Book Review

Moral Man & Immoral Society - A Study in Ethics and Politics

By Reinhold Niebuhr

Westminster John Knox Press , Louisville, Kentucky ; 284 pages, $16

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 - 1971) was an ethicist, theologian, and political philosopher who taught at Union Theological Seminary from 1928 to 1960.

Even though these essays were written in 1932, they are still as relevant as if they were written in the last year.

These essays were written observing the effects of political societies on individuals. I will paraphrase some of the important statements showing how religion has the same effect on the morality of individuals. My substitutions will be in (parentheses).

Page 88

Since there can be no ethical action without self-criticism, and no self-criticism without the rational capacity of self-transcendence, it is natural that national (church) attitudes can hardly approximate the ethical. Even those tendencies toward self-criticism in a nation (church) which do express themselves are usually thwarted by the governing classes and by a certain instinct for unity in the society itself. For self-criticism is a kind of inner disunity, which the feeble mind of a nation (church) finds difficulty in distinguishing from dangerous forms of inner conflict. So nations (churches) crucify their moral rebels with their criminals upon the same Golgotha, not being able to distinguish between the moral idealism which surpasses, and the anti-social conduct which falls below the moral mediocrity, on a level of which every society unifies its life. While critical loyalty toward a community is not impossible, it is not easily achieved. It is therefore probably inevitable that every society should regard criticism as a proof of a want of loyalty.

When governing groups are deprived of their special economic privileges, their interests will be more nearly in harmony with the interest of the total national (religious) society.

Page 91

There is an ethical paradox in patriotism(faith) which defies every but the most astute and sophisticated analysis. The paradox is that patriotism(faith) transmutes individual unselfishness into national(religious) egoism. Loyalty to the nation(church) is a high form of altruism when compared with lesser loyalties and more parochial interests. It therefore becomes the vehicle of all the altruistic impulses and expresses itself, on occasion, with such fervor that the critical attitude of the individual toward the nation(church) and its enterprises is almost completely destroyed. The unqualified character of this devotion is the very basis of the nation’s(church’s) power and the freedom to use the power without moral restraint.

Absolutism in religion permits absurdities. Only doubt opens the mind to learning.

(If you are inflicted with the “I Know” ego, read this book at your own risk.)