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Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892-1971
One of America's most influential Protestant theologians in the twentieth century, Reinhold Niebuhr became nationally known in the 1920s for his oratory and support of socialist causes. He fought against Henry Ford's labor policies, argued for the abolition of private property, and became a socialist candidate for the New York State Senate. However, his "Moral Man and Immoral Society" (1932) signaled a move away from socialism and toward the liberal theology of love. By the late 1930s, he insisted that class warfare must be put aside for the battle against fascism because a Nazi victory would devastate Western civilization. In 1944, one of his major works, "The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness," synthesized the Christian doctrine of mankind's dual nature (the capacity to do good and evil) with democratic theory and capitalism, and became an ideological basis for post-World War II liberalism.
Ernest Hamlin Baker, 1948, gift of Time magazine |