On the nature and destiny of man

Theologians abroad have been known to express concern at the apparent lack of interest in contemporary American Protestant thought, which Catholics on this side of the ocean display. If there were this lack of interest, the reasons for it would not be hard to find. American Protestants depend so much on German thinkers that one might as well read the Germans, especially since their theological work has a freshness which the Americans never quite seem to achieve. But there are more radical reasons. In the more important works published in America, profound metaphysical speculation is too frequently marred by a pervasive carelessness about the precise definition and meaning of abstract terms. Even fellow Protestant theologians, as one can gather from the reviews of such books, find it necessary to confess that the author's precise meaning in many points escapes them. The prevailing accent upon novelty and originality in speculation does not improve the situation. A cognate difficulty is the immense patience which the Catholic theologian must exercise with the Protestant theologian's misunderstanding and misstatement of Catholic doctrines about which there is no lack of clarity whatsoever. The Catholic knows the great cost, in terms of intellectual discipline, with which the precision and clarity of his theology are achieved and maintained. He finds it difficult to approach with sympathy any work which evades a similar intellectual discipline both in the precision of the author's own thinking and in the meticulous care with which contrary positions are presented. Both of these difficulties are encountered in The Nature and Destiny of Man, in which Professor Reinhold Niebuhr publishes his series of Gifford lectures. Even to Protestants who are more familiar with him, Niebuhr makes hard reading. He is much more difficult for a Catholic. Morever, he not unfrequently, however unwittingly, misstates the Catholic position. Yet it must be recognized that Niebuhr is a man of reputation amongst our Protestant brethren. He is known as the author of a series of books which have stamped him as a thinker "who is going politically to the Left and theologically to the Right." He has been for a number of years professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. These lectures were given at the University of Edinburgh in a chair which has been occupied by Archbishop Temple and Sir Charles Sherrington, discussing the same subject matter. He was chosen, therefore, to represent American Protestant theology in a very distinguished setting. These facts may justify the present attempt to set forth some of the salient ideas of Professor Niebuhr's two volumes. Because of the difficulty alluded to above, there is a not inconsiderable danger that this review may in some instances fail of perfect accuracy in representing Niebuhr's views. To minimize this danger we shall, so far as possible, let the