Reinhold Niebuhr Quotes on God
Reinhold Niebuhr, the leading American theologian of Christian realism, is the author most associated with the Serenity Prayer, and the quotes gathered here include its familiar form: a petition for the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can, and the wisdom to tell the two apart. Beyond that prayer, Niebuhr's thought on God centres on what it reveals about human beings: man does not know himself truly except as he knows himself confronted by God, becoming aware in that confrontation both of his freedom and of the evil in him. Niebuhr also made religious humility central, warning that if you equate God's judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion. Drawn from The Nature and Destiny of Man and his interviews, these passages present God less as an object of speculation than as the measure that exposes human pride and limitation.
Quotes
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“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
One of the most commonly quoted forms. -
“But the sense of humour remains healthy only when it deals with immediate issues and faces the obvious and surface irrationalities. It must move toward faith or sink into despair when the ultimate issues are raised. That is why there is laughter in the vestibule of the temple, the echo of laughter in the temple itself, but only faith and prayer, and no laughter, in the holy of holies.”
Brown, Robert McAfee, ed. "Humour and Faith (1945)" . The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses (January 1986 ed.). Yale University Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0300040012 . Retrieved on 30 November 2021 . -
“Man does not know himself truly except as he knows himself confronted by God . Only in that confrontation does he become aware of his full stature and freedom and of the evil in him.”
The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation(1941) | vol. 1, p. 131 -
“God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”
The Serenity Prayer(c. 1942) | Niebuhr's preferred form, as declared by his widow -
“An irrevocable defeat of a socio-historical cause which gives meaning to the life of the individual must create a complete sense of meaninglessness unless the individual is sustained by a religion which interprets such defeats from the aspect of the eternal .”
The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation(1941) | vol. 1, p. 69 -
“One of the fundamental points about religious humility is you say you don't know about the ultimate judgment . It's beyond your judgment. And if you equate God 's judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion.”
The Mike Wallace Interview(1958) -
“We don't properly discriminate. We never discriminate properly when we're dealing with another group and one of the big problems about religion is that religious people don't know that they are probably as flagrant in these misjudgments as irreligious people.”
The Mike Wallace Interview(1958)