Early in the interview Wallace turned to the unprecedented religiosity of the time: “With church attendance increasing, college students returning to religion, the apparent success of the evangelists . . . in large measure you have criticized this revival. Why?” Niebuhr responded, “I wouldn’t criticize the whole revival. I’ve criticized the revival wherever it gives petty and trivial answers to very great and ultimate questions about the meaning of our life.” In other words, Niebuhr felt that certain sectors of the revival made it seem as if accepting Jesus and going to church was the only
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