Today is Memorial Day, the federal holiday that signals the start of summer but more importantly, it is the day Americans honor the men and women who died while serving in the military. My country’s leaders will gather within Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a solemn remembrance of our fallen compatriots. My trumpet-playing nephew may be there playing taps during the ceremony. Over one million US military personnel have died since the start of the American Revolution. World War II (1941–1945), our nation’s bloodiest war, accounted for over 400,000 military deaths. Today, Americans honor their ultimate sacrifice that preserves our freedom.
I was born after the Korean War (1950–1953 in which 36,574 died) and during the Vietnam War (1955–1975 in which 58,220 died). My father was ten years old when World War II started which was fought by the generation nicknamed The Greatest Generation (those born from 1901–1927). He went to university with many WWII veterans whose education was funded by the GI Bill. The Greatest Generation sacrificed for the common good after experiencing the Great Depression.
I recently read an interview with the New York Times columnist, David Brooks. He referenced Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr’s 1944 publication, The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of its Traditional Defense (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2011), as relevant to the current Middle East and Ukraine wars. Niebuhr (1892–1971) was an American theologian and Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. President Johnson awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and Time magazine named him the greatest Protestant theologian in America since Jonathan Edwards. His writings have influenced Presidents, theologians, civil rights leaders, pastors, and intellectuals.
Niebuhr was the son of German immigrants, born in Missouri and raised in Illinois. His brother, Dr. H. Richard Niebuhr (1894–1962), was a Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School — another highly regarded theologian. Both learned German as their first language and observed two World Wars as Americans with German ancestry. Niebuhr was writing this book as the US military fought to gain an unconditional surrender from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. His theology and politics had evolved several times before writing this book. He was a liberal advocate for the US to fight in WWI. During the 1920’s, he was a pacifist follower of the Social Gospels. During the Great Depression, he was a socialist against the New Deal. By the time of this book’s publication, he had left the Socialist Party and was a leader in the newly created Union for Democratic Action (UDA).
Niebuhr’s book title comes from the Gospel of Luke’s parable of the dishonest manager whose rich employer summons him to account for his dishonesty. Instead of repenting, the dishonest manager discounted the rich master’s debtors to gain their favor before he became unemployed. The rich “master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” (Luke 16:8) Niebuhr writes in his foreword to the 1960 edition: “Both moral sentimentality in politics and moral pessimism encourage totalitarian regimes, the one because it encourages the opinion that it is not necessary to check the power of government, and the second because it believes that only absolute political authority can restrain the anarchy, created by conflicting and competitive interests.” (page xxvii) He argues that the “children of light” were wrong to believe “that the conflict between self-interest and the general interest could be readily resolved.” The “children of darkness,” unrestrained by moral law, “better understood the centrality of will-to-power in politics and history.” (pages xviii–xix) “If men are inclined to deal unjustly with their fellows, the possession of power aggravates this inclination. That is why irresponsible and uncontrolled power is the greatest source of injustice.” (pages xxxii–xxxiii) His book is a wakeup call to “the children of light.”
Niebuhr was a socialist and theologian who believed in societal equality. After several decades of his shifting political beliefs, he became a vocal supporter of democracy. “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” (page xxxii) Democracy is not a perfect moral political system but “it is the best way to restrain human egotism and will-to-power.” (page xx) “The democratic techniques of a free society place checks upon the power of the ruler and administrator and thus prevent it from becoming vexations. The perils of uncontrolled power are perennial reminders of the virtues of a democratic society.” (page xxxiii)
Niebuhr’s book is primarily political philosophy, and he does not “elaborate the religious and theological convictions upon which the political philosophy … rests.” However, his views “are informed by the belief that a Christian view of human nature is more adequate for the development of a democratic society than either the optimism with which democracy has become historically associated or the moral cynicism which inclines human communities to tyrannical political strategies.” (pages xxxiii–xxxiv)
I will next proceed with a series of blogs covering Niebuhr’s five chapters, the first bearing the title of his book.
