 1958. At age eighty, he keeps fit by swimming, playing with is nineteen grand children, and from aerobic walking, in the mountains of North Carolina, where he currently lives. (Billy Graham Best Sellers, 1999) Billy Graham told Time Magazine in one article about his life before becoming a preacher. "I lived on a farm. The only difference was I had to get up early in the morning and go milk cows. When I came back from school that day, I had to milk those same cows. There were about twenty cows I had to milk. By hand. That was before they had those machines. I loved being a farmer. But God called me to this work that I'm in now. I knew it was God calling. I said, "Yes. I will follow what God wants me to do." And so I went to two or three schools to get education.
had studied to become a minister before he left Harvard. He was a business man
Philosopher, Friedrich Schleiermacher, had ideas dealing with a more religious aspect (Sartre 57). He believed that religion was the feeling of absolute dependence on a person. He also stated that sins were a result of the inability to make a difference between a dependence of God and the earth world (Hampshire, 170).
Despite the several years of secular living, he decided to take a Bible class, which renewed his faith and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his