Love and Justice: Selections from the Shorter Writings of Reinhold Niebuhr

by Niebuhr, Reinhold; Robertson, D. B.

• ISBN13: 9780664253226
• ISBN10: 0664253229
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-09-01
• Publisher: Presbyterian Pub Corp

Summary

Reinhold Niebuhr is renowned for his unflinching honesty concerning issues of social ethics, specifically, love and justice. Humans, Niebuhr says, are incapable of perfect love. Therefore, their struggle against evil and injustice is doomed to only relative victory, although they strive to live in the ideal world. Niebuhr's concern with this paradox gave rise to numerous writings over the years in which he explored the many angles, subtleties, heights, and depths of the problems of humanity and society. Now sixty-four of these important pieces are compiled in a single volume, providing evidence of Niebuhr's belief that positive decisions and actions are possible for Christians.The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically. It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form. Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors though reflection on classic works in the field.

Author Biography

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), ethicist, theologian, and political philosopher, taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City from 1928 to 1960. Before that, for thirteen years, he was minister of Detroit's Bethel Evangelical Church

Table of Contents

General Editors' Introduction	p. ix
Preface	p. 7
Introduction	p. 9
General Essays on Love and Justice
The Spirit of Justice	p. 25
Justice and Love	p. 27
The Ethic of Jesus and the Social Problem	p. 29
When Will Christians Stop Fooling Themselves?	p. 40
Christian Faith and Natural Law	p. 46
Love and Justice on the National Level
American Politics
Our Faith and Concrete Political Decisions	p. 57
Christian Faith and Political Controversy	p. 59
Rationing and Democracy	p. 61
The Republican Victory	p. 63
Democracy and the Party Spirit	p. 66
Political Issues in Other Countries
Catholicism and Anarchism in Spain	p. 73
The Hitler-Stalin Pact	p. 77
Christianity and Politics in Britain	p. 81
Socialized Medicine in Britain	p. 84
Freedom as a Luxury	p. 87
Economic Issues
Is Stewardship Ethical?	p. 89
The Idolatry of America	p. 94
How Philanthropic Is Henry Ford?	p. 98
Ford's Five-Day Week Shrinks	p. 103
Religion and the Class War in Kentucky	p. 108
Spiritual Mobilization	p. 113
Ideology in the Social Struggle	p. 115
Inflation and Group Selfishness	p. 117
Race Relations
The Confession of a Tired Radical	p. 120
Christian Faith and the Race Problem	p. 125
The Race Problem	p. 129
Jews After the War	p. 132
The Negro Issue in America	p. 142
Fair Employment Practices Act	p. 145
The Supreme Court on Segregation in the Schools	p. 148
What Resources Can the Christian Church Offer to Meet Crisis in Race Relations?	p. 152
Proposal to Billy Graham	p. 154
Love and Justice in International Relations
A Variety of Issues
The Conflict Between Nations and Nations and Between Nations and God	p. 161
On the Ethiopian War	p. 166
The Will of God and the Van Zeeland Report	p. 168
A Negotiated Peace	p. 172
Allied Peace Aims	p. 174
Repeal the Neutrality Act!	p. 177
Chastisement Unto Repentance or Death	p. 180
Anglo-Saxon Destiny and Responsibility	p. 183
Airplanes Are Not Enough	p. 189
The Limits of Military Power	p. 191
Plans for World Organization
The Possibility of a Durable Peace	p. 196
American Power and World Responsibility	p. 200
Plans for World Reorganization	p. 206
The San Francisco Conference	p. 213
Can We Organize the World?	p. 216
The "Enemy"
Love Your Enemies	p. 218
The Bombing of Germany	p. 222
The German Problem	p. 223
What Is Justice?	p. 229
The Bomb
The Atomic Bomb	p. 232
The Hydrogen Bomb	p. 235
Love and Justice and the Pacifist Issue
A Critique of Pacifism	p. 241
Pacifism and the Use of Force	p. 247
Why I Leave the F. O. R.	p. 254
Pacifism Against the Wall	p. 260
An Open Letter (to Richard Roberts)	p. 267
To Prevent the Triumph of an Intolerable Tyranny	p. 272
The Christian Faith and the World Crisis	p. 279
Pacifism and "America First"	p. 285
History (God) Has Overtaken Us	p. 292
The Quaker Way	p. 296
Is There Another Way?	p. 299
Index	p. 303
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