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This book intends to analyze Reinhold Niebuhr's understanding of the state in his Christian Realism. Although his overall notion was thoroughly analyzed in different disciplines and respects, this specific focus can be diagnosed as a lacuna. The task of this book is to develop a hypothesis in terms of under what political, social, organizational or intellectual context Niebuhr made use of what definition of the state. When did he support the extension of state power (e. g. in war times, during economic crisis) and when did he criticize tendencies toward autocratic structures inside Western style democracies?
List of contents
The Art of Living Together: The Relationship between Individual and Society in Reinhold Niebuhr's Political Thought.- How Niebuhr's interpretation of Martin Luther, Karl Barth and Calvinism influenced his understanding of the state.- The State and Prophetic Religion.- Reinhold Niebuhr and the State of Israel: A Study in the Foreign Policy of a Christian Realist.- Niebuhr's complex relationship with Germany: how did his experiences influence his image of the state?.- Religion and Democracy in Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Realism.- Reinhold Niebuhr: State Governance in Times of Crisis.- Niebuhr and the race question: Can the state successfully eliminate racism?
About the author
Dr. Christoph Rohde is a political scientist, Munich/Germany. He works as a lecturer in the adult education and as a coach for companies in the private security sector. His latest monographs are
Das Kreuz und der Krieg - Prämissen einer realistischen Friedensethik (2021) and
Reinhold Niebuhr - die Geburt des Christlichen Realismus aus dem Geist des Widerstandes (2016).
