An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story

by Jeremy L. Sabella

The Social Gospel, according to Niebuhr’s reading, presumed that implementing the ethical precepts of Jesus in society was a straightforward process. This presumption ignored, however, that while the ethics of Jesus are governed by the law of love, the political realm is governed by the law of power. Achieving justice in the political realm required using coercive measures that made it impossible for humans to manifest the law of love in an unsullied way. Social ethics required discerning how best to approximate the law of love in an arena that understands only power. Moral man had to be willing to engage immoral society on society’s own power-driven terms. By failing to understand this, the Social Gospel had proved to be too heavenly minded to be of earthly good.