Tag Archives: Reinhold Niebuhr

The Bible Verse Reinhold Niebuhr Chose As Most Essential

If but one Bible verse survived after a global cataclysm, what verse would you hope got preserved? The famous theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was asked this question in 1954 of a magazine editor, and here was his response: The passage of … Continue reading

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Sisyphus Hound: What a Dog Can Teach Us about God Belief and Existentialism

There’s a lot to ponder philosophically in this very short video of a dog, Sisyphus-like, having difficulty keeping a rock in place:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            . Albert Camus once wrote that we must imagine Sisyphus happy, and, indeed, the dog appears happy … Continue reading

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Quote of the Day

The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, in Volume 1 of his The Nature and Destiny of Man  (1964 edition, pg. 43), critiques Freudianism and, by extension, naturalism generally: The whole of Freudian psychology, not in what it declares but in what it … Continue reading

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How I Combine Richard Rorty’s Atheist Pragmatism with My “Spiritual Agnosticism”

It ain’t easy, and it requires a bit of Kant and Kierkegaard to get there, but below is what I believe at this point in my life, and how I have arrived at believing it. First, here is what I … Continue reading

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Caelius Secundus Curio and Laelius Socinus: Two Heroic 16th Century Resisters of John Calvin

The following appears on page 478 of Will Durant’s wonderful history of the Reformation (which you can find at Amazon here): Calvin faced on the left a group of radicals recently arrived in Switzerland from Counter Reformation Italy. Caelius Secundus Curio, … Continue reading

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Are Theological Languages Any Good? An Agnostic’s Perspective

I like Richard Rorty’s definition of a theory: If it gives us some predictive power, it’s science; if it doesn’t, it’s philosophy. Theology is a form of philosophizing, and therefore a form of theorizing. Theology theorizes under the assumption that IF there … Continue reading

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Mike Wallace’s Interview with Reinhold Niebuhr (1958)

It doesn’t embed, but I think that this Reinhold Niebuhr interview with Mike Wallace in 1958 is interesting: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/niebuhr_reinhold.html

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A Truly Great Speech

Extraordinary, and worth watching in its entirety:

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Swine Flu (H1N1): Children, Atheism, Transcendence, and Near Death Experiences

I’ve noticed, since having kids (they are three and five), that I’ve been unusually anxious about flu seasons (something that, when I was single and kidless, I barely thought about). And this season, with swine flu (H1N1) out there without … Continue reading

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Waiting for Coyne

Today I responded to biologist Jerry Coyne’s question, which he asked at his blog, about whether atheists should take theologians (or theological discussion) seriously. Here’s what I wrote: Professor Coyne: I’m an agnostic who (from my previous posts here) obviously has some intellectual … Continue reading

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Are Things as Bad as They Appear?

In Robert Wright’s interview with Salon.com today, he was asked about the end of his recent book, The Evolution of God : At the end of your book, you say the great divide in modern thinking is between people who … Continue reading

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What’s It All About? See Here?

If it were evening, and you were sitting beneath a full moon with a Zen priest, and you asked him what the universe’s ultimate meaning is, he might simply point you to the moon. But what if you were sitting on the … Continue reading

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The Cairo Speech: President Barack Obama Channels Reinhold Niebuhr?

A reader at Andrew Sullivan’s blog wrote beautifully today of President Obama’s Cairo speech, comparing his vision to Reinhold Niebuhr’s. Niebuhr, by the way, is one of Obama’s intellectual influences. Obama has said that he has taken from Niebuhr’s books “the compelling … Continue reading

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Miracle, Mystery, and Authority?: Reinhold Niebuhr, Cognitive Dissonance, and The Problem of Evil

Reinhold Niebuhr is a profound and subtle Christian theologian and philosopher, but I notice that he is often too satisfied, whenever he reaches a logical impasse, such as in confronting the thorny problem of why there is evil in the … Continue reading

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