4. Ironic Complexity: Reinhold Niebuhr, Billy Graham, Modernity, and Racial Justice

2010 ◽  
pp. 66-84
Keyword(s):  
Racial Justice ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Billy Graham

‘The Impossible Possibility of Love’: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Thought on Racial Justice

2020 ◽  
pp. 175508822097900
Author(s):  
Liane Hartnett
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
North American ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
The North ◽  
Cornel West ◽  
Martin Luther King

Love has been long lauded for its salvific potential in U.S. anti-racist rhetoric. Yet, what does it mean to speak or act in love’s name to redress racism? Turning to the work of the North American public intellectual and theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), this essay explores his contribution to normative theory on love’s role in the work of racial justice. Niebuhr was a staunch supporter of civil rights, and many prominent figures of the movement such as James Cone, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., J. Deotis Roberts and Cornel West drew on his theology. Indeed, Niebuhr underscores love’s promise and perils in politics, and its potential to respond to racism via the work of critique, compassion, and coercion. Engaging with Niebuhr’s theology on love and justice, then, not only helps us recover a rich realist resource on racism, but also an ethic of realism as antiracism.

Toyohiko Kagawa and Reinhold Niebuhr

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-89
Author(s):  
Brian G. Byrd ◽  
John Paul Loucky ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
Social Activist ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Billy Graham ◽  
The Church ◽  
The U.S ◽  
The Human Condition

Toyohiko Kagawa, a Japanese evangelist and social activist, preached and practiced cooperatives as integral to the nature and mission of the Christian church. Using pulpit, podium, and pen, Kagawa blended a call for heart conversion with a call to establish Christian cooperatives. When Kagawa stumped America promoting this vision in 1936, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr expressed reservations. Unlike Kagawa, Niebuhr saw cooperatives as no panacea, though lending his support to an experimental cooperative in the U.S. that was doomed to fail. Kagawa faced opposition from within the church, but shared the podium with Billy Graham during the young evangelist’s Tokyo crusade in 1956. This essay draws from Kagawa’s vision and Niebuhr’s critique insights for the church today: the need for visions without illusions, the difficulty of linking church and cooperatives, and the value of reforming the church’s approach to mission through reflection and a deeper analysis of the human condition.

Epilogue

2021 ◽  
pp. 365-390
Author(s):  
George M. Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Research University ◽  
Christian Colleges ◽  
First Century ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Baylor University ◽  
Christian Colleges And Universities ◽  
Christian Fellowship ◽  
Billy Graham ◽  
Revival Movements ◽  
The 1960S

In the mid-twentieth century leading scholars such as Reinhold Niebuhr or David Riesman wrote off conservative evangelical education as fading. William McLoughlin also saw the new revival movements as ephemeral. Billy Graham and Carl Henry had ambitions to start a major university around 1960 but did not have the resources. Wheaton College in Illinois, the leading ex-fundamentalist college, began to rise academically despite the anti-intellectualism of its tradition. Calvin College had been an ideologically isolated Reformed school but by the 1960s had produced leading Christian philosophers. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship helped raise consciousness regarding strong scholarship, and by 2000 the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities had grown to over one hundred schools with well-trained faculties. Like-minded Christian scholars founded their own academic societies. Baylor University became an intentionally Christian research university. Evangelical Protestant and Catholic scholars often cooperated. Despite many challenges, distinctly Christian scholars could hold their own in twenty-first-century academia.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document