Moral Man and Immoral Society

"This is a very different kind of book. St Augustine gives you a feel for the Christian belief and The Cloud of Unknowing gives you a feel for the life of prayer. Moral Man and Immoral Society is about how Christian faith impinges on the world. What is interesting about Reinhold Niebuhr is that he was hugely influential on the top swath of American political thinkers and politicians in the Democratic Party. Jimmy Carter, for instance, kept a collection of Reinhold Niebuhr’s writings by his bedside. He referred to them as his political bible. He has been one of the few Christian writers who have really been able to speak to two generations of political thinkers and he is beginning to come back into fashion again now. He has been a huge influence on President Obama, for example. Yes, they could. But they are also realists. I think if you had to sum up in a phrase what Niebuhr’s view would be – it would be a kind of hopeful realism. He has very often been claimed as the father of American Realism. He was brutally realistic but the Christian faith in him has always made him look for the possibility of progress and improvement. He was way on the left of American politics. He was one of the founders of the equivalent of a Labour or Socialist Party in America. For the first part of his life he was way to the left of the Democratic Party. He has a very good understanding of democracy. He wrote what I think is the best defence of democracy in a book called Children of Light and Children of Darkness . And in that book he said that “man’s capacity for good makes democracy possible, man’s inclination to evil makes democracy necessary”. The point he is making is that democracy holds together the balance between the possibilities for good within us which make democracy possible, but also because of our propensity to evil we need the checks and balances on potential tyranny which democracy does give. Yes, I do. And for me there are two reasons why. First of all the Christian faith does have a very particular view of what it is to be a human being in society, which I think was Niebuhr’s view. There is this idea of being realistic but avoiding cynicism on the one hand and hopeful and avoiding sentimentality on the other hand. It is holding together this kind of hopeful realism which one would hope is expressed through various forms of social commitment as well as a political philosophy. Of course it is. Interestingly, Reinhold Niebuhr said later on that he wished he had called the book Immoral Man and Even More Immoral Society ! He draws a contrast between the kind of idealism which is possible in individual life and the kind of brute reality of relationships between organised groups and states where power is an essential factor. He took power seriously and is one of the few theologians who has really grappled with the issue of power. A lot of his book is about how you curb and control power in a brutal world. Basically, because we think it is true. I certainly believe that all people by virtue of being human have a capacity for moral insight as part of what it is to be a human being. From my point of view it is part of what it means to be made in the image of God, and the church has always believed that. We all have some moral capacity, but if you believe in God, you believe that this capacity ultimately comes from God. It is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Of course you can have a moral view of society without a religious view, but if you believe a religious view to be true then that also affects your view of society."

"Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man had a huge impact on me."