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Leaves From the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic
"Two generations of clergy have grasped Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic as a manual of arms, a book of consolation, an example for imitation.... Niebuhr here is the small-town member of a provincial church body finding his way in the jostling metropolis of Detroit, cutting a path beyond parochialism into ecumenical and interfaith relations. No one prepares a ministry-bound child for such transitions, and theological schools at best talk about them from a distance. Here is someone nurtured in conservative Protestantism having to deal with labor leaders, civic professionals, and men and women who share little of his regard for the cross of Jesus Christ."
--- From the Foreword by Martin E. Marty
"The passage of fifty years has not diminished the message Reinhold Niebuhr addressed to young ministers. There is a refreshing, contemporary quality to Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic. It has staying power; today it provides high-quality reflections for the occupiers of uncomfortable pulpits, for those engages in the frustrating and rewarding occupation of the pastoral ministry."
--- The Christian Century
[From Back Cover]
--- From the Foreword by Martin E. Marty
"The passage of fifty years has not diminished the message Reinhold Niebuhr addressed to young ministers. There is a refreshing, contemporary quality to Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic. It has staying power; today it provides high-quality reflections for the occupiers of uncomfortable pulpits, for those engages in the frustrating and rewarding occupation of the pastoral ministry."
--- The Christian Century
[From Back Cover]
225 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
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458 people want to read
About the author
Reinhold Niebuhr
125 books250 followersU.S. theologian. The son of an evangelical minister, he studied at Eden Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity School. He was ordained in the Evangelical Synod of North America in 1915 and served as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Mich., until 1928. His years in that industrial city made him a critic of capitalism and an advocate of socialism. From 1928 to 1960 he taught at New York's Union Theological Seminary. His influential writings, which forcefully criticized liberal Protestant thought and emphasized the persistence of evil in human nature and social institutions, include Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 vol. (1941 – 43), and The Self and the Dramas of History (1955).
from The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
A 1958 interview with Reinhold Niebuhr: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/niebuhr_reinhold.html
from The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
A 1958 interview with Reinhold Niebuhr: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/niebuhr_reinhold.html
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April 10, 2014
Reinhold Niebuhr’s Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic gives us a glimpse into the early reasoning of a man who would become one of the 20th century’s greatest ethicists and political philosophers. This collection of short reflections compiles the writings of Niebuhr as a young pastor in urban Detroit from 1915 to 1928 and offers a lucid glimpse into the developing thought that would inform his later academic work.
Several themes repeat in this short collection and are especially worth noting.
1. Prophet or Teacher v. Pastor: Niebuhr intuitively understands the difference between the abstract ideals of a prophet and the necessary compromises of one who ministers in the messiness and contradictions of real life. Indeed one great transition from seminary to parish is learning how to communicate convictions while ministering to those with whom one vehemently disagrees. There is something comforting about living in the realm of ideas, but that realm can be so far removed from the world most of us occupy. Niebuhr notes: “The prophet speaks only when he is inspired. The parish preacher must speak whether he is inspired or not” (12).
2. Complexity: At a time when science and industry were growing, Niebuhr recognized the need for careful and critical engagement of progress. “Every moral venture, every social situation and every practical problem involves a whole series of conflicting loyalties, and a man may never be quite sure that he is right in giving himself to the one as against the other” (21). He felt that the emerging “modern world” presented new challenges that should be loci for vigorous reflection and under no circumstances should contradictions be avoided.
3. Risk-taking: Niebuhr calls out the complacency of leaders (ministers included) who function merely to keep their positions and to earn a paycheck. The edginess of the Gospel remains foremost in his homiletic and theological imagination as he writes, “If the gospel is preached without opposition it is simply not the gospel which resulted in the cross” (113).
4. Social Consciousness: Telling stories of economic inequity in Detroit automobile factories, Niebuhr challenges the average Christian. His words are both eloquent and easily transferable to any number of injustices today:
Here manual labor is a drudgery and toil is slavery. The men cannot possibly find any satisfaction in their work. They simply work to make a living. Their sweat and their dull pain are part of the price paid for the fine cars we all run. And most of us run the cars without knowing what price is being paid for them… We are all responsible. We all want the things which the factory produces and none of us is sensitive enough to care how much in human values the efficiency of the modern factory costs. (65)
When we consider contemporary clothing and technology manufacturing industries or low-wage retail and fast food jobs, these words might have been written just yesterday instead of in 1925.
No doubt there are issues missing in this work: racial injustice and women’s rights certainly did not occupy much of young Niebuhr’s thinking. Additionally, he is at times overly critical, especially of his peers, in their pastoral and civic leadership. Then again these are journal entries not originally written for publication. And therein lies the ultimate beauty of this work, a peek at one man’s unfiltered reasoning. We would all do well to write and reflect so intentionally.
Though he strove to be a pastor, to navigate paradoxes and contradictions, Niebuhr still ends up being a prophet. It should come as no surprise that the reflections remain as true to our time and to today’s pastoral life as they were nearly a century ago.
Several themes repeat in this short collection and are especially worth noting.
1. Prophet or Teacher v. Pastor: Niebuhr intuitively understands the difference between the abstract ideals of a prophet and the necessary compromises of one who ministers in the messiness and contradictions of real life. Indeed one great transition from seminary to parish is learning how to communicate convictions while ministering to those with whom one vehemently disagrees. There is something comforting about living in the realm of ideas, but that realm can be so far removed from the world most of us occupy. Niebuhr notes: “The prophet speaks only when he is inspired. The parish preacher must speak whether he is inspired or not” (12).
2. Complexity: At a time when science and industry were growing, Niebuhr recognized the need for careful and critical engagement of progress. “Every moral venture, every social situation and every practical problem involves a whole series of conflicting loyalties, and a man may never be quite sure that he is right in giving himself to the one as against the other” (21). He felt that the emerging “modern world” presented new challenges that should be loci for vigorous reflection and under no circumstances should contradictions be avoided.
3. Risk-taking: Niebuhr calls out the complacency of leaders (ministers included) who function merely to keep their positions and to earn a paycheck. The edginess of the Gospel remains foremost in his homiletic and theological imagination as he writes, “If the gospel is preached without opposition it is simply not the gospel which resulted in the cross” (113).
4. Social Consciousness: Telling stories of economic inequity in Detroit automobile factories, Niebuhr challenges the average Christian. His words are both eloquent and easily transferable to any number of injustices today:
Here manual labor is a drudgery and toil is slavery. The men cannot possibly find any satisfaction in their work. They simply work to make a living. Their sweat and their dull pain are part of the price paid for the fine cars we all run. And most of us run the cars without knowing what price is being paid for them… We are all responsible. We all want the things which the factory produces and none of us is sensitive enough to care how much in human values the efficiency of the modern factory costs. (65)
When we consider contemporary clothing and technology manufacturing industries or low-wage retail and fast food jobs, these words might have been written just yesterday instead of in 1925.
No doubt there are issues missing in this work: racial injustice and women’s rights certainly did not occupy much of young Niebuhr’s thinking. Additionally, he is at times overly critical, especially of his peers, in their pastoral and civic leadership. Then again these are journal entries not originally written for publication. And therein lies the ultimate beauty of this work, a peek at one man’s unfiltered reasoning. We would all do well to write and reflect so intentionally.
Though he strove to be a pastor, to navigate paradoxes and contradictions, Niebuhr still ends up being a prophet. It should come as no surprise that the reflections remain as true to our time and to today’s pastoral life as they were nearly a century ago.
December 28, 2022
A Young Minister In Early Twentieth Century Detroit
A century ago, in 1915, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 -- 1971), became the pastor of a small church, Bethel Evangelical Church, in Detroit. When Niebuhr began his ministry, Bethel served sixteen families, but it would grow markedly during his thirteen year tenure. Niebuhr was 23 years old, unmarried, and had just earned his M.A in Divinity from Yale. He had aspirations for an academic career and assumed his position as a pastor with reluctance.
Niebuhr began to keep a journal almost immediately. When he left Bethel in 1928, as a congregation of more than 600 members, to assume a professorship of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, he was as reluctant to leave his pastoral position as he had been reluctant to assume it thirteen years earlier. Niebuhr gathered together some of his journal entries from his tenure and published them in book form in 1929 as "Letters from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic". Niebuhr called himself a "cynic" because of the criticism offered throughout his books of the state of the church and of religion and of his skepticism that they accomplished a useful purpose. Niebuhr was a "tamed" cynic because he came to find his calling, and the vocation of a minister, more useful and important than the "cynic" had assumed. In the book's opening "Preface and Apology" Niebuhr struggled to summarize his experience as a minister:
"Having both entered and left the parish ministry against my inclinations, I pay my tribute to the calling, firm in the conviction that it offers greater opportunities for both moral adventure and social usefulness than any other calling if it is entered with open eyes and a consciousness of the hazards to virtue which lurk in it. I make no apology for being critical of what I love. No one wants a love which is based upon illusions, and there is no reason why we should not love a profession and yet be critical of it."
The book's entries are arranged chronologically from 1915 -- 1928. Each individual entry or "leaf" is short, ranging from a paragraph or two to a couple of pages. The leaves become longer and more numerous as Niebuhr's tenure at Bethel advances. Niebuhr admits that during the latter years, he wrote some of the entries not merely for his private edification. He realized that they would likely be published.
These short "leaves" cover many issues that Niebuhr faced in common with many other clergy just starting out. Some of the entries are already taut, difficult, and often eminently quotable. They begin with Niebuhr's recognition of the awkwardness a young man of 23 felt in addressing and preaching to a congregation of predominantly older people. Niebuhr discusses his activities in visiting the sick, teaching young people, and encouraging church meetings and events. As the "leaves" proceed, Niebuhr reflects on the role of the church in an urban, industrialized, and what he often calls "pagan" city. Niebuhr reflects on WW I and for some time became a pacifist under its influence. He is greatly concerned with the booming automobile industry and with what he describes as the dismal, dangerous, near slavery working conditions imposed on the non-unionized and poor labor force. With the influx of African Americans from the South as part of the Great Migration, Niebuhr also show a great concern for race relations.
Among other things, Niebuhr juxtaposes the conditions of the industrial city against what he sees as the teachings of Jesus. He discusses the tendency of parishioners and their ministers to settle for abstractions or for comfortable teachings rather than to become engaged in the needs of the day. At the same time, Niebuhr turns his skepticism on himself. He is unsure about his own position and his own criticisms. He also sees himself as engaging in the same types of equivocations that he criticizes in others. The "leaves" show a highly introspective, thoughtful individual struggling with the nature of his calling and arguing against himself and qualifying his own position sometimes in a single entry. The "leaves" also deal with theological issues as Niebuhr struggles to find his way between fundamentalist Christianity and more modern liberal teachings. In a wonderful passage written in 1927, Niebuhr offers the following thought.
"Fundamentalists have at least one characteristic in common with most scientists. Neither can understand that poetic and religious imagination has a way of arriving at truth by giving a clue to the total meaning of things without being in any sense an analytic description of detailed facts. The fundamentalists insist that religion is science, and thus they prompt those who know that this is not true to declare that all religious truth is contrary to scientific fact. How can an age which is so devoid of poetic imagination as ours be truly religious?"
In his last "leaf" written in 1928, Niebuhr regrets leaving Bethel and the ministry, which he has come to love together with his criticisms. He wrote:
"It is almost impossible to be sane and Christian at the same time, and on the whole I have been more sane than Christian. I have said what I believe, but in my creed the divine madness of a gospel of love is qualified by considerations of moderation which I have called Aristotelian, but which an unfriendly critic might call opportunistic. I have made these qualifications because it seems to me that without them the Christian critic degenerates into asceticism and becomes useless for any direction of the affairs of a larger society."
Niebuhr said that he published this book for the benefit of future ministers. The book is still used for this purpose, but its audience is broader. This book has much to teach to all clergy engaged in religious life of whatever denomination. (Niebuhr is sometimes harsh on Catholicism.) In reading the book, I thought of what must be the experience of Rabbis starting out in a Jewish congregation and how they must balance their ideals in dealing with people in their personal lives and careers and, in many instances, their political commitments. Readers interested in religious questions will benefit from Niebuhr's short pieces of introspection in this book. Although I no longer attend organized religious services myself, this book helped me rekindle my respect for that way of life and worship.
After his tenure at Bethel, Niebuhr went on to a long, distinguished career as a theologian and political writer. This early book, which was overtaken in many ways by his later books and by historical events, still is wonderfully worth getting to know. The book is the first entry included in an upcoming Library of America volume "Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics" which the publisher has kindly been provided to me to read and review.
Robin Friedman
A century ago, in 1915, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 -- 1971), became the pastor of a small church, Bethel Evangelical Church, in Detroit. When Niebuhr began his ministry, Bethel served sixteen families, but it would grow markedly during his thirteen year tenure. Niebuhr was 23 years old, unmarried, and had just earned his M.A in Divinity from Yale. He had aspirations for an academic career and assumed his position as a pastor with reluctance.
Niebuhr began to keep a journal almost immediately. When he left Bethel in 1928, as a congregation of more than 600 members, to assume a professorship of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, he was as reluctant to leave his pastoral position as he had been reluctant to assume it thirteen years earlier. Niebuhr gathered together some of his journal entries from his tenure and published them in book form in 1929 as "Letters from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic". Niebuhr called himself a "cynic" because of the criticism offered throughout his books of the state of the church and of religion and of his skepticism that they accomplished a useful purpose. Niebuhr was a "tamed" cynic because he came to find his calling, and the vocation of a minister, more useful and important than the "cynic" had assumed. In the book's opening "Preface and Apology" Niebuhr struggled to summarize his experience as a minister:
"Having both entered and left the parish ministry against my inclinations, I pay my tribute to the calling, firm in the conviction that it offers greater opportunities for both moral adventure and social usefulness than any other calling if it is entered with open eyes and a consciousness of the hazards to virtue which lurk in it. I make no apology for being critical of what I love. No one wants a love which is based upon illusions, and there is no reason why we should not love a profession and yet be critical of it."
The book's entries are arranged chronologically from 1915 -- 1928. Each individual entry or "leaf" is short, ranging from a paragraph or two to a couple of pages. The leaves become longer and more numerous as Niebuhr's tenure at Bethel advances. Niebuhr admits that during the latter years, he wrote some of the entries not merely for his private edification. He realized that they would likely be published.
These short "leaves" cover many issues that Niebuhr faced in common with many other clergy just starting out. Some of the entries are already taut, difficult, and often eminently quotable. They begin with Niebuhr's recognition of the awkwardness a young man of 23 felt in addressing and preaching to a congregation of predominantly older people. Niebuhr discusses his activities in visiting the sick, teaching young people, and encouraging church meetings and events. As the "leaves" proceed, Niebuhr reflects on the role of the church in an urban, industrialized, and what he often calls "pagan" city. Niebuhr reflects on WW I and for some time became a pacifist under its influence. He is greatly concerned with the booming automobile industry and with what he describes as the dismal, dangerous, near slavery working conditions imposed on the non-unionized and poor labor force. With the influx of African Americans from the South as part of the Great Migration, Niebuhr also show a great concern for race relations.
Among other things, Niebuhr juxtaposes the conditions of the industrial city against what he sees as the teachings of Jesus. He discusses the tendency of parishioners and their ministers to settle for abstractions or for comfortable teachings rather than to become engaged in the needs of the day. At the same time, Niebuhr turns his skepticism on himself. He is unsure about his own position and his own criticisms. He also sees himself as engaging in the same types of equivocations that he criticizes in others. The "leaves" show a highly introspective, thoughtful individual struggling with the nature of his calling and arguing against himself and qualifying his own position sometimes in a single entry. The "leaves" also deal with theological issues as Niebuhr struggles to find his way between fundamentalist Christianity and more modern liberal teachings. In a wonderful passage written in 1927, Niebuhr offers the following thought.
"Fundamentalists have at least one characteristic in common with most scientists. Neither can understand that poetic and religious imagination has a way of arriving at truth by giving a clue to the total meaning of things without being in any sense an analytic description of detailed facts. The fundamentalists insist that religion is science, and thus they prompt those who know that this is not true to declare that all religious truth is contrary to scientific fact. How can an age which is so devoid of poetic imagination as ours be truly religious?"
In his last "leaf" written in 1928, Niebuhr regrets leaving Bethel and the ministry, which he has come to love together with his criticisms. He wrote:
"It is almost impossible to be sane and Christian at the same time, and on the whole I have been more sane than Christian. I have said what I believe, but in my creed the divine madness of a gospel of love is qualified by considerations of moderation which I have called Aristotelian, but which an unfriendly critic might call opportunistic. I have made these qualifications because it seems to me that without them the Christian critic degenerates into asceticism and becomes useless for any direction of the affairs of a larger society."
Niebuhr said that he published this book for the benefit of future ministers. The book is still used for this purpose, but its audience is broader. This book has much to teach to all clergy engaged in religious life of whatever denomination. (Niebuhr is sometimes harsh on Catholicism.) In reading the book, I thought of what must be the experience of Rabbis starting out in a Jewish congregation and how they must balance their ideals in dealing with people in their personal lives and careers and, in many instances, their political commitments. Readers interested in religious questions will benefit from Niebuhr's short pieces of introspection in this book. Although I no longer attend organized religious services myself, this book helped me rekindle my respect for that way of life and worship.
After his tenure at Bethel, Niebuhr went on to a long, distinguished career as a theologian and political writer. This early book, which was overtaken in many ways by his later books and by historical events, still is wonderfully worth getting to know. The book is the first entry included in an upcoming Library of America volume "Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics" which the publisher has kindly been provided to me to read and review.
Robin Friedman
June 29, 2025
4.28.25 updated review:
After a 3rd or 4th re-read, remains one of my favorite books if not my favorite book all-time, at least in the theological/religious non-fiction department.
9.18.2019 review:
Well, hot take time after a re-read: This is my favorite book I have ever read. Or I should say top 3-5 book ever, as I have made that claim at least three other times (shoutout Goblet of Fire). A portion of my particular love for this book undoubtedly stems from the congruence of Niebuhr's context at the time of this writing to my own context in the present: A young minister straight out of seminary working at a small, low-church Protestant congregation in a midwestern industrial city full of economic and racial tensions. He began at age 23 at an evangelical Lutheran church in Detroit in 1915, I began at age 22 at a Church of Christ in St. Louis in 2016, almost exactly a century later. I readily relate to a whole slew of his experiences like not knowing what to say at his first funeral, running out of sermon ideas, learning more about ministry from the older ladies in the church than from any book, being disappointed by the church's lack of dialogue on the ongoing social issues of the day, etc. Nevertheless, this book would be a gem for just about anyone interested in congregational life and ministry, the overlap of Christianity and social and political matters, morality/ethics/virtue, etc. It's also quite short and very funny. That Niebuhr later walked back much of what he wrote in this early memoir and heavily shifted away from its youth idealism to the "Christian realism" he essentially founded only makes the read all the more fascinating. These leaves from an early notebook of a tamed cynic, who just happened to become the most influential American theologian in the twentieth century, are a true treasure.
A few quotes (could provide 100):
"It is no easy task to deal realistically with the moral confusion of our day, either in the pulpit or the pew, and avoid the appearance, and possibly the actual peril, of cynicism. An age which obscures the essentially unethical nature of its dominant interests by an undue preoccupation with the application of Christian principles in limited areas, may, as a matter of fact, deserve and profit by ruthless satire."
"It is very difficult to persuade people who are committed to a general ideal to consider the meaning of that ideal in specific situations...Why doesn't the church offer specific suggestions for the application of a Christian ethic to the difficulties of our day? The answer is that such a policy would breed contention...If the church could only achieve schisms on ethical issues! Then they would represent life and reality. Its present schisms are not immoral as such. They are immoral only in the sense that they perpetuate issues which have no relevancy in our day."
"Critics of the church think we preachers are afraid to tell the truth because we are economically dependent upon the people of our church...I think the real clue to the tameness of a preacher is the difficulty one finds in telling unpleasant truths to people whom one has learned to love...I'm not surprised that most budding prophets are tamed in time to become harmless parish priests."
After a 3rd or 4th re-read, remains one of my favorite books if not my favorite book all-time, at least in the theological/religious non-fiction department.
9.18.2019 review:
Well, hot take time after a re-read: This is my favorite book I have ever read. Or I should say top 3-5 book ever, as I have made that claim at least three other times (shoutout Goblet of Fire). A portion of my particular love for this book undoubtedly stems from the congruence of Niebuhr's context at the time of this writing to my own context in the present: A young minister straight out of seminary working at a small, low-church Protestant congregation in a midwestern industrial city full of economic and racial tensions. He began at age 23 at an evangelical Lutheran church in Detroit in 1915, I began at age 22 at a Church of Christ in St. Louis in 2016, almost exactly a century later. I readily relate to a whole slew of his experiences like not knowing what to say at his first funeral, running out of sermon ideas, learning more about ministry from the older ladies in the church than from any book, being disappointed by the church's lack of dialogue on the ongoing social issues of the day, etc. Nevertheless, this book would be a gem for just about anyone interested in congregational life and ministry, the overlap of Christianity and social and political matters, morality/ethics/virtue, etc. It's also quite short and very funny. That Niebuhr later walked back much of what he wrote in this early memoir and heavily shifted away from its youth idealism to the "Christian realism" he essentially founded only makes the read all the more fascinating. These leaves from an early notebook of a tamed cynic, who just happened to become the most influential American theologian in the twentieth century, are a true treasure.
A few quotes (could provide 100):
"It is no easy task to deal realistically with the moral confusion of our day, either in the pulpit or the pew, and avoid the appearance, and possibly the actual peril, of cynicism. An age which obscures the essentially unethical nature of its dominant interests by an undue preoccupation with the application of Christian principles in limited areas, may, as a matter of fact, deserve and profit by ruthless satire."
"It is very difficult to persuade people who are committed to a general ideal to consider the meaning of that ideal in specific situations...Why doesn't the church offer specific suggestions for the application of a Christian ethic to the difficulties of our day? The answer is that such a policy would breed contention...If the church could only achieve schisms on ethical issues! Then they would represent life and reality. Its present schisms are not immoral as such. They are immoral only in the sense that they perpetuate issues which have no relevancy in our day."
"Critics of the church think we preachers are afraid to tell the truth because we are economically dependent upon the people of our church...I think the real clue to the tameness of a preacher is the difficulty one finds in telling unpleasant truths to people whom one has learned to love...I'm not surprised that most budding prophets are tamed in time to become harmless parish priests."
October 12, 2018
Excellent--the kind of thing that can be read both by the religious and the non-, and really anyone who is interested in watching a quality mind at work. Niebuhr says so many smart things, and says them so attractively, that I'm a little bit in awe.
September 9, 2009
I learned about Reinhold Niebuhr on a podcast from the public radio program "Speaking of Faith" (http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.or... I had heard that Obama was influenced by him. I found this little book incredibly edifying. It consists of short reflections by Niebuhr as a young Christian minister in Detroit from 1915 through 1928 - the years that the American auto industry was establishing itself, without benefit of organized labor. I was amazed at how contemporary his insights were, and how pithy his writing is. It helped that I agreed with nearly everything he said (he even shared my misgivings about the Thanksgiving holiday). Some of his recurrent themes were: that all the magical thinking and superstition in religion is morally corrupting, the tension between Christian ethics and industrial capitalism and the duty of ministers to apply their principles to contemporary social issues (he says "the glory of [the Jewish:] religion is that they are really not thinking so much of salvation as of a saved society). On the other hand, I also admire his self-effacement and fallibilism. These lines are typical: "I wonder if anyone who needs a snappy song service can really appreciate the meaning of the cross. But perhaps that is just a Lutheran prejudice of mine." (172) The thesis of the book for me, was: "the business of being sophisticated and naive, critical and religious at one and the same time is as difficult as it is necessary." (133) Great advice for religious believers and atheistic humanists alike.
November 13, 2010
I like Niebuhr - I know that as a good Mennonite I'm not supposed to, but he says some really smart things. And this book is particularly honest and real.
"It is almost impossible to be sane and Christian at the same time, and on the whole I have been more sane than Christian. I have said what I believe, but in my creed the divine madness of a gospel of love is qualified by considerations of moderation which I have called Aristotelian, but which an unfriendly critic might call opportunistic. I have made these qualifications because it seems to me that without them the Christian ethic degenerates into asceticism and becomes useless for any direction of the affairs of a larger society." (222-3)
"It is almost impossible to be sane and Christian at the same time, and on the whole I have been more sane than Christian. I have said what I believe, but in my creed the divine madness of a gospel of love is qualified by considerations of moderation which I have called Aristotelian, but which an unfriendly critic might call opportunistic. I have made these qualifications because it seems to me that without them the Christian ethic degenerates into asceticism and becomes useless for any direction of the affairs of a larger society." (222-3)
February 17, 2025
The ultimate nature of reality cannot be grasped by science alone; poetic imagination is as necessary as scientific precision.
1/19/21:
“The new Ford car is out. The town is full of talk about it. Newspaper reports reveal that it is the topic of the day in all world centers. Crowds storm every exhibit to get the first glimpse of this new creation. Mr. Ford has given out an interview saying that the car has cost him about a hundred million dollars and that after finishing it he still has about a quarter of a billion dollars in the bank.
I have been doing a little arithmetic and have come to the conclusion that the car cost Ford workers at least fifty million in lost wages during the past year. No one knows how many hundreds lost their homes in the period of unemployment, and how many children were taken out of school to help fill the depleted family exchequer, and how many more children lived on short rations during this period. Mr. Ford refuses to concede that he made a mistake in bringing the car out so late. He has a way of impressing the public even with his mistakes. We are now asked to believe that the whole idea of waiting a year after the old car stopped selling before bringing out a new one was a great advertising scheme which reveals the perspicacity of this industrial genius. But no one asks about the toll in human lives.
What a civilization this is! Naïve gentlemen with a genius for mechanics suddenly become the arbiters over the lives and fortunes of hundreds of thousands. Their moral pretensions are credulously accepted at full value. No one bothers to ask whether an industry which can maintain a cash reserve of a quarter of a billion ought not make some provision for its unemployed. It is enough that the new car is a good one.”
4/20/20:
“After preaching at — University this morning I stopped off at — and dropped in at the Presbyterian church for the evening service. The service was well attended and the music was very good. The minister had a sermon which might best be described as a fulsome eulogy of Jesus Christ. I wonder whether sermons like that mean anything. He just piled up adjectives. Every hero of ancient and modern times was briefly described in order that he might be made to bow before the superior virtue of the Lord. But the whole thing left me completely cold. The superiority of Jesus was simply dogmatically asserted and never adequately analyzed. There was not a thing in the sermon that would give the people a clue to the distinctive genius of Jesus or that would help them to use the resources of his life for the solution of their own problems.
Through the whole discourse there ran the erroneous assumption that Christians are real followers of Jesus and no effort was made to describe the wide chasm which yawns between the uncompromising idealism of the Galilean and the current morality. I wonder how many sermons of that type are still being preached. If that sermon is typical it would explain much of the conventional tameness of the church.
How much easier it is to adore an ideal character than to emulate it."
December 28, 2017
I give a lot of 5-star ratings, so take the rating as you will. But I rarely write reviews (though I may get more into the habit), so the fact that I feel compelled to do so now should mean something.
This book is wonderful. It is simply a series of journal excerpts from Reinhold Niebuhr when he was a parish minister from the ages of 23-36 (spanning the years 1915 to 1928) in Detroit. Each entry is short and relatively easy to digest, so the whole book can be read in just a few sittings.
But it's deeply insightful, challenging, and thought-provoking. Niebuhr, who would go on to be an extremely influential thinker in areas of faith and politics, grapples with issues that are still chillingly relevant:
-the tension of churches functioning as businesses
-the church's tendency to stay in the comfortable realm of preaching spiritual ideals without explaining their implications in controversial areas of business, politics, etc.
-the extreme difficulty of living like Christ while receiving power, prestige, accolades, etc.
-the power struggle between conformists and radicals (both theologically and socially) within the ranks of spiritual leaders
...and on and on. Almost every journal entry moved me in some way, by either ingeniously articulating something I've been feeling or by causing me to rethink some of my perspectives and assumptions.
This book is wonderful. It is simply a series of journal excerpts from Reinhold Niebuhr when he was a parish minister from the ages of 23-36 (spanning the years 1915 to 1928) in Detroit. Each entry is short and relatively easy to digest, so the whole book can be read in just a few sittings.
But it's deeply insightful, challenging, and thought-provoking. Niebuhr, who would go on to be an extremely influential thinker in areas of faith and politics, grapples with issues that are still chillingly relevant:
-the tension of churches functioning as businesses
-the church's tendency to stay in the comfortable realm of preaching spiritual ideals without explaining their implications in controversial areas of business, politics, etc.
-the extreme difficulty of living like Christ while receiving power, prestige, accolades, etc.
-the power struggle between conformists and radicals (both theologically and socially) within the ranks of spiritual leaders
...and on and on. Almost every journal entry moved me in some way, by either ingeniously articulating something I've been feeling or by causing me to rethink some of my perspectives and assumptions.
December 9, 2018
Should be required reading in all seminaries ... and should be read annually by anyone in ministry. It's that good, that basic, that essential.
Niebuhr is, of course, a gifted writer, but more than that, able express himself with blinding clarity, yet, with humility, at the point of "victory" in his assessment of life, people, institutions, ministers and ministry, he's quick to temper his words, see the other side, and confess his own limits, sins, foolish pride, and such. He clearly sees his own temptations to be pastoral at the expense of prophetic, and to keep the prophetic as an idea rather than a behavior.
His clarity on American wealth remains as accurate today as it was in the 1920s, in burgeoning Detroit, where wealth and power strive to tame the church and keep the gospel of Jesus at the level of principles to be lauded, while setting aside the immediate issues of labor and justice.
Oh, and did I say, READ THIS BOOK!
Niebuhr is, of course, a gifted writer, but more than that, able express himself with blinding clarity, yet, with humility, at the point of "victory" in his assessment of life, people, institutions, ministers and ministry, he's quick to temper his words, see the other side, and confess his own limits, sins, foolish pride, and such. He clearly sees his own temptations to be pastoral at the expense of prophetic, and to keep the prophetic as an idea rather than a behavior.
His clarity on American wealth remains as accurate today as it was in the 1920s, in burgeoning Detroit, where wealth and power strive to tame the church and keep the gospel of Jesus at the level of principles to be lauded, while setting aside the immediate issues of labor and justice.
Oh, and did I say, READ THIS BOOK!
August 3, 2023
Reinhold Niebuhr, famous for his development of "Christian Realism" while teaching at Union Theological Seminary, spent thirteen years from 1915 to 1928 serving as pastor of a Detroit congregation. During the final eight years of his time in Detroit, the founding pastor of my congregation was serving as pastor as well. One can learn much about Niebuhr and about ministry in an fast growing industrial city. It is worth noting that Niebuhr saw this burgeoning city as pagan, criticized his colleagues for not supporting the unions and addressing social and racial inequality.
It has taken me a bit of time to get to this book, but I must admit it was worth reading. And it's very accessible.
It has taken me a bit of time to get to this book, but I must admit it was worth reading. And it's very accessible.
May 25, 2014
Perhaps the second or third time I have read this. It is interesting that I understand more and more as I get older. Secondly, his observations about American society and religious life are still very acute, and his perspective on the religious communities' relationship to the industrial society has not changed much. This is one of those books that you say you wish every young preacher would read, but you know they would not get it and would not find it very encouraging.
September 18, 2010
A fine collection of Niebuhr's early thought. It serves as a reasonable companion piece to a good biography (I recommend R.W. Fox's) and further study of this incomparably influential thinker.
March 31, 2021
unflinching insights into the impossible demands of moral leadership. also very funny.
July 16, 2024
NIEBUHR'S 1929 REFLECTIONS AS A FIRST-TIME PASTOR IN DETROIT
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) was an American theologian and "public intellectual" during the mid-20th century. His other books include 'The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation' (2 Volume Set) and 'The Irony of American History.'
He noted in the "Preface and Apology" to the original 1929 edition of this book, "Most of the reflections recorded in these pages were promoted by experiences of a local Christian pastorate. Some are derived from wider contacts with the churches and colleges of the country... By the time these lines reach the reader the author will have exchanged his pastoral activities for academic pursuits."
He wrote, "How in the world can you reconcile the inevitability of Sunday and its tasks with the moods and caprices of the soul? The prophet speaks only when he is inspired. The parish preacher must speak whether he is inspired or not." (Pg. 23) He confides that he told a friend that "I did not like political lectures in a worship service myself, but that every religious problem had ethical implications and every ethical problem some political and economic aspect." (Pg. 47) He ironically noted that "I think the real clue to the tameness of a preacher is the difficulty one finds in telling unpleasant truths to people whom one has learned to love." (Pg. 74)
More philosophically, he asserts, "Religion is a reaction to life's mysteries and a reverence before the infinitudes of the universe." (Pg. 76)
He suggests that typical "Youth Group"/Sunday School sessions "do nothing to fit young people to live a Christian life amid the complexities of a modern world or to hold to the Christian faith in the perplexities of a scientific world view... No one seems to introduce the young people to the idea that an ethical life requires honest and searching intelligence. Nothing is done to discover to their eyes the tremendous chasm between the ideals of their faith and the social realities in which they live." (Pg. 156)
One proclaimed as "America's greatest theologian," Niebuhr is increasingly forgotten in these Postmodern times. But his voice still rings steady and true, in many respects.
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) was an American theologian and "public intellectual" during the mid-20th century. His other books include 'The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation' (2 Volume Set) and 'The Irony of American History.'
He noted in the "Preface and Apology" to the original 1929 edition of this book, "Most of the reflections recorded in these pages were promoted by experiences of a local Christian pastorate. Some are derived from wider contacts with the churches and colleges of the country... By the time these lines reach the reader the author will have exchanged his pastoral activities for academic pursuits."
He wrote, "How in the world can you reconcile the inevitability of Sunday and its tasks with the moods and caprices of the soul? The prophet speaks only when he is inspired. The parish preacher must speak whether he is inspired or not." (Pg. 23) He confides that he told a friend that "I did not like political lectures in a worship service myself, but that every religious problem had ethical implications and every ethical problem some political and economic aspect." (Pg. 47) He ironically noted that "I think the real clue to the tameness of a preacher is the difficulty one finds in telling unpleasant truths to people whom one has learned to love." (Pg. 74)
More philosophically, he asserts, "Religion is a reaction to life's mysteries and a reverence before the infinitudes of the universe." (Pg. 76)
He suggests that typical "Youth Group"/Sunday School sessions "do nothing to fit young people to live a Christian life amid the complexities of a modern world or to hold to the Christian faith in the perplexities of a scientific world view... No one seems to introduce the young people to the idea that an ethical life requires honest and searching intelligence. Nothing is done to discover to their eyes the tremendous chasm between the ideals of their faith and the social realities in which they live." (Pg. 156)
One proclaimed as "America's greatest theologian," Niebuhr is increasingly forgotten in these Postmodern times. But his voice still rings steady and true, in many respects.
February 13, 2017
I do wish I hadn't waited so long to read Niebuhr. I don't have any excuse: I was a kid when my father published books about the Niebuhrs, and my first memories are of enjoying the air conditioning and book smell of the archives at Eden Theological Seminary, where much of his material was culled and which Niebuhr and his brother attended. But because my memories of Niebuhr are enmeshed with those of an unhappy childhood, I think I always held it against the man.
Well, it's been remedied. I laughed out loud many times when I read this; it's an insightful look at the life of a pastor, the church, and the hypocrisy found everywhere people claim to call themselves Christian. It's easy to forget it was written in the 1920s; it was prescient in so many ways and Niebuhr was an effortless writer. Really delightful.
Well, it's been remedied. I laughed out loud many times when I read this; it's an insightful look at the life of a pastor, the church, and the hypocrisy found everywhere people claim to call themselves Christian. It's easy to forget it was written in the 1920s; it was prescient in so many ways and Niebuhr was an effortless writer. Really delightful.
August 6, 2020
There are plenty of people equally concerned with politics, ethics, and religion, but for most of them the concern level is close to zero. Or perhaps the concern is high, but the thinking is so muddled that they can't distinguish between the different subjects.
Niebuhr, on the other hand, will help us be better thinkers, while at the same time be better attuned to our political climate, better social creatures, and better worshippers.
This book is made from selections from his notebook during his time as a pastor at a Lutheran church in Detroit, while some people were getting really rich, some people were staying really poor, and many people didn't realize that there was anything the Bible has to say about anything like that.
Niebuhr, on the other hand, will help us be better thinkers, while at the same time be better attuned to our political climate, better social creatures, and better worshippers.
This book is made from selections from his notebook during his time as a pastor at a Lutheran church in Detroit, while some people were getting really rich, some people were staying really poor, and many people didn't realize that there was anything the Bible has to say about anything like that.
March 7, 2017
An interesting perspective of the mind of a minister through 13years at a parish. Thoughts shifting from immediate concerns out into the larger world over the years. Several of the topics discussed and re-discussed (relevancy of Christianity, race relations, socieo-economic concerns) show how, in spite of our "advancements," we in the USA have still not achieved a true sense of unity from any perspective, let alone the Christian one.
June 21, 2017
Niebuhr's notes from his early years of ministry, serving in a Detroit church, capture the deep challenges of ministry, the hypocrisy of the church in industrial America, and the grace and love that can prevail amongst believers, even in the midst of human pettiness. Rich in language and thought, Niebuhr's reflections hold true almost a century later.
February 21, 2018
Some great stuff on pastoral ministry alongside incredible, insightful cultural analysis. I was going to remove a star because of some major theological problems—sacraments, Christology, general 19th century liberal theology trendiness—but it really is a great and accessible and helpful book.
Read
June 8, 2022I read this because I was looking to get rid of it. It earned itself a re-read. Moreover, I am motivated to look at more Niebuhr.
One criticism: was he tamed by the end of this period in his life/ministry, or was he only tamed much later?
One criticism: was he tamed by the end of this period in his life/ministry, or was he only tamed much later?
October 14, 2022
Lots of interesting anecdotes throughout the book, but at times they tended to feel repetitive and even bitter at times. Although, there are pastoral gems at times, I found the overall tone to be more discouraging than helpful.
August 22, 2018
"Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one."
February 12, 2017
Intelligent, reassuring, faith building and occasionally funny
January 12, 2016
This collection comprises the early thoughts of Reinhold Niebuhr and his reflections on church ministry during his time as a pastor in Detroit from 1915-1928. These are short and punchy meditations. Frequent topics include theological liberalism, visits to parishioners, the industrialism of America and workers' living, ecumenism and values and morality. Little attention is played Jesus, although Niebuhr confesses he lived. The cross, in Niebuhr's opinion, is the expression of a universal and highest value. Delightfully, Niebuhr often excoriates theological liberals for their own narrow-mindedness and ignorance. Much of what Niebuhr writes is surprisingly relevant to today. Niebuhr castigates a proponent of free love by asserting "If you want love and cooperation in any kind of society, and most of all in the family, it is necessary to sacrifice some freedom for its sake. What strange fanatics these moderns are imagining themselves dispassionate in their evaluation of all values, they are really bigoted protagonists of the one value of freedom. Every other value must be subordinated to it" (177-78). Niebuhr is optimistic about human goodness but derides primitive superstition and magic, especially among Catholics. It would be interesting to hear Niebuhr's thoughts on Detroit today; the burgeoning industrial metropolis that Niebuhr ministered in has been laid low by economic and social stagnation. Overall, Niebuhr comes across as a moderate figure - perhaps a bit too skeptical of the supernatural but passionate about achieving greater shalom among humans and objective enough to refute the objections of theological radicals - the Christian realism he is famous for. This is a very enlightening read, particularly to those considering, preparing or in Christian ministry
October 17, 2016
This work helped me, and continues to help me, deal with the cynicism so toxic to the Christian spiritual life. As someone who is quite fed up with the irrelevance and empty rhetoric of the evangelical church, encountering Niebuhr helped me realize my own complicity in the problem, and that the solution is not to isolate myself from the church at large, but to worship and serve with the individuals that make the church body. Only then is it possible to grow to love and be critical at the same time.
I do wish he were still living to reflect on post-modern, rather than industrial, society, but his work remains incredibly relevant despite its context within 1920's Detroit. It's not an apologetic defense of Christianity, and it doesn't claim to be the final word on anything. It's simply the reflections of someone trying to make sense of how the church and how Christians are supposed to relate to the chaos and brutality of the society in which they find themselves.
Niebuhr writes that he expects the notes will be of more interest to ministers than to any others, but as a layperson, I can vouch that it will be of great value to anyone who is struggling to check their cynicism.
I do wish he were still living to reflect on post-modern, rather than industrial, society, but his work remains incredibly relevant despite its context within 1920's Detroit. It's not an apologetic defense of Christianity, and it doesn't claim to be the final word on anything. It's simply the reflections of someone trying to make sense of how the church and how Christians are supposed to relate to the chaos and brutality of the society in which they find themselves.
Niebuhr writes that he expects the notes will be of more interest to ministers than to any others, but as a layperson, I can vouch that it will be of great value to anyone who is struggling to check their cynicism.
March 20, 2014
Extremely lofty the expectations of the Christian message upon the individual. Perhaps Christianity is at its finest when seen from the community. The Body of Christ equally comprises various saints and sinners, fundamentalists and modernists, the cowardly and courageous, the fanatical and the mystical. Reinhold Niebuhr is committed to the gospel and its adherents as a minister. Despite the commitment, the reality of Christendom in all its greatness and lack-thereof is what perplexes Niebuhr. How can a minister lead a group of wildly different people, challenge each of their shortcomings, bring them closer to Christ, and transpose this Christ-likeness to bring both salt and light to the world? Niebuhr sketches the early 20th century as a minister, and his commentaries, which he delivers with blunt honesty, are worth our time as readers and the paper it has been printed on.
I highly recommend this book to anyone.
I highly recommend this book to anyone.
August 16, 2016
I've been reading these little thought-essays (which are pretty tidy for something not originally written for publication) here and there for the better part of six months. What a fine thinker Niebuhr is/was! And what a good, clear heart. He composed these while serving as pastor in a little church in Detroit, back before the big mid-century boom times, when old Henry was running the show. He has *quite* a bit to say about the hypocrisy of the church, the complacency of its better-off members and so-called Christian businessmen, and the sterility of his faith in modern times. His fears and anxieties feel very current; his prescriptions are thoughtful and offered up in humility and the kind of woe that comes from laboring long (and mostly for naught) in the trenches. Adding Niebuhr to my shortlist of religious minds I'm interested in learning from; dude walked his talk, and then some.
August 15, 2011
This book was recomended to me by Dr. David Roland back during a tough time. I have kept it by my side and read it a little bit at a time, almost like someone to talk to. He recomended it 2 years ago and I have just gotten through it the first time. I will start again.
As someone who works in Pastoral Ministry it is good to hear someone else express the questions, the doubts, the hurts, and weird things that happen. Neibuhr is honest about his feelings even when it comes to telling you how wrong he thinks it is that he feels a certain way. If you are involved in ministry at all and become disappointed in the human race or yourself from time to time this book is a friend to commiserate with.
My only complaint is more of a warning. Keep a dictionary close.
As someone who works in Pastoral Ministry it is good to hear someone else express the questions, the doubts, the hurts, and weird things that happen. Neibuhr is honest about his feelings even when it comes to telling you how wrong he thinks it is that he feels a certain way. If you are involved in ministry at all and become disappointed in the human race or yourself from time to time this book is a friend to commiserate with.
My only complaint is more of a warning. Keep a dictionary close.
March 9, 2009
This simple book captures the thoughts of this well-known Protestant preacher. A liberal in political thought, he mostly writes in this book about the dangers that beset preachers – power, narcissism, the tendency to confine efforts to within the church rather than without.
To hear a preacher so honestly explore both sides of issues and to read the words of one who recognizes his own bias is refreshing. Here is an example of how one might be both an intellectual and a committed Christian.
I would recommend this book to anyone going into the ministry.
To hear a preacher so honestly explore both sides of issues and to read the words of one who recognizes his own bias is refreshing. Here is an example of how one might be both an intellectual and a committed Christian.
I would recommend this book to anyone going into the ministry.
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