1932–1943

Reinhold Niebuhr: Collective Sin, Pride and The Nature and Destiny of Man

Pastoral ministry in Detroit convinced Reinhold Niebuhr of the falsity of liberal optimism – faith in innate human goodness and progress. In Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932) he showed that group egoism is more stubborn and lasting than the egoism of individuals: sin acts both in the individual and, greatly magnified, in societies. In The Nature and Destiny of Man (the Gifford Lectures of 1939) he summed up biblical anthropology: the human being is a limited creature with body and spirit, the image of God and at the same time a sinner. Niebuhr explained the universality of sin through Kierkegaardian anxiety: humanity is at once limited and free, and sin is the denial of one's creatureliness, expressed in sensuality and, more often, in pride. Lane calls him the most penetrating modern student of the doctrine of original sin.