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Biography:
H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962), the son of German immigrants and brother of Reinhold
Niebuhr, was one of the 20th century's more important Protestant theologians. Although
he wrote about many of the same topics as his brother, he was generally noted for greater
technical expertise in theological matters.
Some of the issues which occupied Niebuhr the most were the basis of denominationalism in the America, the interrelationship between people and their culture, and the role of Christian faith in the transformation of that society. Like other theologians in his generation, his views on these matters were heavily influenced by his experiences first with the optimism of the Social Gospel movement and then later with the profound disappointment and despair caused by the extreme violence and loss of life during World War I.
Although Niebuhr's optimism suffered due to the war, he did not give over entirely to those who argued for a more "realistic" view of the role Christianity should play. Instead, he sought a middle ground which preserved much of the ethical passion characteristic of the liberal tradition while also incorporating more of the theocentric concerns of the realists. The result would become known as neo-orthodoxy.
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