Reinhold Niebuhr

In 1931, Niebuhr married Ursula Keppel-Compton who was a Church member and studied theology and history at Oxford University.

The couple had two children, a son named Christopher and a daughter named Elisabeth.

Niebuhr died on June 1, 1971, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 78.

Niebuhr was born on June 21, 1892, to German immigrants Gustav Niebuhr and Lydia, in Wright City, Missouri. His father, a German Evangelical pastor paved the way for him and his siblings, in the field of theology.

His brother H. Richard Niebuhr was a theological ethicist and his sister Hulda Niebuhr was a professor of divinity, in Chicago.

After moving with his family to Illinois, Niebuhr’s first experience of the church was as a pastor of St. John’s Church. He served as an interim minister there in 1913, after his father passed away.

He graduated from Elmhurst College, Illinois in 1910 and later studied at Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri.

In 1914, he received a Bachelor degree in Divinity from Yale Divinity School. The next year, he was awarded his Master of Arts degree from the same school.

After being ordained as a pastor in 1915, Niebuhr was sent to Detroit by the German Evangelical mission board. After his arrival, the congregation increased to a significant number indicating that he could connect with people outside the German- American community,

During the World War I in 1917, Niebuhr inspired the German Americans to be patriotic to America and his appeals were often published in National magazines, which gained him a lot of popularity.

He served as Executive Secretary of the War Welfare Commission during the war and also maintained his position as the pastor in Detroit.

He deeply criticised Henry Ford and the automobile industry and blamed them for the poor plight of automobile workers.

In 1928, he moved to New York in became dedicated to Marxism. He became a Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, staying here for the rest of his career and finally retired in 1960.

His books ‘Moral Man and Immoral Society’ and ‘The Nature and Destiny of Man’ were his most prominent works which still influence and inspire politicians and leaders all around the world.

The Serenity Prayer which he wrote is a very famous prayer adopted by the Alcoholics Anonymous and is also used by other twelve-step programs. A modified form of the original prayer is the more popular version in contemporary scenario.