Word: niebuhrs
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Protestants may be galled by the pretensions of the Roman Catholic Church, but they can ill afford to sneer at Catholic social doctrine, because it is vastly superior to Protestant vacillation between pragmatism and perfectionism. So holds Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, whose perennial willingness to stick out his political and theological neck is one of Protestantism's glories. To make his point, he analyzes Pope John's recent encyclical, Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher), which broadened Catholicism's alignment on the side of the welfare state and endorsed a measure of "socialization" (TIME, July...
Turning to the present, Niebuhr made two observations on the "scientific age, thrusting into nature." His first point was that modern technology has given as the potentiality of uniting into a "world community." He said men now have the opportunity to "purge themselves of European Parochialism," and "implement Christian universalism...
...second corruption Niebuhr discussed was "fanaticism"--regarding as true for all time theories which have only a limited application. The only cure for his, he felt, was to open all facets of society to criticism from its members...
...second major contribution of Christianity, "the affirmation of the existential status of the individual," Niebuhr traced to Biblical insights into the nature of man. For example, men today must make allowance in the way they organize society for each other's self-love. Niebuhr compared this fact to the emphasis on forgiveness in Biblical thought...
...Niebuhr's second point concerned the problem of preserving enough "spirtual vitality" to overcome a "technical barbarism." He maintained that ascetic poverty was not the answer, saying only that "we must approach the problem not with Christian arrogance, but with spiritual humility...