THIS is the one-hundredth year (centesimus annus) since the birth of Reinhold Niebuhr. There is no one on the Christian Left who fills his shoes today. Indeed, a significant number of Christians who have become disillusioned with the Left (as Niebuhr was with “liberals” in his time) call him their father. Others may regard them as illegitimate children (may perhaps state their view even more pungently). The fact is, neoconservatives cite Niebuhr at least as often as those on the Left do.
Why do so many conservatives, especially neoconservatives, regard Reinhold Niebuhr as their teacher? Consider these words of Will Herberg, written in 1956 about a time “in the later 1930s”: “I was then at a most crucial moment in my life . . . left without any ground to stand on, deprived of the commitment and understanding that alone had made life livable.” At this point, Herberg came upon Moral Man and Immoral Society. Her berg testified:
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