Reinhold Niebuhr, Washington’s Favorite Theologian: This not entirely sympathetic essay on Reinhold Niebuhr can introduce students to an important modern theologian and to themes in modern world affairs and theology. We may find reasons to agree, disagree, and probe further into this essayist’s views: Individuals were capable of overcoming sin, he [Niebuhr] argued, but groups were not. “Individual men may be moral” because they “are endowed by nature with a measure of sympathy and consideration for their kind,” Niebuhr wrote.
