Poets and Prophets in a Machine Age: Reinhold Niebuhr on Technology

Abstract

It may initially seem odd that individual featured on cover of Time Magazine's 25 anniversary edition in 1948 was, of all things, a theologian. But then again, Reinhold Niebuhr was no ordinary public figure. People as diverse as Martin Luther King, Jr., Alan Paton, Saul Alinsky, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama regard him as a major influence on their thought.2 Hans Morgenthau, preeminent political theorist and proponent of twentieth century political realism, considered Niebuhr the greatest living political philosopher of America.3 Nor was Niebuhr' s influence restricted to cultural elite: he is widely regarded as author of Serenity Prayer used by recovery programs worldwide.How did this pastor-turned-ethics professor manage to have such broad cultural influence? For one Niebuhr had a remarkable synthetic mind, enabling him to bring theological concepts to bear on pressing social, political, and economic issues of twentieth century in cogent, profound, and surprising ways. But just as important, he was keenly attuned to events, movements, and trends of his day. From his activism on behalf of Ford's auto workers in Detroit in 1920s, to his involvement in Socialist Party and attentiveness to civil rights issues in 1930s, to his vocal leadership throughout World War II and height of Cold War, Niebuhr persistently subjected contemporary scene to incisive analysis.This article focuses on a particular aspect of Niebuhr' s analysis: namely, his thoughts on promise and peril of technology. Niebuhr' s career spanned a time of dizzying social transformation brought about through technological innovation. Niebuhr was bora in 1892 - a mere 15 years after invention of telephone.4 By his death in 1971, Niebuhr had seen emergence of automobile and airline industries, launching of first satellite, first human steps taken on lunar surface - not to mention carnage of two world wars, invention of atom bomb, specter of nuclear proliferation, and with it, capacity to destroy planet many times over. Niebuhr was well acquainted with promise and peril that accompany technological change, and theme of technology and its implications surfaces repeatedly throughout his writings.5 More specifically, I examine what Niebuhr understood to be spiritual repercussions of technological change, as well as his suggestions for how modern society can relate to technology in a way that fosters conditions necessary to spiritual health in a technologically advanced age. It is my contention that Niebuhr offers us insight into how to promote and maintain spiritual health amid technological transformations of our day.RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY IN NIEBUHR'S THOUGHTNiebuhr's frequent references to technology are typically embedded in his analyses of political, ethical, social, or economic issues. As a consequence, Niebuhr's analysis of technology shifts to accommodate major changes in society. Niebuhr's early writings were informed by his experience of advocating for Henry Ford's assembly line workers during his pastorate in Detroit from 1916-1928. Repeated failures to obtain concessions from Ford on their behalf prompted Niebuhr's grim appraisal of industrial revolution's effect on urban poor and on American society in general. Though he sharply disagreed with Marx's appraisal of religion, Niebuhr saw Marx as industrial society's most insightful and perceptive critic. He drew heavily on Marx in often scathing critiques of industrialism in his first major writings following his acceptance of a faculty position in ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1929.6 From mid-1930s onward, Niebuhr's attention shifted from American society to mounting political tensions in Europe which would eventually give way to World War II. Renouncing both fascism and communism, he nonetheless remained critical of dangerously naive individualism he perceived at core of American democratic and economic theory and retained socialist political leanings throughout his life. …