The theological vision of Reinhold Niebuhr's "The irony of American history"

<p>Reinhold Niebuhr remains at the center of a national conversation about America's role in the world, and commentators with divergent political and religious positions look to his 1952 work, The Irony of American History, in support of their views. In this study, Scott R. Erwin argues t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Erwin, S
Other Authors: Rasmussen, J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
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author Erwin, S
author2 Rasmussen, J
author_facet Rasmussen, J
Erwin, S
author_sort Erwin, S
collection OXFORD
description <p>Reinhold Niebuhr remains at the center of a national conversation about America's role in the world, and commentators with divergent political and religious positions look to his 1952 work, The Irony of American History, in support of their views. In this study, Scott R. Erwin argues that an appreciation of Niebuhr's theological vision is necessary for understanding the full measure of Irony and his perspective on life more broadly. Such a study is important because many individuals reading Irony today fail to acknowledge the central role that his Christian beliefs played in his writings. Niebuhr described his theological vision as being 'in the battle and above it,' and, it was this perspective that led Niebuhr, in Irony, to assert that America must both take 'morally hazardous action' in combating the aggression of the Soviet Union and engage in critical self-evaluation to prevent the country from assuming the most odious traits of its Cold War foe.</p> <p>Niebuhr developed his theological vision over the course of the 1930s and 1940s through engagement with Christian doctrine, as most readily seen in his academic works such as The Nature and Destiny of Man, and engagement with current events, as seen in his many journalistic writings during this period. By focusing primarily on Niebuhr's writings between 1931 and 1951, Erwin traces the development of his Christian interpretation of human nature and history, establishes how it informed his theological vision, and reveals how that theological vision underlay his writings on current affairs.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:839082ac-d9a8-454c-96b7-3e2385fd5b392022-03-26T21:44:58ZThe theological vision of Reinhold Niebuhr's "The irony of American history"Thesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:839082ac-d9a8-454c-96b7-3e2385fd5b39International studiesTheology and ReligionEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2013Erwin, SRasmussen, J<p>Reinhold Niebuhr remains at the center of a national conversation about America's role in the world, and commentators with divergent political and religious positions look to his 1952 work, The Irony of American History, in support of their views. In this study, Scott R. Erwin argues that an appreciation of Niebuhr's theological vision is necessary for understanding the full measure of Irony and his perspective on life more broadly. Such a study is important because many individuals reading Irony today fail to acknowledge the central role that his Christian beliefs played in his writings. Niebuhr described his theological vision as being 'in the battle and above it,' and, it was this perspective that led Niebuhr, in Irony, to assert that America must both take 'morally hazardous action' in combating the aggression of the Soviet Union and engage in critical self-evaluation to prevent the country from assuming the most odious traits of its Cold War foe.</p> <p>Niebuhr developed his theological vision over the course of the 1930s and 1940s through engagement with Christian doctrine, as most readily seen in his academic works such as The Nature and Destiny of Man, and engagement with current events, as seen in his many journalistic writings during this period. By focusing primarily on Niebuhr's writings between 1931 and 1951, Erwin traces the development of his Christian interpretation of human nature and history, establishes how it informed his theological vision, and reveals how that theological vision underlay his writings on current affairs.</p>
spellingShingle International studies
Theology and Religion
Erwin, S
The theological vision of Reinhold Niebuhr's "The irony of American history"
title The theological vision of Reinhold Niebuhr's "The irony of American history"
title_full The theological vision of Reinhold Niebuhr's "The irony of American history"
title_fullStr The theological vision of Reinhold Niebuhr's "The irony of American history"
title_full_unstemmed The theological vision of Reinhold Niebuhr's "The irony of American history"
title_short The theological vision of Reinhold Niebuhr's "The irony of American history"
title_sort theological vision of reinhold niebuhr s the irony of american history
topic International studies
Theology and Religion
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