The Oates Journal (ISSN: 1098-1446) is a publication of the Wayne E. Oates Institute addressing issues related to spirituality, ethics, and healing from the perspective of pastoral care and counseling.

When, some months ago now, I heard President Obama refer to Reinhold Niebuhr as his favorite philosopher/theologian, my heart strangely warmed.  I remembered all too well those sessions from my own graduate classes where we debated Professor Niebuhr’s thought with Dr. Glen Stassen, our own professor, who tended to favor H. Richard Niebuhr, Reinhold’s brother.  I thought of his works such as The Nature and Destiny of Man (sic) or Moral Man, Immoral Society.  I felt relieved that our president was at least acquainted at some level with the thinking of one who had helped to shape a generation of theological and even political thought in our country.

So, it was without much surprise this week when I wandered over to the theological section of my library and pulled off the shelf an old copy of Beyond Tragedy: Essays on the Christian Interpretation of History.  I was surprised to see that I had not read it all – in fact I had read only the first two chapters.  Immediately I returned to my desk and started reading and once again was struck by the greatness of Niebuhr’s thought.  This book, originally published in 1932, reads like sermonic essays.  Each chapter is tied to specific texts and in that manner reads like sermons.  However, they are far beyond the depth and purview of 99% of all the sermons I have read.  Again and again I was engrossed in his ability to reach into the depths of scripture and extricate principles and perspectives that were not only true and applicable in 1932 – they remain true and applicable today.

I’ll not bore you with a book review – you are fully capable of acquiring and reading this incredible tome on your own.  What hit me once again is a truth to which we need to reacquaint ourselves and our congregations: the doctrine of original sin. This is not, according to Niebuhr, some old idea that Adam and Eve once sinned in a garden somewhere.  It is the reality that all of us – from the best of us to the worst of us – partake of sin.  All of us and each of us have perspectives which are limited at best and are tinged by our own self-interests.  Even our best moments are characterized by pride and self-interest, not to mention self-delusion.  The will to live is quickly transmuted into the will to power – and before we know it our perspective is based on self-interest.  We are compromised at every turn and even when we receive a clear vision/word from God we quickly turn that into a self-serving perspective.

As I read these chapters time and again I was reminded of how particular and limited is our perspective.  We believe in our own inherent goodness, when in reality we participate in evil just as do our enemies.  We erect Towers of Babel only to watch them collapse before our eyes.  The warring god of the ark resides within the temple of the transcendent and we just never can seem to finally separate the two.  We take what is temporal and finite – our nation, our culture, our church, our understanding – and confuse it with the infinite and in the process worship the creature rather than the creator.  When one comes who dares to speak the truth to power we find ways to ignore or limit that word, especially as it would apply to us.

The reality is that none of us has a pure faith and none of us has an uncompromised perspective.  It is when I am feeling most “righteous” that I am most open to sin.  It is when I am most convinced of my “unselfishness” that I am most vulnerable to self centered endeavors.  The faith that I claim most deeply is the same one that leaks profusely and my bucket of faith must be refilled time and again.  For me to act as if nothing bothered me, that my faith is always strong and secure, is either to engage in conscious deceit or unconscious ignorance.  The latter may be worse than the former.

The great philosopher Alfred North Whitehead was once asked what he thought to be the greatest evil.  “Is it ignorance?” came the question.  “No,” he replied, “It is not ‘not knowing.' It is not knowing that you don’t know.”

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains."  John 9: 39-41

Maybe Niebuhr is more relevant than many of us thought…

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