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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Part II - Reinhold Niebuhr Another Angle, the occasional musing so of a Kentucky pastor This essay first appeared in The Hart County News, Munfordville, KY, on August 28, 2005. Reprinted here with the author's permission. (Author's note: I wrote this well before the 2006 brouhaha over the movie of The da Vinci Code and the widespread fear that it was a dangerous - and serious -attack on Christianity. I hold to my original estimation of Dan Brown's work as beingoften inaccurate potboiler fiction. Anyone who treats his books and filmasprofound theologydeserving censorship and boycottsis giving these thrillersmore credence than they deserve. Sometimes when we try to boycott or eradicate something, we bestow upon it the status of martyr and give it far more attention than it would ever receive otherwise.) By The Rev. Joey N. Welsh joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com A GIANT IN THE REALM OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT - PART II Dan Brown, the fabulously successful author of The da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, fills his books with fascinating historical, artistic, scientific and theological details. He uses so many cultural minutiae that loads of people have taken to the belief that the thrillers and their plots must all be factual. Wrong! The books are, at heart, clever potboiler fiction, and sometimes even Browns bits of trivia are off-base. For example, on page 169 of Angels and Demons, two main characters make conversational reference to the traditional Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, and one begins to quote it as, God, grant me strength to accept those things I cannot change. It is a fine prayer and a wonderful thought, but St. Francis had nothing to do with it, and the author even misquotes its opening words. The Serenity Prayer, which is an integral part of many Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, usually is recited as: God grant us the serenitySome people think that this prayer was written for the use of AA participants. Other people quote it and list its authorship as unknown or anonymous. The prayer shows up on posters, coffee mugs, websites by the thousand, and figures prominently in Kurt Vonneguts famous novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. Even its form used at AA meetings is not quite the original wording of the brief prayer. The Serenity Prayer is a text with a verifiable authorship, history and context. The person to thank for its original wording is American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Born in Missouri in 1882, his parents were first-generation immigrants from Germany, and his father was a pastor. Reinhold and his brother Richard both grew up to be prominent theologians, authors, preachers and teachers. Early in his career he was sent to serve a congregation in Detroit, and Niebuhr became an advocate for the welfare of mistreated industrial workers and their families. During the Great Depression he preached and wrote about the ways that Christians should listen for Gods call to move beyond their sanctuaries and worship services into the great needs of a hurting society. He thought that any church worthy to be called Christian should be in active ministry confronting the crises of the age. When Hitler rose to power in Germany, Niebuhr was dismayed that most Christian leaders did little to oppose or criticize the Nazis and their policies of persecution. He and only a small number of prominent Christians in Germany and the United States condemned early Nazi harassment of Jews and asked for America to welcome Jewish refugees. Stunned that even some of his own relatives in Germany gave their assent to Hitlers policies, Niebuhr retained deep connections with German dissenters and was instrumental in bringing one such theologian, Paul Tillich, to the United States. Stalwart in faith throughout World War II, Niebuhr also never wavered in his support of activist friends who were accused of having communist leanings in the post-war era of McCarthyism. Reinhold Niebuhr remained true to himself, his ethics and his faith to the end of his life in 1971. His Serenity Prayer dates from 1943. War raged in Europe and in the Pacific. The eventual victors were not yet evident, and American society carried a burden of war-time doubts. Reinhold Niebuhr was preaching during the summer at a small church in Heath, Massachusetts. In his preaching and in his prayers he was trying to convey both a sense of hope and also a call to live beyond feelings of spiritual paralysis in a world so beset with crisis. For one service he composed a prayer beseeching Gods guidance in accepting reality while also welcoming the necessity to act for change where needed and asking for wisdom in perceiving the right path. A portion of that prayer was immediately quoted, requoted and published widely. Variations on its text were sent to soldiers in the field and adopted by AA. Niebuhrs daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, has told the story of the prayer and its historical/theological context in her book, The Serenity Prayer - Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War, published by Norton in 2004. Sifton, senior vice-president for the publishing firm Farrar, Straus and Giroux, lives in New York City and in Princeton, New Jersey. One of the virtues of the book is that it gives us the original text of the prayer as it first was spoken, before it was adapted or adopted by anyone else. (Niebuhr, faith-filled activist that he was, remained disappointed in life that so many people - such as those who began using it at AA meetings - had diluted the text to refer to the things that can be changed instead of the things that should be changed.) Here is the original text. Its words are just as meaningful in our era as they were 62 years ago. I invite you to make this one of your own prayer tools: God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,NEXT WEEK: Niebuhrs friend and stalwart witness against Nazi power in Germany, Pastor Martin Niemoller. This story was posted on 2007-08-05 07:10:23
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Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Commentary:
Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Paul Tillich, Part one David Rosenbaum takes issue with Tom Chaney review Rev. Joey N. Welsh: A Centenary of Sparrows Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Anne Frank, a Legacy in Words An essay, a poem: We're a community when we all pull together Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Of trees and thankfulness Rev. Joey N. Welsh: When life gives you a lemon, appreciate it Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Cumberland, Sweet William, and more Dr. Carter defines purpose of KHIPP candidate forums at CU Rev. Joey N. Welsh. February 4, 2007. A farewell View even more articles in topic Commentary |
 
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