An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story
Although he may be best remembered today as the author of the famed “Serenity Prayer,” Reinhold Niebuhr — an outspoken American-born pastor, writer, and political activist — remains one of the most influential public theologians of our time. Presidents from Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter have credited his impact on their thinking, as well as John McCain, countless historians, theologians, political thinkers, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who cited Niebuhr in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.
Niebuhr’s career spanned some of the most tumultuous decades in American history, from World War I through Vietnam, from the Great Depression through the Civil Rights Movement. An early pacifist and socialist, he was closely monitored by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI throughout his life, but would later serve as a consultant to the State Department during the Cold War
Niebuhr rose from a small Midwest church pulpit to become the nation’s moral voice — an American conscience — during some of the most defining moments in recent history. His books, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Nature and Destiny of Man (1941–43) and The Irony of American History (1952), continue to influence theological and political thinking. An American original, his unique insights into human nature and its relationship to political movements and social justice propelled him to speak openly, and often critically, to an America consumed by moral certainty. For Niebuhr the priority was always justice, his guiding principle was hope in a redeemer God, and his weapon was an extraordinary gift for clarity of thought that made him a leading voice of conscience for his time.
An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story is directed, written and narrated by Martin Doblmeier, the creator of dozens of provocative, award-winning films on faith including Chaplains and Bonhoeffer. Rich in archival material, the documentary features interviews with former President Jimmy Carter, Cornel West, Andrew Young, David Brooks, Susannah Heschel and a host of internationally recognized historians and theologians.
An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story is produced by Journey Films, Inc., and is a presentation of Maryland Public Television. Major funding provided by the Lilly Endowment. Additional funding provided by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
INTERVIEWEES
Dr. Cornel West
Dr. Cornel West is Professor Emeritus at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. In addition to his acclaimed scholarship, Dr. West is a tireless activist who has contributed to numerous social movements. His many books include Race Matters (Beacon Press, 2001) and Democracy Matters (2004).
President Jimmy Carter
President Jimmy Carter is the 39th President of the United States and founder of the Carter Center. Following his presidency, Carter established himself as one of the world’s premiere humanitarians. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Susannah Heschel
Susannah Heschel is the Eli Black Professor and chair of the Jewish Studies Program at Dartmouth College. The daughter of the famed theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, her scholarship focuses on Jewish and Christian thought in Germany during the 19th and 20th centuries. She is currently a Guggenheim Fellow and writing a book on the history of European Jewish scholarship on Islam.
Andrew Young
Andrew Young is a former congressman, mayor of Atlanta, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. After graduating from Howard University and Hartford Theological Seminary, Young worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement and helped draft both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. He is the author of An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America (Harper Collins, 1996).
David Brooks
David Brooks is an author, cultural critic and commentator. A New York Times columnist, he appears regularly on PBS NewsHour, NPR’s All Things Considered, and NBC’s Meet the Press. He teaches at Yale University and is the author of the critically acclaimed The Road to Character (Random House, 2015).
Elisabeth Sifton
Elisabeth Sifton is a writer and retired book publisher. The daughter of Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr, she is the author of The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War (W. W. Norton, 2003); co-author with her late husband, Fritz Stern, of No Ordinary Men: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi, Resisters Against Hitler in Church and State (New York Review Books, 2013), and editor of the Library of America’s Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics (2015).
Stanley Hauerwas
Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University Divinity School. Widely recognized as one of the most influential thinkers in theological ethics, Hauerwas delivered the Gifford Lectures in 2000 and was named “America’s Best Theologian” by Time Magazine in 2001. Hauerwas is the author of With the Grain of the Universe: The Church’s Witness and Natural Theology (Brazos Press, 2003).
Mark Massa
Fr. Mark S. Massa, S.J. was educated at the University of Detroit, the University of Chicago and Harvard. Fr. Massa has taught at Fordham University, served as Dean of Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, and currently directs the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. His award-winning book, Catholics and American Culture (Crossroad, 2005), used Niebuhr’s concept of irony as a lens through which to examine 20th century American Catholicism.
Healan Gaston
K. Healan Gaston is a lecturer on American Religious History at Harvard Divinity School and served as a consultant on An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story. The president of the Niebuhr Society, she is the author of A Bad Kind of Magic: The Niebuhr Brothers on ‘Utilitarian Christianity’ and the Defense of Democracy (Harvard Theological Review, January 2014). Her upcoming book is on the “prophetic pluralism” of the Niebuhr brothers.
Ron Stone
Ronald H. Stone is the John Witherspoon Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. During his studies at Union Theological Seminary, Dr. Stone had the distinction of serving as Niebuhr’s final graduate assistant. He is the author of Faith and Politics: Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich at Union Seminary in New York (Mercer University Press, 2012).
Robin Lovin
Robin Lovin directs the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey, and is the Cary Maguire University Professor of Ethics Emeritus at Southern Methodist University. An expert on Niebuhr’s life and thought, Dr. Lovin is the author of Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Christian Realism and the New Realities (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Gary Dorrien
Gary Dorrien is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. An Episcopal priest, he is the author of 17 books and his most recent work, The New Abolition: WEB DuBois and the Black Social Gospel recently won the Grawemeyer Award.
Andrew Bacevich
Andrew Bacevich is a nationally recognized historian with a focus on International Relations. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and Professor Emeritus at Boston University. His latest book is American’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History (Random House, 2016).
Andrew Finstuen
Andrew Finstuen is the dean of the Honors College at Boise State, Associate Professor in the Department of History, and a producer of An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story. He co-directed the Worlds of Billy Graham project and is the author of the award-winning book Original Sin and Everyday Protestants (University of North Carolina, 2009).
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
PRESS
COMPANION BOOK
COMPANION BOOK DESCRIPTION
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) was an inner-city pastor, ethics professor, and author of the famous Serenity Prayer. Time magazine’s March 8, 1948, cover story called him “the greatest Protestant theologian in America since Jonathan Edwards.” Cited as an influence by public figures ranging from Billy Graham to Barack Obama, Niebuhr was described by historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. as “the most influential American theologian of the twentieth century.”
In this companion volume to the forthcoming documentary film by Martin Doblmeier on the life and influence of Reinhold Niebuhr, Jeremy Sabella draws on an unprecedented set of exclusive interviews to explore how Niebuhr continues to compel minds and stir consciences in the twenty-first century. Interviews with leading voices such as Jimmy Carter, David Brooks, Cornel West, and Stanley Hauerwas as well as with people who knew Niebuhr personally, including his daughter Elisabeth, provide a rich trove of original material to help readers understand Niebuhr’s enduring impact on American life and thought.
REINHOLD NIEBUHR: Major Works on Religion and Politics
A definitive collection of the theologian and public intellectual who was the conscience of the American Century. “One of my favorite philosophers,” remarked Barack Obama about the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) in 2007. President Obama is but one of the many American political leaders—including Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King Jr.—to be influenced by Niebuhr’s writings. Throughout the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, Niebuhr was one of the most prominent public voices of his time, probing with singular style the question of how to act morally in a fallen world. This Library of America volume, prepared by Niebuhr’s daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, collects four indispensable books: Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (1929), Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944), and The Irony of American History (1952), along with a selection of essays, sermons, lectures, prayers, including his world-famous Serenity Prayer, and writings on current events—Prohibition, the Allied bombing of Germany, apartheid in South Africa, the Vietnam War—many of which are collected here for the first time.
THE PARADOX OF CHURCH AND WORLD: Selected Writings of H. Richard Niebuhr
“Ultimately,” or so H. Richard Niebuhr wrote as early as 1929, “the problem of church and world involves us in a paradox; unless the church accommodates itself to the world, it becomes sterile inwardly and outwardly; unless it transcends the world, it becomes indistinguishable from the world and loses its effectiveness no less surely.” In the same context he went on to state: “The rhythm of approach and withdrawal need not be like the swinging of the pendulum, mere repetition without progress; it may be more like the rhythm of the waves that wash upon the beach; each succeeding wave advances a little farther into the world with its cleansing gospel before that gospel becomes sullied with the earth.” Niebuhr’s thought on the paradox of church and world is an essential piece of our understanding of 20th-century US theology. In this volume, Jon Diefenthaler collects for the first time over forty writings that trace the lineage of Niebuhr’s thought, presents them in a single place, & makes a case for their enduring value in a post-church religious environment. The volume is a treasury of little–known and hard-to-find pieces, making scholarship and understanding easier.
BROADCAST DATES
Spring 2017
An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story
→ National Broadcast on the World Channel ←
Easter Sunday — April 16th, 9pm EST
Location |
Channel |
Weekday |
Date |
Time |
T.Z. |
San Francisco | KQEDDT | Tuesday, | 4/4/2017 | 11:00 PM | PT |
San Francisco | KQEDDT | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 5:00 AM | PT |
San Francisco | KRCBDT | Monday | 4/10/2017 | 9:00 PM | PT |
San Francisco | KQEDDT3 | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 9:00 PM | PT |
San Francisco | KQEHDT2 | Tuesday | 4/4/2017 | 11:00 PM | PT |
San Francisco | KQEHDT2 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 5:00 AM | PT |
San Francisco | KQEHDT5 | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 9:00 PM | PT |
Washington | WFPTDT | Saturday | 4/1/2017 | 8:00 PM | ET |
Washington | WWPBDT | Saturday | 4/1/2017 | 8:00 PM | ET |
Washington | WFPTDT2 | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 5:00 PM | ET |
Washington | WWPBDT2 | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 5:00 PM | ET |
Denver | KBDIDT | Wednesday | 4/12/2017 | 9:00 PM | MT |
Denver | KBDIDT | Thursday | 4/13/2017 | 1:00 AM | MT |
Cleveland | WEAODT2 | Saturday | 4/8/2017 | 7:00 PM | ET |
Cleveland | WEAODT2 | Friday | 4/14/2017 | 7:00 PM | ET |
Sacramento | KVIEDT | Monday | 4/10/2017 | 11:00 PM | PT |
Charlotte | WNSCDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Pittsburgh | WGPTDT | Saturday | 4/1/2017 | 8:00 PM | ET |
Portland | KOPBDT2 | Tuesday | 4/11/2017 | 8:00 PM | PT |
Portland | KOPBDT2 | Thursday | 4/13/2017 | 12:00 AM | PT |
Portland | KTVRDT2 | Tuesday | 4/11/2017 | 8:00 PM | PT |
Portland | KTVRDT2 | Thursday | 4/13/2017 | 12:00 AM | PT |
Baltimore | WMPTDT | Saturday | 4/1/2017 | 8:00 PM | ET |
Baltimore | WMPTDT2 | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 5:00 PM | ET |
Baltimore | WMPBDT2 | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 5:00 PM | ET |
Indianapolis | WIPBDT | Thursday | 4/6/2017 | 4:00 AM | ET |
Cincinnati | WPTODT2 | Friday | 4/7/2017 | 9:00 PM | ET |
Greenvll-Spartan | WNEHDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Greenvll-Spartan | WNTVDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Greenvll-Spartan | WRETDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Albuquerque | KENWDT | Tuesday | 4/4/2017 | 4:00 AM | MT |
Little Rock, AR | KEMVDT | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 3:30 PM | CT |
Little Rock, AR | KETGDT | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 3:30 PM | CT |
Little Rock, AR | KETSDT | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 3:30 PM | CT |
Roanoke-Lynchburg | WBRADT | Monday | 4/10/2017 | 3:00 PM | ET |
Roanoke-Lynchburg | WMSYDT | Monday | 4/10/2017 | 3:00 PM | ET |
Roanoke-Lynchburg | WBRADT2 | Tuesday | 4/4/2017 | 1:00 PM | ET |
Roanoke-Lynchburg | WBRADT2 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 5:30 PM | ET |
Roanoke-Lynchburg | WMSYDT2 | Tuesday | 4/4/2017 | 1:00 PM | ET |
Roanoke-Lynchburg | WMSYDT2 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 5:30 PM | ET |
Spokane | KWSUDT | Monday | 4/3/2017 | 4:00 PM | PT |
Springfield, MO | KOZKDT | Tuesday | 4/4/2017 | 10:00 PM | CT |
Columbia, SC | WRLKDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Columbia, SC | WRJADT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Savannah | WJWJDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Charleston, SC | WITVDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Tri-Cities, TN-VA | WSBNDT2 | Tuesday | 4/4/2017 | 1:00 PM | ET |
Tri-Cities, TN-VA | WSBNDT2 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 5:30 PM | ET |
Tri-Cities, TN-VA | WSBNDT | Monday | 4/10/2017 | 3:00 PM | ET |
Ft. Smith, AR | KAFTDT | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 3:30 PM | CT |
Myrtle Beach | WHMCDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Myrtle Beach | WJPMDT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Augusta | WEBADT3 | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 8:00 AM | ET |
Springfield-Holyoke | WGBYDT2 | Sunday | 4/16/2017 | 9:00 PM | ET |
Springfield-Holyoke | WGBYDT2 | Monday | 4/17/2017 | 1:00 AM | ET |
Youngstown | WNEODT2 | Saturday | 4/8/2017 | 7:00 PM | ET |
Youngstown | WNEODT2 | Friday | 4/14/2017 | 7:00 PM | ET |
Eugene | KEPBDT2 | Tuesday | 4/11/2017 | 8:00 PM | PT |
Eugene | KEPBDT2 | Thursday | 4/13/2017 | 12:00 AM | PT |
Eugene | KOACDT2 | Tuesday | 4/11/2017 | 8:00 PM | PT |
Eugene | KOACDT2 | Thursday | 4/13/2017 | 12:00 AM | PT |
Yakima, WA | KTNWDT | Sunday | 4/2/2017 | 2:00 PM | PT |
Monterey-Salinas | KQETDT | Tuesday | 4/4/2017 | 11:00 PM | PT |
Monterey-Salinas | KQETDT | Wednesday | 4/5/2017 | 5:00 AM | PT |
Monroe-El Dorado | KETZDT | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 3:30 PM | CT |
Duluth-Superior | WDSEDT | Friday | 4/7/2017 | 12:00 AM | CT |
Duluth-Superior | WRPTDT | Friday | 4/7/2017 | 12:00 AM | CT |
Duluth-Superior | WDSEDT2 | Thursday | 4/6/2017 | 10:00 PM | CT |
Duluth-Superior | WRPTDT2 | Thursday | 4/6/2017 | 10:00 PM | CT |
Salisbury | WCPBDT | Saturday | 4/1/2017 | 8:00 PM | ET |
Salisbury | WCPBDT2 | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 5:00 PM | ET |
Joplin-Pittsburg | KOZJDT | Tuesday | 4/4/2017 | 10:00 PM | CT |
Jonesboro | KTEJDT | Sunday | 4/9/2017 | 3:30 PM | CT |
Bend, OR | KOABDT2 | Tuesday | 4/11/2017 | 8:00 PM | PT |
Bend, OR | KOABDT2 | Thursday | 4/13/2017 | 12:00 AM | PT |
SCREENING EVENTS
Spring 2017
An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story
Jan 31, 6:30pm – Union Theological Seminary
Guests include: Cornel West, Gary Dorrien, Andres Finstuen
https://utsnyc.edu/faithinamerica/
Feb 1, 5:30pm — Boston College – Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life
Guests inlcude: Lisa Cahill, Mark Massa
http://www.bc.edu/centers/boisi/publicevents.html
Feb 2, 6pm — Andover Hall, Harvard Divinity School, Boston, MA
Guests Include: Cornel West, Healan Gaston, Andrew Finstuen
Feb 3, 6pm — Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick, RI (Martin’s High School)
Feb 4, 6pm — First Congregational Church, Stockbridge, MA,
Reinhold Niebuhr’s former church
Pastor Brent Damrow to host
Feb 17 — Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Feb 19, 7pm — Weltz Center for Creativity, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
Guests Include: Niebuhr scholar/author, Richard Crouter
March 5, 3pm — Library 21C, Colorado Springs, CA
Multiple Sponsors
March 6 — Edison Theater, Washington University, St. Louis, KY
Sponsored by Eden Seminary, Danforth Center
March 8 — Boise State University
March 9 — Sun Valley, Idaho
March 11 — Loma Linda University, CA
March 14 — Princeton Theological School
March 27 — Butler University
March 28 — DePaul University
in cooperation with Christian Century magazine
March 29 — Claremont Theological School, Southern CA
March 31 — Newseum, Washington, DC
Sponsored by Wesley Theological Seminary
April 5, 6:30pm — Carter Presidential Library, Candler Theological Seminary, Atlanta, GA
441 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA
Sponsored by Candler Theological Seminary
Panel Includes:
Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier
Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, Senior Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta
Dr. Elizabeth M. Bounds, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Candler School of Theology
Dr. Shaun Casey, Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs
Moderator: Dr. Mark Douglas, Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary
April 10 — Notre Dame University