Reinhold Niebuhr

Soberness in Victory: A Reflection on V-E Day from 75 Years Ago

On May 8, 1945, the Allies accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender. Shortly thereafter, Reinhold Niebuhr explained why the victors should be sober and humble.

Reinhold Niebuhr and the Second World War

Beginning in 1940, Reinhold Niebuhr made the case for a sober, realistic, and morally grounded US involvement overseas, out of the central admission that whatever America’s own faults, a punctilious detachment from world affairs might very well result in the triumph of greater imbalances and injustices

Why Americans Should Critique Their Government, Even When Others Are Worse

Christianity and Crisis published the following editorial by Reinhold Niebuhr on February 19, 1945. He explains not only why his publication criticized the United States’ foreign policies as the country fought Nazi Germany, but also why Christians should not have uncritical loyalty to the nation.

Criticizing America over COVID-19 Response

Americans should be willing to condemn China’s great crimes while also critiquing America’s mistakes. Democratic citizens’ right to criticize their government is a key reason why the US is better than China and why democracies ultimately outperform autocracies.

Christian Realism: An Introduction
Christian Realism: An Introduction

The realism in Christian Realism lies in the tension between the redemption and hope that the Gospel brings for a world ensnared in sin and cynicism, and the reality that sin and its effects are still pervasive and will continue to cripple and limit the possibilities for justice this side of paradise.

Alliances for Democracy

This week I attended in Washington, DC, the annual gathering of the International Democratic Union, a coalition of over 70…

Providence Represents at the 2019 McCain Conference on Moral Injury

Providence executive editor Marc LiVecche and contributing editor Chaplain Timothy Mallard spoke on moral injury at the recent McCain Conference at the US Naval Academy.

More than a Big Fish: Review of Tim Keller’s Prodigal Prophet
More than a Big Fish: Review of Keller’s Prodigal Prophet

For Providence readers, there are three topics of particular interest from the Prodigal Prophet’s second half: justice, politics, and patriotism.

Is Christian Realism Enough?
Is Christian Realism Enough?

Identity politics, which seems to be anti-Christian, is in fact a profoundly Protestant heresy, which can only be corrected by a Protestantism that has the audacity to double-down on the claim identity politics makes about the irredeemable sins of man, and yet insist that a divine scapegoat, rather than a merely mortal one, is the resolution to the problem that is man, and the source of his redemption.