Reinhold Niebuhr in the 1960s: Christian Realism for a Secular Age by Ronald H. Stone

Abstract

Reviewed by: Reinhold Niebuhr in the 1960s: Christian Realism for a Secular Age by Ronald H. Stone Jeremy Sabella Reinhold Niebuhr in the 1960s: Christian Realism for a Secular Age. By Ronald H. Stone. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019. xii + 206 pp. Reinhold Niebuhr's critical voice retained its edge throughout his storied career and, as Ronald Stone asserts, we dismiss his final [End Page 485] decade of work to our detriment. Chronic health issues in the 1960s limited Niebuhr's engagement with American public life. Yet, as Stone persuasively argues, it is a mistake to equate ailing health with intellectual decline. Niebuhr was as analytically perceptive in the 1960s as he had been previously, and as we continue to grapple with the legacy of that momentous decade, Niebuhr merits our attention. Stone's account begins by establishing the main political and theological concepts that animated Niebuhr's 1960s analysis. Chapter two examines Niebuhr's main book on Cold War power politics, The Structure of Nations and Empires (1959). Although overshadowed by more famous earlier works, Stone asserts its value for understanding his political-philosophical perspective at the start of the 1960s. Chapters three and four explore Niebuhr's view of human nature and history as outlined in the published version of his Gifford Lectures, The Nature and Destiny of Man (1943). Stone observes that, for Niebuhr, "an uneasy conscience is a part of human life" (26), and though Niebuhr increasingly favored secular over religious terminology, theologically rich categories such as sin, grace, love, and justice shaped his Christian Realist outlook to the end. The remaining chapters proceed chronologically, starting with Niebuhr's retirement from Union Theological Seminary in May of 1960. While this marked the end of formal faculty responsibilities, Niebuhr continued to teach and engage politically as his health permitted, even introducing presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy at the Liberal Party dinner later that year (39). As Stone ably chronicles, over the course of the decade Niebuhr's focus expanded beyond international politics to encompass domestic issues, particularly race relations. In September of 1963, for instance, Niebuhr discussed the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham with James Baldwin on the radio (67–70). Niebuhr also explored the implications of domestic politics for foreign policy in greater depth. His critiques of the Vietnam war highlighted the hypocrisy of sacrificing blood and treasure abroad while neglecting the urban poor and marginalizing the black community at home. Such domestic moral failures undermined American credibility internationally in far-reaching ways. Although Stone defends the degree and depth of Niebuhr's engagement on race issues, he is [End Page 486] not uncritical, describing the paltry discussion of Anglo-American violence toward Native Americans in A Nation So Conceived (1963) as a "grievous failure" (74). Stone's most engaging analysis emerges from personal recollection. Starting in the mid-1960s, Stone collaborated closely with Niebuhr as a teaching and research assistant, and at Niebuhr's wife Ursula's behest, took regular walks with Reinhold on Riverside Drive. Stone weaves personal anecdote with excerpts from his correspondence with Reinhold and Ursula. The letters catalogue the warmth and humor with which Reinhold approached the logistics of teaching and writing while navigating chronic illness, and Ursula's wit shines in the various postscripts. Writing on that which one knows so intimately, however, has its pitfalls. Stone frequently presumes a degree of familiarity with the events and major figures of the 1960s that only those with extensive prior knowledge of the era possess. Teachers who assign this book should be prepared to supply the necessary context. The 1960s were a decade of extremes. As the nation whipsawed from the heady optimism of the Kennedy years to the bitter disappointments of war and racial violence, Niebuhr responded with characteristic insight and grace. Stone makes a cogent case for what Niebuhr offered an increasingly secular and divided America then—and still offers today. Jeremy Sabella Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire Copyright © 2020 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.