Reinhold Niebuhr

Marc LiVecche speaks on the Principles of Christian Realism, Part 1.

The economic aid which is required could not be a matter of pure generosity. Nations as nations are incapable of such generosity.

From 1945 to 1947 as the United States and Soviet Union moved toward the Cold War, Christian realists writing for Reinhold Niebuhr’s journal, Christianity and Crisis, responded to global dilemmas. Here are five impressions of those articles, along with lessons for today.

The editors discuss Mark Tooley’s article about how C.S. Lewis and Herbert Butterfield interpreted history, Mark Melton’s five impressions on Christian realism from the early Cold War years, and an event promoting Eric Patterson and Robert Joustra’s new book, “Power Politics and Moral Order.”

After traveling through Europe in 1947—including to Scotland, Amsterdam, and Switzerland—Reinhold Niebuhr wrote some reflections, including on state churches, the Truman Doctrine, Christian political parties, and more.

At the end of Reinhold Niebuhr’s travels across Western Europe in 1947, he spent a week at the Ecumenical Institute, a facility near Geneva. He was hopeful of how this project would bless the church life of the world, and he offered observations about discussions there about communism, church-state relations, Christian political parties, and more.

After visiting Scotland, Reinhold Niebuhr traveled to the Netherlands and offered another correspondence that the journal published in April 1947.

The editors discuss Eric Patterson’s article about jus post bellum and war crimes, Reinhold Niebuhr’s letters from Scotland, and Mark Tooley’s remarks on regime change.

In late winter and early spring 1947, Reinhold Niebuhr visited Europe and wrote short editorials for Christianity and Crisis as he traveled. In the following correspondences, the first coming from Scotland and the second coming from somewhere in the United Kingdom, he offers brief reflections on different current events.