The Promise of Reinhold Niebuhr, Third Edition

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) — whom President Barack Obama famously named as his “favorite philosopher” in a 2007 interview — was arguably the most influential American theologian of the twentieth century. Gabriel Fackre’s Promise of Reinhold Niebuhr has long provided a compact introduction to Niehbuhr’s life and thought.

With Niebuhr’s enduring legacy again rising to prominence in political and religious circles, Fackre has reworked his standard account of this iconic “visionary realist” for a new generation. In this revised and updated third edition, Fackre crystallizes key themes in Niebuhr’s writings, addresses and debunks “Tall Tales” that have sprung up around Niebuhr’s legacy, and applies Niebuhr’s thinking to twenty-first-century theological and cultural issues.