Resources by or about H. Richard Niebuhr

Readings include William Hordern's A Layman's Guide to Protestant Theology, Eberhard Busch's Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts, Barth's prison sermons from Basel, and Robert McAfee Brown's treatment of Reinhold Niebuhr. The bibliography offers a broad orientation to the major theologians who shaped twentieth-century Protestant thought, providing accessible entry points into the lives and ideas of figures central to the Reformed and ecumenical traditions.

Readings draw from Calvin's Institutes on the commandments and the Christian life, Jonathan Edwards' Charity and Its Fruits, Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics II/2 and III/4, Emil Brunner's The Divine Imperative, and works by both H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr. The bibliography surveys the field of Christian ethics within the Reformed tradition, from Calvin's treatment of the law through modern debates about the relationship between gospel, law, and moral life.

Readings draw from across Niebuhr's major works: Beyond Tragedy, The Nature and Destiny of Man, Moral Man and Immoral Society, The Irony of American History, and The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. The bibliography examines Niebuhr's theological anthropology, his Christian realism in social ethics, and his enduring analysis of human nature and political life in the American context.

Core texts are Calvin's Institutes I.1-5 on the knowledge of God, Emil Brunner's Revelation and Reason, and H. Richard Niebuhr's The Meaning of Revelation. Secondary readings address the relationship between general and special revelation, the epistemological foundations of Christian theology, and the Reformed tradition's distinctive approach to natural theology and Scripture.

Dr. Leith offers a review and theological assessment of H. Richard Niebuhr's work, engaging his thought on the kingdom of God and its relationship to culture and history.