I realize now that I should have ignored the separation of theology and ethics in the Garrett curriculum, as well as Niebuhr’s modest claim of not being a theologian. It was not until I left seminary and began to deal with the “facts” of the black struggle for justice in society that I returned to Niebuhr, especially his Moral Man and Immoral Society. Reading Niebuhr’s reflections on power and self-interest among individuals and collectives in the context of the black liberation struggle was an intellectual revelation. “The white race in America will not admit the Negro to equal rights if it
...more
