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73 N.C. L. Rev. 1567 (1994-1995)
Church-State Relations and the Social Ethics of Reinhold Niebuhr

handle is hein.journals/nclr73 and id is 1579 raw text is: CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS AND THE SOCIAL ETHICS OF REINHOLD NIEBUHR THOMAS C. BERG* In this Article, Professor Thomas C. Berg explores the life and writings of Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), using Niebuhr's theology and social philosophy as a basis for approaching issues of religion and politics, church and state. Niebuhr's philosophy, Professor Berg suggests, provides a framework for a politics that, without being cynical, recognizes limits on human capacities to achieve perfection through any social or political ideal-in Niebuhr's own words, a system of proximate solutions to insoluble problems. Such a framework in America, Professor Berg argues, demands a government that is neither purely secularized nor purely sanctified-in legal terms, a government that accommodates religion instead of actively establishing or suppressing it. In a Niebuhrian world, religious viewpoints and insights must be able to participate in the making of secular policy, but religious citizens and activists should remain humble about translating ultimate values directly into solutions for political problems. The government should also permit religiously affiliated institutions providing education and social services to participate in government-funded programs in those areas, and government should recognize its limits by allowing conscientious religious objections to general laws. To many observers, debates in the past decade over church-state relations often have been frustratingly polarized. On one side, groups committed to a highly secular government and political system argue that religion is a backward and divisive force standing in the way of society's progress toward mutual understanding and tolerance. On the other side, traditionalist religious groups claim that secular forces * Associate Professor of Law, Cumberland Law School, Samford University. B.S., Northwestern University; M.A., University of Oxford; M.A., ID., University of Chicago. I received encouragement and helpful comments on previous drafts from Maureen Kane Berg, Angela Carmella, Daniel Conkle, Mike Floyd, William Marshall, Martin Marty, Randy Newman, Trisha Olson, William Ross, the Hon. Dale Segrest, David Smolin, and the participants in Cumberland Law School's Colloquium on Law, Religion, and Culture.

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