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Quotes from The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation — Reinhold Niebuhr

1892–1971 United States

← All quotes by Reinhold Niebuhr

6 quotes

Human existence is obviously distinguished from animal life by its qualified participation in creation. Within limits it breaks the forms of nature and creates new configurations of vitality.

The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation (1941)

There is no level of moral achievement upon which man can have or actually has an easy conscience.

The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation (1941)

Man does not know himself truly except as he knows himself confronted by God. Only in that confrontation does he become aware of his full stature and freedom and of the evil in him.

The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation (1941)

Historical communities are, in short, more deeply involved in nature and time than the individual.

The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation (1941)

An irrevocable defeat of a socio-historical cause which gives meaning to the life of the individual must create a complete sense of meaninglessness unless the individual is sustained by a religion which interprets such defeats from the aspect of the eternal.

The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation (1941)

The final sin of man, said Luther truly, is his unwillingness to concede that he is a sinner. The significant contribution of modern culture to this perennial human inclination lies in the number of plausible reasons which it was able to adduce in support of man's good opinion of himself.

The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation (1941)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Reinhold Niebuhr (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.