In Niebuhr’s view, Barth’s arresting portrait of sin and redemption was spiritually edifying in times of great upheaval, but supplied little guidance over the ethical terrain of everyday life. Barth’s approach to ethics could, in Niebuhr’s words, “fight the devil if he shows both horns and both cloven feet. But it refuses to make discriminating judgments between good and evil if the devil shows only one horn or the half of a cloven foot.”
