Links + Resources

The Reinhold Niebuhr Papers
[http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/niebuhr.html]
The manuscript reading room at the Library of Congress houses an extensive collection of Niebuhr's papers, including correspondence, typescripts, and photographs. This is the best place to start for researchers of Niebuhr's life. And, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter's collection is held in the same location and contains over 100 letters involving Niebuhr.

Niebuhr Audio Collection
[http://gargoyle.union-psce.edu/tutorial/IRC/Pages/NiebuhrCDs.htm]
Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia holds an extensive collection of recordings by Reinhold Niebuhr on CD that are available for purchase. Most of the audio was recorded after Niebuhr's stroke in 1952.

Oral History Interview with Niebuhr
[http://www.alexanderstreet6.com/orhi/orhi.detail.interviews.asp?id=4368]
The Columbia University Oral History Research Collection contains a 1953 interview with Reinhold Niebuhr. The interview includes his comments on his early life and education, his experience in Detroit, and his theological reflections of the time. The collection holds a transcript of the interview; the audio was not preserved.

Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit
[http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=bhlead&idno=umich-bhl-9937]
This archive at the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Society contains a collection of church records and images from Niebuhr's time as pastor in Detroit.

Writings by Reinhold Niebuhr
[http://www.religion-online.org/listbycategory.asp?Cat=37]
This site contains free electronic copies of Niebuhr's writings, including The Irony and Destiny of Man, Moral Man and Immoral Society, and the essay "A View from the Sidelines." It also provides a selection of work by Reinhold's brother, H. Richard Niebuhr.

Union Theological Seminary
[http://www.utsnyc.edu/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=408&srcid=-2]
Site for the seminary in New York City where Niebuhr taught for over 30 years.

The Serenity Prayer and Alcoholics Anonymous
[http://www.hazelden.org/servlet/hazelden/cms/ptt/hazl_alive_and_free.html?sf=t&sh=t&page_id=25483]
Hazelden, a nationally renowned addiction treatment center, provides a history of the "Serenity Prayer" prayer and its introduction to members of AA.

Surfwax, on Niebuhr
[http://news.surfwax.com/authors/files/Reinhold_Niebuhr_Book.html]
This news aggregator compiles a list of recent articles referencing Reinhold Niebuhr.

Correspondence Between Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr
[http://www.ucc.org/theology/brothers.htm]
Sponsored by the United Church of Christ, the site features a number of letters from 1932 exchanged between the two brothers, as published in Christian Century, about whether U.S. military intervention in the Japan/China conflict of the time would be a "just" or "unjust" war.

The Martin Luther King Jr Papers Project at Stanford University
[http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/]
The King Papers Project is a major research effort to assemble and disseminate historical information concerning Martin Luther King, Jr. and the social movements in which he participated. The site includes King's early 1950s essays "Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethical Dualism" and "The Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr."

Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
[http://www.adaction.org/index.htm]
Site of the progressive political organization Reinhold Niebuhr founded in 1947 with the help of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Hubert H. Humphrey, and other notable figures.