Sightings Articles
Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: On National Self-Understanding
Can we overcome our collective illusions about ourselves?...
May 24, 2021
We Need Fewer Heroes
Exploring the tension between our praise of everyday heroes and the social instability that necessitates them...
May 8, 2020
Love Your Enemies: Moral Absurdity or Genius?
The Autumn 1942 issue of Christianity and Society published an article by Reinhold Niebuhr that began: “In times of social and political conflict there are always Christians who obscure the very genius of the New Testament conception of love by their...
July 13, 2017
Niebuhr and the Situation
Millennials are often accused of whatever particular accusers want to assign to their victims of choice. One charge, among so many others, is that they do not know or care about history. Teachers of undergraduates note how frequently they find their ...
April 3, 2017
Irony as the Form of Wisdom, and Its Limit -- W. Clark Gilpin
Irony is one of the principal forms of wisdom, as wisdom has been understood in world philosophical and spiritual traditions. Among the contributions of irony to wisdom traditions, perhaps the most important has been its counsel of humility with re...