Sightings Articles

mirror on the wall

Community | nationalism | Reinhold Niebuhr | selfies

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: On National Self-Understanding

Can we overcome our collective illusions about ourselves?...

May 24, 2021
heroes

Coronavirus | Reinhold Niebuhr

We Need Fewer Heroes

Exploring the tension between our praise of everyday heroes and the social instability that necessitates them...

May 8, 2020

Beloved Community | Christianity | LGBT rights | racism | Reinhold Niebuhr | violence

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

An American Conscience | Martin Heinecken | Millennials | public theology | Reinhold Niebuhr

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 | Socrates | St. Paul | Lionel Trilling | Jane Austen | Abraham Lincoln | Reinhold Niebuhr

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...

October 16, 2014