When did Reinhold Niebuhr write "Moral Man and Immoral Society" and argue Christian Realism?
Christian Realism Christian Realism is a philosophical perspective developed by the theologian and public intellectual Reinhold Niebuhr in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Niebuhr argued that the Kingdom of God cannot be realized on earth because of the innately corrupt tendencies of society. Due to the injustices that arise on earth, a person is therefore forced to compromise the ideal of the kingdom of heaven on earth. Niebuhr argued that human perfectibility was an illusion, highlighting the sinfulness of humanity at a time when the world was confronted by the horrors of experiences such World War II, the reigns of both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, and the Holocaust. The movement was in part a reaction to the Social Gospel movement. Numerous American political figures have been influenced by Christian realism, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Ethics (Bonhoeffer) Ethics (German: Ethik ) is an unfinished book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that was edited and published after his death by Eberhard Bethge in 1949. Bonhoeffer worked on the book in the early 1940s and intended it to be his "magnum opus". At the time of writing, he was a double agent; he was working for Abwehr , Nazi Germany's military intelligence organization, but was simultaneously involved in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The central theme of "Ethics" is Christlikeness. The arguments in the book are informed by Lutheran Christology and are influenced by Bonhoeffer's participation in the German resistance to Nazism. "Ethics" is commonly compared to Bonhoeffer's earlier book "The Cost of Discipleship", with scholars debating the extent to which Bonhoeffer's views on Christian ethics changed between his writing of the two books. In "The Cambridge Companion to Dietrich Bonhoeffer", John W. de Gruchy argues that "Ethics" evinces more nuance than Bonhoeffer's earlier writings. In 2012, David P. Gushee, director of Mercer University's Center for Theology and Public Life, named "Ethics" one of the five best books about patriotism, the others being Bruce Lincoln's "Religion, Empire and Torture"; Reinhold Niebuhr's "Moral Man and Immoral Society"; Shane Claiborne's and Chris Haw's "Jesus for President"; and "A Testament of Hope", a collection of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches and writings.