On the one hand, “Courage is the primary test of prophesy,” Niebuhr said. “There is no national community today in which the genuine word of God does not place the prophet in peril.” But, on the other hand, Niebuhr acknowledged his prophetic limits in Leaves, especially appropriate regarding his views on race: “I am a coward myself . . . and find it tremendously difficult to run counter to general opinion.”[58]
