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The Nature and Destiny of Man

By Dan Fastenberg | August 30, 2011 | +

Author: Reinhold Niebuhr

Year Released: 1941

The intellectual championing of humility and skepticism isn’t the easiest way to inspire a devoted following, but it’s for that very agenda that 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr has the ears of the wisest of men. The crossroads of ontology and its application for modern life as it’s actually lived is where Niebuhr holds court. In The Nature and Destiny of Man, Niebuhr delves into spiritual and Christian themes in the shadows of perhaps the least holy event in human history — World War II. “Man,” Niebuhr writes, “is a sinner not because he is one limited individual within a whole but rather because he is betrayed by his very ability to survey the whole to imagine himself the whole.” His emphasis on the powerlessness of man to bend the world to his will and, more important, the danger of trying to do so calls to mind Edmund Burke’s 18th century distaste for the radical nature of the French Revolution. Niebuhr would go on to further rail against messianism in Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. His thinking and discussion of actual policy made him the statesman’s philosopher. Among the government programs and policies that trace their roots to Niebuhrian skepticism are Cold War containment and the realpolitik school of foreign policy.

Next: A People's History of the United States

Related Topics: Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man

Melissa

Reblogged this on Swamp of Boredom and commented:
I’m reblogging this for my own reference and also to share with my readers (all 34 of you;)). Since the release of the 1001 Books App on Tuesday, I’ve been book list crazy. Since I like non-fiction – especially non-fiction centered on historical events and people, not so much current people – and have read a couple of excellent non-fiction books in the last year (Only Yesterday, Empire of the Summer Moon) I wondered if there was a list of recommended non-fiction books. Of course there is. I found one from the Guardain (UK) that is, obviously, geared towards British readers and that, unlike Time’s list, encompasses all non-fiction ever written. This list from Time consists of books only since Time began publishing, 1923. There are a few that don’t interest me at all and the biography choices focus too heavily on women and African Americans, IMO, but overall the list is excellent.
Enjoy!