America has changed but quest for serenity still resonates - The Tennessean
Is faith in God the most plausible way to understand this world. Can an old word like sin explain 21st-century behavior. People routinely tell me neuroscience will explain us, improve us, save us. Or individualism will solve our problems. These announcements arrive with greater confidence every day, discounting the notion that people can become wiser or find wholeness by the practice of faith. Yet the new liberation has not released us from old-school maladies like depression, job dissatisfaction or poor judgment. At last glance, the Happiness Index said just one in three Americans is very happy. Only a few decades ago, a tough-minded Christian analysis of the human scene had celebrity status. It was a guide to psychological truth and enlightened political sanity in a dangerous time. “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics” makes me realize how dramatically American life has shifted since Niebuhr’s death in 1971, yet how little the human condition has changed. Niebuhr was a pastor and professor whose thinking stamped a generation of preachers, divinity schools and policymakers. Yet this doesn’t get the last word. Find truth in the Hebrew prophets, the story of Jesus. After World War II, Niebuhr was a Christian intellectual with establishment credentials. Source: www.tennessean.com
