Niebuhrians left and right

Over the past two years I’ve been involved with the production and launch of An American Conscience, a documentary film on theologian Rein­hold Niebuhr directed by Martin Dobl­meier. When I attended screenings, participated in panel discussions, or chatted with someone who had seen the film on public television, I frequently heard people say that Niebuhr’s insights remain strikingly relevant, and that we sorely need his brand of public theology today.

Niebuhr’s voice is able to cut through the din and confusion of our era, whether it’s through the powerful words of the Serenity Prayer or an insight from a classic work like Moral Man and Immoral Society or The Irony of American History. Niebuhr’s comment that politics is “where conscience and power meet,” or his remark that democracy is a “proximate solution to insoluble problems,” continues to grab our attention. In his interview for the film, Stanley Hauerwas, an ethicist and noted critic of Niebuhr, observes that Niebuhr “has a kind of immediacy that you have to be impressed by.” Hauer­was quips, “I’ve learned a hell of a lot from him in terms of how to write a provocative sentence.”

It is tempting to deploy a pithy Niebuhr quote simply to add credibility and verve to our arguments against the other side. But when we merely plunder Niebuhr’s thought for zippy one-liners, we add to the political confusion rather than address it. Niebuhr’s daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, notes in the film that “the speed of communication and the social media world tends to flatten everything out—everything has to be understood instantly or misunderstood. There’s not a possibility of genuine human intercourse in all of that.”