The Father of Us All The Cold War Liberalism of Reinhold….pdfVIP

‘The Father of Us All’: The Cold War Liberalism of Reinhold Niebuhr and the Paradox of America’s Moral Insecurity A Senior Project presented to the Faculty of the History Department California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Arts by Kendall S. Eyster March, 2010  2010 Kendall S. Eyster Eyster 2 In his Second Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln gave us the words that present-day politicians strain to muster: “It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men ’s faces, but let us 1 judge not, that we be not judged.” Lincoln spoke these stirring words during a time of incredible moral ambiguity. 145 years later there has been a flood of interest in theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and his awareness of the potential hubris in waging a struggle against extremism. His constantly shifting positions on liberalism and America’s global stature has led to disagreement between historians and politicians who claim his legacy on both ends of the political spectrum. What is indisputable, however, is Niebuhr’s belief in liberalism’s epistemological debt to the ideals of Christianity and the repudiation of America’s history as merely a blueprint for democracy that should be repeated, sui generis, elsewhere.