[Oe List ...] Question, please

[Al Lingo]

Beret,
Nice, thanks for 'this wade in the water' intro to Richard Crouter!
And a wish for a deeply meaningful time in Australia,  
Charles 
 

 


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Beret Griffith <beretgriffith at charter.net>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Wed, Sep 22, 2010 3:16 pm
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Question, please


A Carleton College professor in Northfield, Minnesota, Richard Crouter,just published a book on Reinhold Niebuhr. I haven't read it yet. Thelocal bookstore is sold out. The following is taken from the article thatappeared in The Northfield News"). 

Here's one sentence from the article, "The Oxford University Presscalled Crouter’s work “the most accessible account of Niebuhr’stheology, social ethics, and politics on the market and the only bookthat provides a comprehensive road map of the current ‘Niebuhrrevival.’”

By: Shane Kitzman, 
Posted: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 8:07 pm
 
Richard Crouter has never met the man.

But you’d be hard-pressed to believe it, as he did just write a bookabout him and his take on the big picture issues from religion to “Whoare we?”

The irony is Crouter did miss out on the perfect opportunity to meet him­ the renowned theologian Reinhold Niebuhr ­ at Union TheologicalSeminary in New York City.

Crouter enrolled in the fall of 1960 only to have Niebuhr retire fromteaching there just months earlier in the spring.

But that hasn’t kept Crouter, emeritus professor of religious studies atCarleton College, from possessing nearly all of Niebuhr’s lectures onrecord, being thoroughly intrigued by the man’s take on life itself andwriting a 176-page book about Niebuhr titled “Reinhold Niebuhr onpolitics, religion and Christian faith.”

Crouter has been eyeing the opportunity to write the book ever since the“Niebuhr revival” blossomed when now-President Barack Obama referencedthe deceased theologian on the campaign trail in 2007 as one of hisfavorite philosophers.

The Oxford University Press called Crouter’s work “the most accessibleaccount of Niebuhr’s theology, social ethics, and politics on the marketand the only book that provides a comprehensive road map of the current‘Niebuhr revival.’”

Andrew J. Bacevich, author of “The Limits of Power: The End of AmericanExceptionalism,” said the book is “incisive, deeply informed andaltogether splendid and enriches appreciation of Niebuhr.”

The Northfield News asked Crouter why he wrote the book and more aboutthe man who once said, “history always repeats, but never in the sameway.”

Q: What’s the book about?
A: Whether you’re the secularist or deeply Christian, we are allwrestling with moral perplexity every day of our lives and Niebuhr is thebest guide for that. In addition he applied his thinking to not justindividuals but to groups, including nations and more specificallyincluding our own and our pretensions and illusions. He’s worthreading.

Q: Why write this book?
A: I had the time, about three years, the interest and the background andthe book is an effort to link the Niebuhr scholars and the ordinaryreaders of serious books. A lot of people know the name if they read “TheAtlantic,” or the “New York Times” and they may know his name, but maybethey have just heard of one or two quotes. 

Q: What does the book mean to you?
A: It’s a very personal book and it’s my take on who he was and why hisinterest in theology and politics flow from the same moral vision.Niebuhr is fundamentally a kind of reality check because his Christianvision is linked with everyday life. In the book, he tries to speak todeeply religious minds and secular minds.

Q: What do you and Niebuhr have in common?
A: I’m grounded in the humanities as a scholar and interested in whatmakes us as humans tick, and religious belief is an important part of it.It’s what’s driving most of the religious decisions, trying to figure outthe riddles of our suffering, why our hopes get dashed and why we stillpersist. Niebuhr feels the same way.

Q: What would Niebuhr say about the state of today’s economy?
A: He would not be surprised by the greed of capitalism. In fact, heanticipated the kind of financial disaster that has occurred.

MEET RICHARD CROUTER
AGE:  72
FAMILY:  Wife, Barbara, son, daughter and three grandchildren
EDUCATION:  Bachelor’s degree in history from Occidental College,master’s degree and doctorate degree from Union Theological Seminary.
OTHER WRITING:  Co-editor of the “Journal for the History of ModernTheology” and author of “Friedrich Schleiemacher: Between Enlightenmentand Romanticism.”

At 08:39 AM 9/22/2010, you wrote:

I have a friend who wants toread Reinhold Niebuhr on "just war." He doesn't 
have much (any?) experience reading Niebuhr.

What would any of you recommend he read for a starter?

Thanks for your sharing your wisdom.

Doris Hahn

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