Love and Justice: Selections from the Shorter Writings of Reinhold Niebuhr

by Reinhold Niebuhr

Overview

Reinhold Niebuhr is renowned for his unflinching honesty concerning issues of social ethics, specifically, love and justice. Humans, Niebuhr says, are incapable of perfect love. Therefore, their struggle against evil and injustice is doomed to only relative victory, although they strive to live in the ideal world. Niebuhr's concern with this paradox gave rise to numerous writings over the years in which he explored the many angles, subtleties, heights, and depths of the problems of humanity and society. Now sixty-four of these important pieces are compiled in a single volume, providing evidence of Niebuhr's belief that positive decisions and actions are possible for Christians.

The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically. It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form. Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors though reflection on classic works in the field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664253226
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	08/01/1992
Series:	Library of Theological Ethics
Edition description:	Reprint Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Reinhold Niebuhr was a theologian, Christian ethicist, and public intellectual who taught for more than thirty years at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Table of Contents

	General Editors' Introduction	ix
	Preface	7
	Introduction	9
Part I.	General Essays on Love and Justice
1.	The Spirit of Justice	25
2.	Justice and Love	27
3.	The Ethic of Jesus and the Social Problem	29
4.	When Will Christians Stop Fooling Themselves?	40
5.	Christian Faith and Natural Law	46
Part II.	Love and Justice on the National Level
A.	American Politics
6.	Our Faith and Concrete Political Decisions	57
7.	Christian Faith and Political Controversy	59
8.	Rationing and Democracy	61
9.	The Republican Victory	63
10.	Democracy and the Party Spirit	66
B.	Political Issues in Other Countries
11.	Catholicism and Anarchism in Spain	73
12.	The Hitler-Stalin Pact	77
13.	Christianity and Politics in Britain	81
14.	Socialized Medicine in Britain	84
15.	Freedom as a Luxury	87
C.	Economic Issues
16.	Is Stewardship Ethical?	89
17.	The Idolatry of America	94
18.	How Philanthropic Is Henry Ford?	98
19.	Ford's Five-Day Week Shrinks	103
20.	Religion and the Class War in Kentucky	108
21.	Spiritual Mobilization	113
22.	Ideology in the Social Struggle	115
23.	Inflation and Group Selfishness	117
D.	Race Relations
24.	The Confession of a Tired Radical	120
25.	Christian Faith and the Race Problem	125
26.	The Race Problem	129
27.	Jews After the War	132
28.	The Negro Issue in America	142
29.	Fair Employment Practices Act	145
30.	The Supreme Court on Segregation in the Schools	148
31.	What Resources Can the Christian Church Offer to Meet Crisis in Race Relations?	152
32.	Proposal to Billy Graham	154
Part III.	Love and Justice in International Relations
A.	A Variety of Issues
33.	The Conflict Between Nations and Nations and Between Nations and God	161
34.	On the Ethiopian War	166
35.	The Will of God and the Van Zeeland Report	168
36.	A Negotiated Peace	172
37.	Allied Peace Aims	174
38.	Repeal the Neutrality Act!	177
39.	Chastisement Unto Repentance or Death	180
40.	Anglo-Saxon Destiny and Responsibility	183
41.	Airplanes Are Not Enough	189
42.	The Limits of Military Power	191
B.	Plans for World Organization
43.	The Possibility of a Durable Peace	196
44.	American Power and World Responsibility	200
45.	Plans for World Reorganization	206
46.	The San Francisco Conference	213
47.	Can We Organize the World?	216
C.	The "Enemy"
48.	Love Your Enemies	218
49.	The Bombing of Germany	222
50.	The German Problem	223
51.	What Is Justice?	229
D.	The Bomb
52.	The Atomic Bomb	232
53.	The Hydrogen Bomb	235
Part IV.	Love and Justice and the Pacifist Issue
54.	A Critique of Pacifism	241
55.	Pacifism and the Use of Force	247
56.	Why I Leave the F. O. R.	254
57.	Pacifism Against the Wall	260
58.	An Open Letter (to Richard Roberts)	267
59.	To Prevent the Triumph of an Intolerable Tyranny	272
60.	The Christian Faith and the World Crisis	279
61.	Pacifism and "America First"	285
62.	History (God) Has Overtaken Us	292
63.	The Quaker Way	296
64.	Is There Another Way?	299
	Index	303

Editorial Reviews

Reprint of the master's shorter works. Still available from Peter Smith at $12.50 (casebound). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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