Summarizes Niebuhr's faith journey as seen through the lens of his major works

Abingdon Pillars of Theology is a series for the college and seminary classroom designed to help students grasp the basic and necessary facts, influence, and significance of major theologians. Written by noted scholars, these books will outline the context, methodology, organizing principles, primary contributions, and key writings of people who have shaped theology as we know it today. Dr. Donald Shriver tells us that H. Richard Niebuhr wrote about God in a serious yet joyous exploration. This book summarizes Niebuhr's faith journey as seen through the lens of his major works. While Neibuhr did mean to move his readers to think, struggle, argue, and even pray, he expected nothing less from himself. It is the hope of the author that by reading this book, readers will be better prepared to travel a path of their own.

In this careful analysis and evaluation of the monumental influence of Niebuhr, Werpehowski traces four streams that flow from Niebuhr's theology, particularly as it deals with ethics. In a tightly knit and comprehensive investigation of the work of four contemporary ethicists, important in their own right, Paul Ramsey, Stanley Hauerwas, James Gustafson, and Kathryn Tanner, Werpehowski explores how the legacy of Niebuhr has made an impact on their thought and work. He presents a clear, concise, nuanced, analytical criticism of the development of the four ethicist's construction of ethics-and does it in a way that interweaves and puts the four into a dialogue and conversation with Niebuhr and each other. Addressing a number of substantive issues, including the viability of just war tradition and the relationship between "church" and "world," American Protestant Ethics and the Legacy of H. Richard Niebuhr demonstrates that Christian ethics operates within a set of polar tensions and that such "conversations" as are developed within need to be a part of moral discourse inside and between a variety of communities of faith.

A revision of the author's thesis entitled: Faith in total life, Utrecht, 1966.

Previous studies of H. Richard Niebuhr's intellectual background have fallen into two groups: those that stress the German and especially Kantian sources of Niebuhr's thought, and those that emphasize the American and especially pragmatic sources of his thought. Joseph S. Pagano provides a way beyond these seemingly antagonistic positions. Through careful readings of the philosophical background of the triadic structure, Pagano demonstrates that Niebuhr's intellectual background was both Kantian and pragmatic. He also provides the first book-length study of the development of the triadic structure of faith in Niebuhr's theology and ethics. This book is a particularly insightful reference for scholars in ethics, religious studies, theology, philosophy, and church history.