Reinhold Niebuhr is back in vogue. Everyone is a Niebuhrian, from Obama to McCain. Left or right, it doesn't matter. So, Krista Tippett, sensing the pulse of the nation, focused her attention on this very subject a couple of weeks back on her show,
Speaking of Faith. I of course, have taken my time downloading it and listening to the program as I drive to Lompoc. But today I did just that. A most interesting conversation with several interpreters of Niebuhr.
Near the opening of this conversation, Tippett plays a section from Niebuhr focusing on the Puritan legacy and belief in America's specialness. Niebuhr sees this as an unfortunate legacy:
Mr. Reinhold Niebuhr: (archival audio) Have you studied the history of our Puritan fathers in New England? I don't want to engage in the ordinary, rather cheap strictures against our Puritan fathers because here were some very great virtues and graces in their life. But I've become convinced as I read American history that this represents the real defect in our Puritan inheritance — the doctrine of special providence. These Puritan forefathers of ours were so sure that every rain and that every drought was connected with the virtue and vice of their enterprise, that God always had his hand upon them to reward them for their goodness and to punish them for their evil.
This is unfortunate. And it's particularly unfortunate when a religious
community develops in the vast possibilities of America, where inevitably the proofs of God's favor will be greater than the proof of God's wrath. This may be the reason why we are so self-righteous. This may be the reason why we still haven't come to terms in an ultimate religious sense with the problem of the special favors that we enjoy as a nation against the other nations of the world.
Niebuhr called for a strong engagement with the world, but also recognized the human predilection to arrogance and self-righteousness. At the end of the day, we must realize that we cannot bring into being a utopia.
Hubris is America's biggest enemy. It is hubris that has gotten us bogged down in a war in Iraq -- the hubris of believing that we have some special calling to spread our vision of the world without examining the problems in our own midst. As Jesus would say -- take care of the log in your own eye before pulling out the splinter in someone else's!
So, check this out, for it's an excellent introduction to Niebuhr's thought.
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