“When the storms and fevers of this era are passed,
and modern civilization has achieved a social system which provides some basic
justice compatible with the necessities of a technical age, the perennial
problems of humanity will emerge once more. Religious insights which seem
inimical to moral progress and moral vigor will come into their own again.
There will be unjust men in this new society of justice; and good men will feel
that they are not as just as they ought to be. The perils of nature and the
inhumanities of man will continue to take their toll in human life.…
“Then men will see again the importance of
accommodating the vision of perfection to an imperfect world, without losing
the urge to perfect the world. In order to do this, they must find suggestions
of meaning in chaos and glimpses of ultimate perfection within imperfection.”--
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), “The Assurance of Grace,” in The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses,
edited by Robert MacAfee Brown (1986)
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