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Religion and the Liberal State in Niebuhr's Christian Realism

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Abstract

In this introductory chapter, the scientific relevance of the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and his Christian Realism is explained. The purpose of this book is to discuss Niebuhr's understanding of the state. Actually, Niebuhr received attention in the scientific community as an expert in political theology and social ethics. The contributors of this anthology show, why Niebuhr's thinking is important as a vindication of liberal democracy as well.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Niebuhr met Laski in the year 1943 in London, where they had to hide under a table during a German air raid. Brown (2002, p. 111).

  2. 2.

    The German Jew Hans J. Morgenthau, however, disposed of a legal background and wrote extensively about the character of the state, especially in disputes with the contested German jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt who supported national socialism. See Jütersonke (2010).

  3. 3.

    One striking example for this thinking during his time may be Luce 1941.

  4. 4.

    It still has to be examined how far Donald Trump's slogan “America First” was directly “inspired” by this movement. Rauchway 2016.

  5. 5.

    As a canonical work of communitarism may be count Aladair McIntyre's book After Virtue. For communitarians, the moral indifference of postmodernism and its lack of moral telos leads to different evaluative concepts and frameworks. This relativistic mentality, in turn, produces the lack of a common moral language, enforces the construction of incompatible worldviews, and subsequently leads to a futile polarization of modern societies.

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  1. München, Germany

    Christoph Rohde

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Rohde, C. (2021). Introduction. In: Rohde, C. (eds) Religion and the Liberal State in Niebuhr's Christian Realism. Staat – Souveränität – Nation. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34464-1_1

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