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OXFORD THEOLOGY AND RELIGION
MONOGRAPHS
Editorial Committee
J . BARTON M. J. EDWARDS
P. S. FIDDES G. D. FLOOD
D. N. J. MACCULLOCH C. C. ROWLAND
 OXFORD THEOLOGY AND RELIGION MONOGRAPHS

ETHNICITY AND THE MIXED MARRIAGE CRISIS IN EZRA 9–10

An Anthropological Approach
Katherine E. Southwood (2012)
DIVINE PRODUCTION IN LATE MEDIEVAL TRINITARIAN
THEOLOGY
Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus, and William Ockham
JT Paasch (2012)
THE SALVATION OF ATHEISTS AND CATHOLIC DOGMATIC
THEOLOGY
Stephen Bullivant (2012)
COMEDY AND FEMINIST INTERPRETATION OF THE HEBREW
BIBLE
A Subversive Collaboration
Melissa A. Jackson (2012)
THE STORY OF ISRAEL IN THE BOOK OF QOHELET
Ecclesiastes as Cultural Memory
Jennie Barbour (2012)
THE ANTI-PELAGIAN CHRISTOLOGY OF AUGUSTINE
OF HIPPO, 396–430
Dominic Keech (2012)
VISIONARY RELIGION AND RADICALISM IN EARLY INDUSTRIAL
ENGLAND
From Southcott to Socialism
Philip Lockley (2012)
REPENTANCE IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Eastern Asceticism and the Framing of the Christian Life c.400–650 CE
Alexis C. Torrance (2012)
SCHELLING’S THEORY OF SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE
Forming the System of Identity
Daniel Whistler (2013)
PATMOS IN THE RECEPTION HISTORY OF THE APOCALYPSE
Ian Boxall (2013)
 The Theological
Vision of Reinhold
Niebuhr’s The Irony
of American History
“In the Battle and Above It”

SCOTT R. ERWIN

1
 3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
# Scott R. Erwin 2013
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2013
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 978–0–19–967837–2
Printed in Great Britain by
the CPI Group (UK) Ltd
 Contents

Acknowledgments vi

Introduction 1
1. From Tragedy to Beyond Tragedy: The Development
of Niebuhr’s Christian Understanding of History 24
Political Cynicism and a Tragic View of History 27
Paul Tillich and the Category of Myth 36
The Cross and a Viewpoint Beyond Tragedy 47
2. “In the Battle and Above It”: Niebuhr’s Nature and
Destiny of Man and World War II 53
The Gathering Storm 56
Human Nature 62
Christianity and Crisis 67
In the Battle and Above It 73
Human Destiny 77
3. Discerning the Signs of the Times: The Relevance of
Niebuhr’s Theological Vision to the Cold War 87
Illusions of History and the Signs of the Times 90
Christian Hope and the Pinnacle of the Faith 102
Korea, Nuclear Arms, and Delusions of Vainglory 113
4. The Irony of The Irony of American History 119
Niebuhr and Barth: The “Super-Theologians” Meet 121
The Irony of American History 130
Where is the Theology? 133
Lincoln as “America’s Greatest Theologian” 140
Conclusion 152

Bibliography 163
Index 181
 Acknowledgments

There are many people to whom acknowledgment is due.

First is Walter Russell Mead, who introduced me to Reinhold
Niebuhr through a seemingly innocent research request and encour-
aged me to study theology.
As this monograph is a modified version of my doctoral thesis
completed at the University of Oxford, I am hugely indebted to many
individuals in this community. First, I am indebted to Dr Joel Ras-
mussen, my DPhil supervisor, for striking a judicious balance be-
tween encouragement and challenge in his guidance. I am also
grateful to Joel for “godfathering” the process by which I turned my
doctoral thesis into a monograph and, more generally, for the stead-
fast friendship given by him, Tanya, and the boys. Second, I am
grateful for the support of Dr Charlotte Methuen, my MPhil super-
visor, who saw academic potential in my fascination for Niebuhr’s
description of Abraham Lincoln as “America’s greatest theologian.”
Third, I would like to thank Professor Nigel Biggar for the sage
guidance he provided me throughout my project and to his wife,
Ginny, for adopting me into the Christian Ethics community. Fourth,
I would like to acknowledge the many other academics whose tutelage
had an influence on my work: Professor George Pattison; Professor
Sarah Foot; Professor John Barton; Dr Johannes Zackhhuber;
Dr Mark Chapman; Dr Jay Sexton; Reverend Charles Brock; Dr Mark
Edwards. In particular, I want to recognize Donald Hay for his wise
counsel and the spiritual guidance that he and his wife, Elizabeth, have
and continue to provide. Finally, I am grateful to the Rhodes Trust not
only for the generous financial support of my academic studies but also
for exposing me to a truly remarkable community of scholars. Special
thanks to Sir Colin Lucas and Professor Don Markwell for their stew-
ardship of the Trust and to Mary Eaton, Sheila Partridge, John Gee, Bob
Wyllie, and Colin Page for making Rhodes House such a lovely place to
call home in Oxford.
Beyond the Oxford community, I have also benefited from the
insights of number of other academics. Dr Martin Halliwell, a Nie-
buhr scholar at the University of Leicester, taught me a great about
the theologian and about the practical aspects of academia as well.
 Acknowledgments vii
Dr Will Inboden of the University of Texas at Austin provided sound
advice as I crafted my sections on Niebuhr’s activity during the Cold
War. Christian Sahner, a doctoral student at Princeton University,
read and commented upon a number of draft chapters. Finally, I am
grateful for my undergraduate professors at the University of Rich-
mond, Dr Gary McDowell and Dr Akiba Covitz in particular, for
supervising my initial studies of Abraham Lincoln and his religious
beliefs.
I am also deeply indebted to a host of dedicated and talented
library administrators and researchers without whom I could not
have conducted the primary and secondary research necessary to
complete this work. I want to thank Jane Rawson and her colleagues
at the Rothermere American Institute in Oxford for countenancing
my presence in the library on a near daily basis for three years. I am
equally grateful to Elizabeth Birchall at the Theology Faculty Library
and Janet McMullin and Cristina Neagu at Christ Church Library for
their support.
Writing from England about an influential American theologian is
not without logistical challenges. This burden was made increasingly
lighter thanks to the helpfulness of Joseph Lemelin, Elizabeth Mir-
aglia, and Seth Kasten from The Burke Theological Library at Union
Theological Seminary in locating and scanning numerous articles
written by Niebuhr. Elizabeth deserves specific praise for her critical
research support in the closing stages of this project. I am also grateful
to Linda Offineer at Westminster College’s Reeves Library for her
investigative work that shed light on Niebuhr’s Green Lectures that
served as the basis for Irony. Finally, I want to recognize Bruce Kirby
and the entire staff of the Manuscript Reading Room at the Library of
Congress where Niebuhr’s papers are housed.
I am deeply grateful to the Theological Monographs Committee,
chaired by Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch, for giving me the opportunity
to publish this work. In addition, I would like to thank Tom Perridge
and Lizzie Robottom at Oxford University Press for overseeing the
publication process and their valuable assistance more generally.
I want to also recognize my parents, Bob and Karen Erwin. Both
are voracious readers and instilled in me a love of learning from a
young age.
Finally, I thank my wife, Nita who is as foundational to this work as
Niebuhr himself. Without her courage, wisdom, and inspiration, this
book would be unwritten.
Scott Erwin
This page intentionally left blank
 Introduction

Reinhold Niebuhr was following in the footsteps of a giant when he

approached the podium and cast his eyes over the crowded gymna-
sium. Invited by Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, to give the
1949 John Findlay Green Lectures, Niebuhr, a Missouri native, was
the first Green Lecturer since former Prime Minister Winston
Churchill. In the same gymnasium three years prior, the “British
Bulldog” had issued a clarion call to the Western world with his
“Iron Curtain Address.” Churchill’s warning that the Soviet Union
desired “all the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their
powers and doctrines,” had struck some at the time as an act of
aggression against a fellow Allied power.1 The intervening years had
proven him correct, however, as the Soviet Union consolidated its
control over Eastern Europe and clashed with the countries of West-
ern Europe. Indeed, the week of Niebuhr’s address marked the first
major setback in Joseph Stalin’s breathtaking power grab—the an-
nounced end of the Soviet blockade of Berlin. Rather than discuss the
Soviet threat, however, Niebuhr focused his address on the United
States and specifically on how the Christian faith could help illumin-
ate the country’s responsibilities in the new world order. Over the
course of two lectures entitled “This Nation Under God,” the theolo-
gian challenged the country to strike a balance between remaining
morally resolute in its defense of Western civilization while maintain-
ing its awareness of the common frailties that bound it to its current
foe. The eventual result of these lectures, The Irony of American
History, published in 1952, was a penetrating exposition on the

1
Winston Churchill, “Mr. Churchill’s Address Calling for United Effort for World
Peace: TRUMAN AND CHURCHILL IN MISSOURI,” The New York Times, March
6, 1946, p. 4.
2 Introduction
character of the country. The work remains one of the most widely
cited meditations on America and its role in the world.

Given the range and magnitude of Niebuhr’s corpus, any commentary

on the theologian will offer only a partial view, and any effort to
summarize his thinking will likely be incomplete. This likelihood is no
doubt exacerbated by the fact that Niebuhr’s writings are notoriously
unsystematic. Nevertheless, this book argues that there was a discernible
vision animating Niebuhr’s writings, especially during the peak years of
his influence—beginning with the United States’s 1941 entry into
World War II and concluding with his 1952 publication of The Irony
of American History. Best expressed in a frequently overlooked article
Niebuhr wrote in the early months of World War II, the highest ideal to
which a Christian could strive was to be “in the battle and above it”:
To be in the battle means to defend a cause against its peril, to protect a
nation against its enemies, to strive for truth against error, to defend
justice against injustice. To be above the battle means that we under-
stand how imperfect the cause is which we defend, that we contritely
acknowledge the sins of our own nations, that we recognize the
common humanity which binds us to even the most terrible of foes,
and that we know also of our common need of grace and forgiveness.2
Niebuhr, in this instance, called on Americans to steady their resolve
in the struggle against the Axis powers and simultaneously encour-
aged them to look beyond the immediate battle and remain humble
amidst the conflict. More generally, however, this vision—a modern-
ized gloss on St. Paul’s affirmation that Christians are to be in but not
of the world—was behind Niebuhr’s approach to the majority of
historical conflicts in which he would engage. This book will explore
Niebuhr’s vision in detail, make clear the respects in which it is a
theological vision, and show how it informed his writings on current
affairs.

2
Niebuhr, “In the Battle and Above It,” Christianity and Society, 7 (Autumn 1942),
p. 3. The only commentary that features the article “In the Battle and Above It,” is
Charles C. Brown, Niebuhr and His Age: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Prophetic Role and
Legacy (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992), p. 107.
 Introduction 3
Although almost forty years have passed since he last commented
on global affairs, Niebuhr remains at the center of a national conver-
sation about America’s role in the world. Commentators with diver-
gent political and religious positions frequently find themselves in a
proverbial “tug of war” to claim his legacy.3 One camp typically
presents Niebuhr as a prophetic figure whose greatest contribution
was his ability to expose the hubris that resulted from America’s
hegemony. Boston University historian Andrew Bacevich exemplifies
this “above the battle” view. He characterizes the “Niebuhrian per-
spective” as one which views America’s “combination of arrogance
and narcissism” as setting it on a course of “willful self-destruction.”4
The opposing “in the battle” camp presents Niebuhr as a paragon
of moral engagement who argued for decisive action on the part
of the United States against evil threats. Political theorist Joseph
Loconte, for instance, ascribes to Niebuhr the belief that “in a
world full of sin, civilized nations must strive for justice . . . with
‘ambiguous methods’—unsavory alliances, deception, massive
military strikes.”5 This phenomenon has played out most recently
in debates over U.S. involvement in Libya and Iraq but has been
ongoing since Niebuhr’s own time. As social critic Sydney Hook
observed in 1974, “There must be something extremely paradoxical
in the thought of Reinhold Niebuhr to make so many who are so far
apart in their own allegiances feel akin to him.”6 While at times
scholars seem willing to acknowledge that Niebuhr held a more
nuanced view than the competing perspectives ascribed to him
today, few appear willing to acknowledge that Niebuhr gave equal
weight to being both in and above the battle.7

3
For a useful overview of the recent Niebuhr revival, see Richard Crouter, Rein-
hold Niebuhr: On Politics, Religion, and Christian Faith (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2010), pp. 9–11.
4
Andrew Bacevich, The Limits of American Power: The End of American Excep-
tionalism (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008), pp. 7, 182.
5
Joseph Loconte, “The War Party’s Theologian,” The Wall Street Journal, May 31,
2002.
6
Sydney Hook, “The Moral Vision of Reinhold Niebuhr,” in Pragmatism and the
Tragic Sense of Life (New York: Basic Books, 1974), p. 185.
7
Commentators on both sides of this debate must realize that Niebuhr held a more
balanced view than they accord him but seem to lose sight of this fact in the war of
words over Niebuhr’s legacy. David Brooks, for instance, in a 2002 article on Niebuhr
offers a relatively balanced assessment of Niebuhr’s dual aims in The Irony of
American History, “A Man on a Gray Horse,” The Atlantic Monthly, September
2002, pp. 24–5.
4 Introduction
At the center of the current struggle to claim Niebuhr’s legacy is his
1952 work, The Irony of American History, due in part to its republi-
cation in 2008.8 Written against the backdrop of the emerging Cold
War era, Irony is a perceptive reflection on the character of the United
States. On the one hand, Niebuhr warned against the self-righteous
tendencies of an “adolescent” America that was growing into its role
as a global leader; on the other hand, he urged the country to continue
to defend Western civilization from the intractable threat of the
Soviet Union. The primary irony of history which Niebuhr identified
was that America, despite being at the height of global influence
following World War II, faced greater existential threats than ever
before due to the extent of its foreign commitments and the advent of
nuclear weaponry. As he observed, “The pattern of the historical
drama grows more quickly than the strength of even the most
powerful . . . nation.”9 In the context of the Cold War, Niebuhr ex-
pressed equal concern that America’s standing in the world would
suffer from its unwillingness either to take “morally hazardous
action” in pursuit of noble ends or to engage in the necessary critical
self-evaluation to prevent it from assuming the very characteristics of
the Soviet Union it found most reprehensible. Individuals on both
sides of the present debate over his legacy can agree one point: Irony
is one of the most important works ever written on American foreign
policy.
What goes unnoticed today—and was also missed by many of
Niebuhr’s own contemporaries—is that Irony is a product of the “in
the battle and above it” orientation. The main reason for this over-
sight is that Niebuhr’s clearest communication of his theological
vision came through a meditation not on a traditional doctrinal
theme, but on a more proximate historical figure, Abraham Lincoln.
A lifelong admirer of the sixteenth president, Niebuhr concluded
Irony by referencing Lincoln’s actions during the American Civil
War and, more specifically, his ability to take the morally hazardous
steps necessary to secure victory for the North, while maintaining a
deep sense of magnanimity toward the South. Niebuhr highlighted
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, given in the waning days of the
war, when the president urged those loyal to the Union to act “with

8
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History, with a new introduction by
Andrew Bacevich (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008).
9
Niebuhr, Irony, p. 3.
 Introduction 5
malice toward none; with charity for all” in their relations with their
Confederate brethren and recall that “both sides read the same Bible
and prayed to the same God.”10 Niebuhr described Lincoln’s ap-
proach in terms of his “in the battle and above it” formulation: a
“combination of moral resoluteness about the immediate issues with
a religious awareness of another dimension” that gave him a “reli-
gious vantage point over the struggle.”11 Niebuhr would repeatedly
come back to Lincoln in his writings because he regarded him as the
best example of an individual taking decisive action to combat evil
while simultaneously remaining humble in the understanding that all
humanity is equally sinful in the eyes of God.
In what follows, I argue that Niebuhr viewed Lincoln not simply as
the paradigm of national leadership but, more importantly, as an
exemplar of his most profound theological views. Niebuhr identified
Lincoln as “America’s greatest theologian” on multiple occasions,12
but, despite this remarkable fact, scholars have largely chosen to ignore
Niebuhr’s words and others have discredited them as little more
than an historical infatuation.13 Niebuhr did inherit a love of Lincoln
from his father, Gustav, whose decision to immigrate to America
was partially “inspired . . . by a schoolboy’s admiration of Abraham
Lincoln, who was his constant political inspiration during his life-
time.”14 Moreover, the sixteenth president left an indelible imprint

10
As quoted in Niebuhr, Irony, pp. 171–2.
11
Niebuhr, Irony, p. 172.
12
June Bingham, Courage to Change: An Introduction to the Life and Thought of
Reinhold Niebuhr (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972), p. 310.
13
My interpretation is in direct contrast to political commentator Mac McCorckle,
who argues, “Niebuhr went no further than characterizing Lincoln as the model
statesman,” “On Recent Political Uses of Reinhold Niebuhr,” in Richard Harries
and Stephen Platten, eds, Reinhold Niebuhr and Contemporary Politics (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 38–9. For additional discussion of Niebuhr’s
reception of Lincoln, see Martin Halliwell, The Constant Dialogue: Reinhold Niebuhr
& American Intellectual Culture (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), pp. 18,
253–4, 260; Martin E. Marty, “Reinhold Niebuhr and The Irony of American History:
A Retrospective,” The History Teacher, 26:2 (February 1993), pp. 170–1; Martin
E. Marty, Religion and Republic: The American Circumstance (Boston: Beacon Press,
1987), pp. 117–18; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “Forgetting Reinhold Niebuhr,” New York
Times Book Review, September 18, 2005, p. G12.
14
Niebuhr, “Germany,” Worldview, 16:6 (June 1973), p. 14. Niebuhr, in a letter to
June Bingham, further explained that his father had come to appreciate Lincoln
through Karl Schurz, a nineteenth-century German revolutionary turned American
statesman who had served under Lincoln in the Civil War, Niebuhr to June Bingham,
6 Introduction
on Niebuhr’s own childhood, in part because Niebuhr grew up in
Lincoln, Illinois—the only town named for Lincoln prior to his becom-
ing president—and attended elementary school in the shadow of the
courthouse where Lincoln had once practiced law. Niebuhr’s lifelong
admiration of Lincoln should not be reason to dismiss his body of
writings on the sixteenth president—which include five feature pieces
or chapter sections and dozens of other references—but rather to
examine these particular writings more closely. These writings bring
into sharp focus the degree to which Niebuhr’s “in the battle and above
it” orientation—one he saw embodied by Lincoln—was rooted in
Christianity and, moreover, they demonstrate how Irony, despite its
susceptibility to de-Christianized readings, is a fundamentally theo-
logical work.

II

That Niebuhr’s Christian commitments had significant bearing on his

writings should be clear from a cursory glance at his biography. At an
early age Niebuhr decided to enter ministry, thereby following in the
footsteps of his father, a well-known preacher in the German Evan-
gelical Synod.15 Educated at Eden Theological Seminary outside of
St. Louis, Missouri, Niebuhr then pursued bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in divinity at Yale University, which he completed in 1917.
Following his ministerial training and graduate work, Niebuhr spent
thirteen years as a pastor to a small congregation in Detroit before
accepting a teaching position at Union Theological Seminary in New

Niebuhr Papers, n.d., Box 26. It is further understandable that Gustav would be
naturally drawn to Lincoln. Historian Barry Schwartz makes clear that Lincoln’s
humble origins and image as a self-made man held great appeal among immi-
grants—especially German Protestants—looking to establish themselves in America,
Barry Schwartz, Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 138.
15
Based in the mid-west the Synod was not “evangelical” in the modern religious
sense but rather in a traditional German one—it was a transplant of the Union
Church of Prussia formed in the 1817 merger by state decree of the Lutheran and
Reformed churches. For more information on the German Evangelical Synod and
Gustav Niebuhr, see William G. Chrystal, “A Man of the Hour and Time: The Legacy
of Gustav Niebuhr,” Church History, 49 (1980), pp. 416–32.
 Introduction 7
York City that he would retain until the last decade of his life.
Theology was a family affair for Niebuhr. His wife, Ursula, was the
first woman to graduate with first-class honors in theology from
Oxford University and later founded the religion department at
Barnard College in New York. Niebuhr’s younger brother, Richard,
taught Christian ethics at Yale for three decades.16 Reinhold was
selected to give the prestigious Gifford Theological Lectures in
1939–1940, an honor he described as second only to his receipt of
the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. These lectures were
published as two separate works, Human Nature and Human Des-
tiny, in 1941 and 1943 respectively. While Niebuhr may be better
known for his political advocacy during these years of global conflict
and the ones that followed, it is important to note that the vast
majority of his articles on American foreign policy appeared in
Christian magazines, most notably, Christianity and Crisis, the maga-
zine he founded in 1941.17
Despite these biographical facts, many modern commentators
appear unaware of—or do not care to acknowledge—Niebuhr’s theo-
logical background. Indeed, Bacevich perpetuates this misconception
today by failing to address even in passing Niebuhr’s religious pre-
suppositions and commitments in the introduction he authored for
the 2008 republished edition of Irony.18 While Bacevich’s oversight is
particularly egregious, his efforts to isolate Niebuhr’s political writings
place him in good company. Already during Niebuhr’s own lifetime,
there were those who attempted to draw important conclusions from
Niebuhr’s political analysis without accepting most, if any, of his
theological premises. These individuals, coined “Atheists for

16
Hulda, Niebuhr’s older sister, worked in religious education at a number of
academic institutions in New York. Compared to Richard, she gets short shrift in
biographies of Niebuhr although he often called her the most talented theologian in
the family and explained that his lone criticism of his father was his assumption that
“girls didn’t need or want university training,” Niebuhr, Columbia Oral History
Project, interviewed by Allan Nevins, p. 7.
17
Keith Hulsether, Building a Protestant Left: Christianity and Crisis Magazine,
1941–1993 (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1999), pp. 24–5.
18
Leon Wieseltier, a literary critic and student of Niebuhr, has criticized his
fellow commentators for “skipping all the religious stuff ” in their discussions of
Niebuhr. He goes further to remind them that Niebuhr was a “professor at Union
Theological Seminary not a fellow at the Center for American Progress [a prominent
Washington-based think tank],” “Reinie and Woody,” The New Republic, September
11–18, 2006.
8 Introduction
Niebuhr” by philosopher Morton White, included such prominent
figures as social critic Sidney Hook, political philosopher Hans Mor-
genthau, historian Arthur Schlesinger, and Supreme Court Justice
Felix Frankfurter.19 Hook was perhaps the most adamant member
of the group as can be seen from his 1956 observation, “Not a single
one of the positions that Niebuhr takes on the momentous issues of
social and political life is dependent on his theology.”20 Others such
as Schlesinger and Frankfurter acknowledge the important role of
Niebuhr’s theological presuppositions to his own political beliefs but
deny their necessity to arrive at similar conclusions. Despite this, their
respect for Niebuhr’s religious commitments was real, as is evidenced
by a 2005 article authored by Schlesinger in which he explained that
Niebuhr’s theological contributions, more than any other aspect of
his thought, made him indispensable in the twenty-first century no
matter how “uncomfortable” they made him personally.21
Niebuhr bears some responsibility for the failure of many to
recognize the importance of the theological basis of his political
writings, particularly regarding those works written later in his career.
As his public stature increased throughout the 1940s—he graced the
cover of Time magazine in 1948 as “America’s most influential reli-
gious figure”—Niebuhr was increasingly able to appeal to a larger and
more diverse constituency.22 As a result, he adjusted the way in which
he communicated his views. Larry Rasmussen, professor of Christian
Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, notes that Niebuhr increas-
ingly “cast his case in ways which left his Christian presuppositions
and convictions unspoken” in his later writings.23 The company he

19
Morgenthau was explicit both in his indebtedness to Niebuhr’s political views
and his respectful disregard for the theologian’s religious ones. He famously noted
that he and Niebuhr “come out pretty much the same on politics, but I do not need all
his [theology] to get where we both get.” For more information on the dynamic
relationship between Niebuhr and Morgenthau, see Daniel Rice, “Reinhold Niebuhr
and Hans Morgenthau: A Friendship with Contrasting Shades of Realism,” Journal of
American Studies, 42 (2008) August, pp. 255–91. Historian Perry Miller’s review of
Niebuhr’s Pious and Secular America struck a similar chord. He explained he was one
of those that “have copiously availed themselves of Niebuhr’s conclusions without
pretending to share his basic, and to him, indispensable premise,” “The Influence of
Reinhold Niebuhr,” The Reporter, 18, no. 9 (1958) pp. 39–40.
20
Sidney Hook, “A New Failure of Nerve,” Partisan Review, 10 (January–February
1943), p. 15.
21
Schlesinger, “Forgetting Reinhold Niebuhr,” p. G12.
22
Whitaker Chambers, “Faith for a Lenten Age,” Time, March 8, 1948, p. 76.
23
Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life (New York:
Collins Liturgical Publications, 1991), p. 3.
 Introduction 9
kept also influenced his writing approach. The latter half of the 1940s
saw Niebuhr increasingly move beyond the ecclesiastical circles he
had inhabited to engage political and social leaders with non-theo-
logical backgrounds.24 These interactions with important decision-
makers, many of whom were unmoved by theological appeals, were
another reason behind the increasing tendency for Niebuhr to articu-
late his religiously motivated views in a form that was amenable to a
non-religious audience.25 Irony reflects this tendency to a certain
extent. Religious scholar Martin Marty acknowledges that the work
does not often “put non-believers at a total disadvantage,” in part
because of the audience for which it was intended.26
Nevertheless Niebuhr’s guiding theological vision is readily appar-
ent in the pages of his later writings, including Irony. Niebuhr clearly
states that a non-theological reading of the work would result in an
interpretation best described as “‘subjective,’ ‘imaginative,’ ‘capri-
cious,’ ‘superimposed’ . . . and ‘arbitrary.’”27 Unsurprisingly, those
adjectives are fairly representative of the reception that Irony receives
today. There has been commentary in recent years supporting the
belief that Niebuhr’s theology and politics are not readily separable.
Most notably, Robin Lovin, a professor of Christian ethics at South-
ern Methodist University, has shed light on the interplay between the
two. Lovin provides the broad outline for how Niebuhr’s political
views developed from his theological disposition. Although he does

24
In 1947 he joined with Schlesinger and Democratic Party leaders Eleanor
Roosevelt and Elmer Davis to found Americans for Democratic Action, an organiza-
tion to combat Communism abroad and advance progressive domestic policies. That
same year he joined the Council on Foreign Relations, an influential organization in
New York that included among its membership cabinet officials and corporate
executives. Niebuhr was most active in his advisory role to the State Department,
however, which developed out of his relationship with George Kennan, the influential
diplomat credited with authoring the containment policy that would define the
U.S. approach during the early stages of the Cold War. Kennan, in his capacity as
the Director of Policy Planning for the State Department, officially sought Niebuhr’s
advice on multiple occasions.
25
Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life, pp. 12–14. For evidence
that Niebuhr had a different audience in mind, Niebuhr’s correspondence with
Schlesinger prior to the publication of Irony reveals that he shared a draft of Irony
with the historian, see Ursula Niebuhr, ed., Remembering Reinhold Niebuhr: Letters of
Reinhold and Ursula M. Niebuhr (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991), pp. 370–91.
26
Marty, “Reinhold Niebuhr and The Irony of American History,” p. 169.
27
Marty, “Reinhold Niebuhr and The Irony of American History,” p. 166, referring
to Niebuhr, Irony, pp. vii, 151–2.
10 Introduction
not examine this connection in great detail, Lovin’s main contribution
(given the unsystematic nature of Niebuhr’s thought) is primarily to
explain what this relationship is not—namely, a direct progression
from the theological to the political. Rather, Lovin explains that it is
better to understand Niebuhr’s theological beliefs as forming a dispos-
ition or perspective from which to view the world.28 Importantly, Lovin
uses terms remarkably similar to the “in the battle and above it”
formulation in describing this disposition: “retain[ing] the prophetic
grasp of ‘the total and ultimate human situation’ while dealing with
immediate problems.”29
Making this connection between Niebuhr’s theological disposition
and his political writings is critical, and it is not enough to rely solely
on Niebuhr’s biography, as many commentators have done.30 Stanley
Hauerwas, a Christian ethicist at Duke University, picks up on this
point in his observation, “Niebuhr thought that everything he said
was in someway grounded in his theological concerns . . . But while
this may be true biographically Niebuhr was not able to show con-
ceptually why his particular judgments were necessarily related to
Niebuhr’s interpretation of Christianity.”31 Hauerwas rightly points
out that it is necessary but not sufficient to prove by reference to
Niebuhr’s life story that he arrived at his political conclusions through
his theological beliefs. Clearly articulating the principles at the core of
Niebuhr’s thought is important, therefore, especially given his ten-
dency to avoid doing so himself. For this reason, we now turn to the

28
Lovin explains what he means by the term “disposition”: “[Niebuhr’s] political
choices, however, are not deduced directly from theology. Theology forms habits of
judgment and observation. It supports a certain way of attending to people and their
interests,” “Reinhold Niebuhr: Impact and Implications,” Political Theology, 6:4
(2005) p. 465. Lovin is not the first scholar to describe Niebuhr’s theological founda-
tion as a disposition. James Gustafson explained that for Niebuhr the “revelation of
God’s grace” provides a “stance or basic disposition toward the world” in which “one
can be realistic and hopeful at once . . .” Christ and the Moral Life (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1968), p. 142.
29
Robin Lovin, “Prophetic Faith and American Democracy,” in Daniel Rice, ed.,
Reinhold Niebuhr Revisited: Engagements with an American Original (Grand Rapids,
MI: Eerdmans, 2009), p. 225.
30
Paul Merkley, Reinhold Niebuhr: A Political Account (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s
University Press, 1975), p. ix. See, on this point, Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett,
“Moral Man and Immoral Society: An Interview with Richard Wightman Fox,”
National Public Radio, December 8, 2004. Fox acknowledges that he failed to suffi-
ciently account for Niebuhr’s Nature and Destiny of Man, his main theological work.
31
Stanley Hauerwas, “The Search for the Historical Niebuhr,” The Review of
Politics, 38:3 (July 1976), p. 453.
 Introduction 11
distinction between immediate and ultimate judgment in history at
the core of Niebuhr’s theological vision.

III

Niebuhr’s theological writings were imbued with the desire to “search

for an adequate description of the situation which will allow for
discriminate judgments between good and evil on the one hand,
and which will, on the other, preserve the Biblical affirmation that
all men fall short before God’s judgment.”32 His first mature medita-
tion on this question is found in his 1937 work, Beyond Tragedy. In a
chapter entitled “The Ark and the Temple,” Niebuhr commented on
the biblical story of King David’s desire to build a temple in Jerusalem
to house the Ark of the Covenant, which had accompanied him
through many successful battles. David believed the Ark had repre-
sented the bestowal of divine blessing on his military triumphs. As a
result, he was taken aback when God denied his request on the basis
of David’s involvement in those triumphs.33 Niebuhr portrayed Da-
vid’s problem as having significance for modern Christians, stating,
“How can . . . [one] involved in the conflicts of life build a temple to a
God who transcends those conflicts and who judges the sins involved
in our highest values?”34 How humanity could remain deeply en-
gaged in the moral struggles in history while simultaneously appreci-
ating the imperfection of its cause was the animating question behind
Niebuhr’s theological inquiries. He believed the beginnings of an
answer could be found in David’s “uneasy conscience” resulting
from his “recognition of the sinfulness of all human goodness.”35
Sin was a fundamental building block of Niebuhr’s theology. Such
was Niebuhr’s preoccupation—and the degree to which many

32
Niebuhr, “Reply to Interpretations and Criticisms,” in Charles W. Kegley and
Robert W. Bretall, eds, Reinhold Niebuhr: His Religious, Social, and Political Thought
(New York: Macmillan, 1956), p. 437.
33
The relevant biblical passage is: “But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build a
house for my name, because thou has been a man of war and shed blood,”
I Chronicles 28:3.
34
Reinhold Niebuhr, Beyond Tragedy: Essays on the Christian Interpretation of
History (London: Nisbet, 1938), p. 56.
35
Niebuhr, Beyond Tragedy, p. 60.
12 Introduction
contemporary theologians dismissed the doctrine—that Time maga-
zine labeled him as the pastor who brought sin “back in fashion.”
Niebuhr viewed sin primarily as prideful egoism—the tendency on
the part of humans to usurp God and place themselves at the center of
the universe. Human beings exist at the paradoxical junction of
finitude and freedom, or what he often referred to as “standing in
and above nature.” Humans, like all creatures, are subject to the
vicissitudes of their environment. Yet humans, made in the image
of God, are also able to transcend their surroundings, take stock of
their situation and look beyond the immediate for meaning. While
possible to live in balance as creature and a creator, individuals
inevitably attempt to escape the ambiguity of this condition through
prideful self-assertion. Niebuhr, building on the work of Danish
philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, believed that this escape represented
a “qualitative leap” into sin.36 Niebuhr did not view finiteness in and
of itself as the basis of sin; rather he pointed to human unwillingness
to accept the determinate character of one’s existence. An individual,
according to Niebuhr, falls into sin when he seeks to raise his “con-
tingent existence to unconditioned significance.”37
Niebuhr, again like Kierkegaard, was less concerned with the
theological exposition of sin than with how it discloses the situation
of humanity in the modern context. An acknowledgment of one’s
fallen state, in his estimation, was a prerequisite for becoming a
responsible actor on the world’s stage. Only then could individuals
overcome the self-righteousness that obscures the difference between
immediate and ultimate judgments in history. As Niebuhr explained,
accepting sinfulness was a “religious achievement which requires that
the human tendency to claim a final position of judgment” be over-
come.38 If this “religious achievement” was necessary to navigate the
course of human events, he nonetheless believed it was not suffi-
cient—a sound interpretation of history also was required. History,
for Niebuhr, was not merely the study of past events; rather it was the
appreciation of our present surroundings given our existence as
creatures involved in—but not controlled by—the world around us.

36
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, Volume I: Human Nature
(London: Nisbet, 1941), p. 270, cited hereafter as Human Nature.
37
Niebuhr, Human Nature, p. 198.
38
Reinhold Niebuhr, Discerning the Signs of the Times: Sermons for Today and
Tomorrow (London: SCM Press, 1946), pp. 19–20.
 Introduction 13
As philosopher Richard Crouter perceptively notes, for Niebuhr,
“[H]istory is the stage upon which the drama of our human nature
plays out.”39 An understanding of history is therefore the mechanism
by which humans interpret and make intelligible the events through
which they live or, as Niebuhr explained, “discern the signs of the
times.” And it is the Christian faith, according to Niebuhr, that best
equips individuals with a “system of order and coherence” to inter-
pret these times and respond accordingly.
A Christian interpretation of history derives its structure and
meaning from God, an actor both in and beyond the boundaries of
history. In contrast, secular interpretations of history focus solely on
the course of events, leaving them ill-equipped to address what
Niebuhr saw as the contradiction at the center of human affairs: the
need to distinguish between good and evil while acknowledging the
universal corruption of all humanity. Ultimately, for Niebuhr, only a
Christian interpretation makes sense of this paradox; God’s redemp-
tive action in history provides clear direction through the mediating
figure of Jesus Christ and, in particular, His death on the Cross.
Niebuhr writes, “It is God who suffers for man’s iniquity. He takes
the sins of the world upon and into Himself. That is to say the
contradictions are resolved in history; but they are only ultimately
resolved on the level of the eternal and divine.”40 Just how did the
“vicarious suffering of the representative of God” resolve the contra-
dictions of history? God’s necessary intervention at Calvary attests
that historical actions carry serious consequences. The way in which
God intervenes, however, reveals the false distinction humans wish to
make between the righteous and unrighteous. God conquers the
brokenness of the world by taking on Himself the punishment that
humanity deserved, thus confirming the universality of sin. As Nie-
buhr summarized, “[T]he judgment of God preserves the distinction
of good and evil in history; and the mercy of God finally overcomes
the sinful corruption in which man is involved . . .”41
If the death of the suffering servant reveals how we could maintain
moral responsibility in a fallen world, Niebuhr believed the Resurrec-
tion gave people the hope to do so. Jesus Christ’s victory over death

39
Crouter, Reinhold Niebuhr, p. 20.
40
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, Volume II: Human Destiny
(London: Nisbet, 1943), p. 47, cited hereafter as Human Destiny.
41
Niebuhr, Human Destiny, p. 71.
14 Introduction
pointed to a divine fulfillment of history in which the Kingdom of
God would emerge out of the broken world of humanity. The future
promise contained within this understanding of history emboldened
Christians to live out their lives in the present with a great faith and
security. As Niebuhr explained in the powerful conclusion to his 1945
work, The Children of Light and Darkness, the Resurrection means
that God will “complete what even the highest human striving must
leave incomplete, and . . . purify all the corruptions which appear in
even the purest human aspirations.”42 Niebuhr viewed such hope as
not only the bedrock of the Christian faith but also a “prerequisite for
the diligent fulfillment of our historic tasks.”43 How else could indi-
viduals continue to make immediate judgments in history while also
being aware of the sinful tendencies that ultimately clouded all
human judgments? Indeed, he explained that without Christian
hope, humanity was destined for despair and a tragic view of history.
What distinguishes the Christian interpretation of history, for Nie-
buhr, is that it “understands the fragmentary and broken character of
all historic achievements and yet has the confidence in their meaning
because it knows their completion to be in the hands of a Divine
Power.”44
Niebuhr’s critics, as well as his many supporters, do not typically
associate such Christocentric beliefs with Niebuhr. For example,
theologian Sam Wells criticizes Niebuhr for his “unwillingness to
take seriously . . . the full humanity and the full divinity of Christ.”45
Such readings appear misguided in light of Niebuhr’s theological and
homiletic writings, which, when read selectively, appear to place him
firmly within the camp of historic orthodox Protestantism. To do so,
however, would fail to acknowledge that Niebuhr’s view of Christian
doctrine—most notably his symbolic understanding of central Chris-
tian events—was profoundly influenced by liberal Protestantism.46

42
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness:
A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of its Traditional Defense (London: Nisbet,
1945), p. 128, cited hereafter as Children of Light and Darkness.
43
Niebuhr, Children of Light and Darkness, p. 128.
44
Niebuhr, Children of Light and Darkness, p. 128.
45
Samuel Wells, “The Nature and Destiny of Serious Theology,” in Harries and
Platten, eds, Reinhold Niebuhr and Contemporary Politics, p. 75.
46
In this view, I am largely following the interpretation laid out by Langdon Gilkey
in On Niebuhr: A Theological Study (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Gilkey makes clear that Niebuhr’s symbolic interpretation of traditional elements of
 Introduction 15
Taken literally, the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, according
to Niebuhr, were absurd to the modern mind. A symbolic or mythical
appraisal, however, was able to “paradoxically” disclose aspects of the
human character and the nature of history that other philosophies
tended to obscure. Niebuhr never fully explained what exactly he
meant by a symbolic interpretation of biblical events. He did, how-
ever, express caution at claiming too much knowledge of eternal
mysteries or forgetting, to paraphrase St. Paul, we see through a
glass darkly regarding such matters. In this position he was typical
of post-Kantian Protestant liberalism, for which such speculative
theological questions were simply beyond the epistemic reach of
human understanding. He also frequently explained that such inquir-
ies were of little “practical” concern.47 Fueled by the desire to con-
vince his countrymen of the usefulness of the Christian faith to the
challenges facing the modern age, Niebuhr explained he had little
time to address challenges from “stricter sets of theologians.”48
This book will argue that inquiring into the meaning of Niebuhr’s
symbols is a practical concern. An understanding of how he employs
the symbolic themes of Christian doctrine is central to understanding
his guidance for faithful action in human history. Niebuhr said as
much himself. On multiple occasions he identified a deep and abiding
faith in the “symbol” of the Resurrection as the only means “by which
we can seek to fulfill our historic tasks without illusions and without
despair.”49 Niebuhr clearly struggled to strike the right balance in his
discussion of the relationship between the otherworldly elements
of the Christian faith and the current world. He certainly made a
compelling case for the applicability of Christian symbols to contem-
porary experience and, by doing so, believed he was validating
those classic tenets of the faith. An open question, however, is to
what degree Niebuhr “refashioned” those Christian symbols in the

the faith was a reflection of his indebtedness to the liberal Protestant tradition. Yet the
“Biblical faith” in which Niebuhr placed those symbols was grounded in the “classical
message of the historic Christian faith.” Niebuhr’s aim, according to Gilkey, was not
only to recontextualize Christian symbols in a contemporary context but to pursue
“an act of recovery, a recovery of the Biblical tradition over against what he thought of
as modern culture,” On Niebuhr, p. 226.
47
Kegley and Bretall, eds, Reinhold Niebuhr, p. 3.
48
Kegley and Bretall, eds, Reinhold Niebuhr, p. 3.
49
Niebuhr, “Christian Otherworldliness,” Christianity and Society (Winter 1943),
p. 12.
16 Introduction
process.50 Indeed Niebuhr acknowledged the challenges inherent in
“correlating” the revelatory events of the Christian faith with the
questions raised by human existence in a 1952 article on theologian
Paul Tillich’s efforts to this end. Niebuhr judged that Tillich walked
the tightrope between the otherworldly and the this-worldly “with the
greatest virtuosity, but not without an occasional fall,” but the verdict
he rendered on his own efforts was more telling.51 He explained, “The
fall may be noticed by some humble pedestrians who lack every gift to
perform the task themselves.”52
Niebuhr’s theological approach remains divisive today, as leading
theologians have starkly different opinions of Niebuhr’s effort to
exercise responsibility in the present age. Hauerwas, in one camp,
takes a dim view of Niebuhr’s tendency to validate his theological
beliefs on the basis of their relevance to ongoing historical events.
Such an approach is insufficient, in his estimation, because it reduces
the faith to another philosophy—albeit one that uses theological
categories—that conforms to, rather than unsettles, what people
already believe.53 Niebuhr’s mode of interaction, in his estimation,
too often results in a capitulation of faith rather than in its “confident
and unapologetic” assertion. Lovin, on the other side, insists that
Christians have a critical role to play in shaping decisions in the
contemporary world and that Niebuhr’s example is one to follow.54
Unlike Hauerwas, he views positively Niebuhr’s willingness to ground

50
Gilkey, On Niebuhr, p. 226.
51
Reinhold Niebuhr, “Biblical Thought and Ontological Speculation,” in Charles
W. Kegley and Robert W. Bretall, eds, The Theology of Paul Tillich (New York:
Macmillan, 1952), p. 227.
52
Niebuhr, “Biblical Thought and Ontological Speculation,” p. 227.
53
Stanley Hauerwas, With the Grain of the Universe: The Church’s Witness and
Natural Theology. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2001), pp. 139–40. For instance,
Hauerwas points to Niebuhr’s frequent description of original sin as an empirically
verifiable doctrine in order to question, “But if original sin is but a name for a reality
that can be known separate from the Christian view of the self and God, then how are
we to understand the status of Niebuhr’s theological claims?” With the Grain of the
Universe, p. 121.
54
Lovin, “Reinhold Niebuhr: Impact and Implications,” p. 463. That this debate is
about more than Niebuhr is evidenced by the fact that Lovin and Hauerwas’s earlier
debates on the relationship between theology and politics do not focus on the
theologian. See, on this point, Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer
in Christian Ethics (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983); Robin
Lovin, Christian Faith and Public Choices: The Social Ethics of Barth, Brunner, and
Bonhoeffer (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984); and a joint review of the two books, Harlan
Beckley, “Book Review,” Theology Today, 42:1 (April 1985), pp. 123–5. For more
 Introduction 17
his theology in the world around him and credits this approach with
allowing him to make such insightful proximate judgments. This
book builds on the views of both theologians to argue that Niebuhr
was most persuasive in his proximate judgments when he was also
willing to speak “unapologetically” about the eternal. After all, as
Niebuhr himself observed, “[The] more Christians seek to commend
their faith as the source of the qualities and disciplines required to
save the world from disaster, the less does that kind of faith prove
itself to have the necessary resources.”55 Niebuhr’s theological vision
for faithful action in history was most convincing during those
periods in his life when he was less concerned with its temporal
relevance and more concerned with its eternal truthfulness.
The strengths and weaknesses of Niebuhr’s distinctive theological
approach are evidenced by his reliance on Lincoln as the vehicle by
which to express his “in the battle and above it” viewpoint in Irony
and elsewhere. Fittingly, Niebuhr made reference to Lincoln in his
first mature meditation on his theological vision in Beyond Tragedy.
After observing that David’s “uneasy conscience” allowed him to
distinguish appropriately between proximate and ultimate judg-
ments, Niebuhr explained “America . . . had at least one statesman,
Abraham Lincoln, who understood exactly what David experi-
enced.”56 Niebuhr went on to write that Lincoln provided the best
“example of a consummate interweaving of moral idealism and a
religious recognition of the imperfection of all human ideals.”57
Niebuhr’s reliance on Lincoln, an iconic historic figure in American
history, is representative of his ability to make his theological vision
relevant to a broader audience. Nevertheless, Niebuhr was clear in
Beyond Tragedy that it was not the memory of Lincoln that allowed
an individual to pass “through the sense of the tragic to a hope and
assurance which is ‘beyond tragedy’” but rather assurance received

information on this debate, see Scott Paeth, “Being Wrong and Right: A Response to
Larry Rasmussen and Robin Lovin,” Political Theology, 6:4 (October 2005), pp. 473–
86; Mark Haas, “Reinhold Niebuhr’s ‘Christian Pragmatism’: A Principled Alternative
to Consequentialism,” The Review of Politics, 61:4 (Autumn 1999), pp. 605–36; and
David True, “Embracing Hauerwas? A Niebuhrian Takes a Closer Look,” Political
Theology, 8:2 (2007), pp. 197–212.
55
Niebuhr, “Utilitarian Christianity and the World Crisis,” Christianity and Crisis,
May 29, 1950, p. 66.
56
Niebuhr, Beyond Tragedy, p. 66.
57
Niebuhr, Beyond Tragedy, p. 67.
18 Introduction
through God’s triumph over sin through Jesus Christ.58 In later works
such as Irony, however, Lincoln takes on an increasingly central role
as the embodiment as opposed to an exemplar of Niebuhr’s theo-
logical vision. The lack of theological context serves to diminish
Niebuhr’s discussion of Lincoln as exemplar. Rather than appreciat-
ing the full stature of Lincoln’s importance in relation to Niebuhr’s
theological vision, Niebuhr’s acolytes today have largely overlooked
both aspects of Niebuhr’s thought.

IV

In order to develop a holistic picture of Niebuhr’s theological vision

and how he applied it to the historical events of his time, this book
relies on historical research, close textual analysis, and theological
interpretation. This book spans disciplinary categories by combining
archival research from Niebuhr’s Papers at the U.S. Library of Con-
gress in Washington D.C.; Union Theological Seminary in New York;
and Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri (the location where
Niebuhr gave the lectures that would form the basis for Irony) with
exegesis of his full-length theological works. The archival work was
necessary because Niebuhr acknowledged that his theological vision
was deeply intertwined with the remarkable world events that he
experienced. Niebuhr’s personal correspondence and journalistic
writings, often written in quick response to the changing global
landscape, best reveal how he applied his theological vision to current
affairs. The exegesis of Niebuhr’s theological works is likewise im-
portant because his theological vision developed from engagement
with fundamental Christian truths. Niebuhr’s “in the battle and above
it” orientation was rooted not in day-to-day events but rather the
foundational narrative of the Christian interpretation of history
centered on the life and death of Jesus Christ. A familiarity with the
historical and theological elements of Niebuhr’s thought is necessary
for this study to reveal to his present-day admirers the way in which
both converge in Irony.

58
Niebuhr, Beyond Tragedy, p. x.
 Introduction 19
The Theological Vision of Reinhold Niebuhr’s The Irony of Ameri-
can History: “In the Battle and Above It” shows how Niebuhr’s
theological vision, derived from his Christian understanding of his-
tory, served as the foundation for his analysis of the world around
him. Irony’s theological basis can be seen in the fact that This Nation
Under God was the book’s working title until shortly prior to its
publication. Perhaps the most compelling evidence, however, is that
the analysis in Irony is similar to that which can be found in his
previous theological works. In order to show the extent to which this
is the case, I will begin my analysis at the beginning of the 1930s
where we can already observe the influence of Niebuhr’s developing
view of history on his general outlook and, in turn, his interpretation
of America and its role in the world. By the outbreak of World War
II, Niebuhr had largely formed the basic disposition that would
inform his political views over the remainder of his career. Niebuhr
would develop the theological basis for this disposition in numerous
journalistic articles and such works as Human Nature and Human
Destiny in addition to Faith and History, published in 1948. Never-
theless, the real challenge for Niebuhr would be to maintain this “in
the battle and above it” orientation in the face of the political chal-
lenges facing the United States during and following the war. For
guidance in this effort, Niebuhr looked to the life and writings of
Abraham Lincoln as early as 1937 and began to assert in the begin-
ning of the 1950s that Lincoln was the personification of the very
disposition he advocated. This was certainly evident in Irony, as
Niebuhr relied on Lincoln as the primary conduit by which to
communicate his theological vision.
My first chapter traces Niebuhr’s theological development during
the 1930s and the direct influence it had on the formation of his “in
the battle and above it” disposition at the end of the decade. Specific-
ally, I will focus on Niebuhr’s maturing views of human nature and
God’s role in history, and the interplay between the two. Niebuhr, at
the beginning of the decade, held an optimistic view of human nature
and showed little interest in the interpretation of history. Over the
course of the 1930s, however, Niebuhr began amending these beliefs
in such published works as Moral Man and Immoral Society, Reflec-
tions on the End of an Era, and An Interpretation of Christian Ethics.
In this decade we see Niebuhr beginning to engage seriously in
20 Introduction
theological study, which led him to focus on the fallen human
condition and to accept a more active role for God in the historical
realm. Critical to this transformation are Niebuhr’s personal relation-
ships with his brother, Richard, and German theologian Paul Tillich,
as well as historical developments such as the economic depression in
the United States and the rise of fascism in Germany. Most import-
ant, however, was Niebuhr’s theological study during this period,
which he later identified as his first serious engagement with the
discipline. Niebuhr’s mature beliefs can be first identified in Beyond
Tragedy, published in 1937, in which he identifies the crucifixion
of Christ on the cross as the defining event in the history of humanity.
In this work, Niebuhr sheds the cynical outlook with which he
opened the decade and replaces it with a more balanced disposition.
Moreover, Niebuhr here references Abraham Lincoln for the first
time in the context of the constructive role that America can play in
the world.
My second chapter explores the role that Niebuhr’s Gifford Lec-
tures played in the continued development of his theological outlook
and explores his mixed success in remaining in and above the battle
during World War II. Although most scholars have portrayed The
Nature and Destiny of Man as a largely academic work, it is no
coincidence that Niebuhr explicitly acknowledged his “in the battle
and above it” orientation between the 1941 publication of the work’s
first volume, Human Nature, and the 1943 publication of the second,
Human Destiny. Indeed, the key to understanding Nature and Des-
tiny is examining its two volumes separately and in the context of the
wartime events occurring at their time of publication. Niebuhr was a
strong advocate for U.S. involvement in World War II in the years
immediately preceding the country’s eventual entry after Pearl
Harbor, going so far as to found the journal Christianity and Crisis
to achieve this end. Published mere months prior to the Japanese
surprise attack, Human Nature can be read as a theological justifica-
tion for Niebuhr’s advocacy for the United States to enter the war,
based on its insistence that humanity was required to make morally
difficult distinctions in history. By the second year of American
involvement in the war, however, Niebuhr focused primarily on
remaining above the fray, or, on warning his country against its
own self-righteousness and excessive demonization of the German
population. To this end, Human Destiny makes a case for the
common humanity of all combatants and the universal need for
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 Penetrating injuries, like gunshot wounds, are usually easy of
recognition. If vision be instantly and completely lost the harm done
to the optic nerve or the globe will probably prove irreparable. Foreign
bodies penetrate from various directions, and sometimes to such a
depth that they are difficult to find. I have seen a large chip of wood
completely lost within the orbit, and such bodies may enter either
from outside or from within the nasal cavities. A foreign body will
nearly always limit the motility of the globe and usually displace it. If
its presence can be ascertained or revealed before operation it should
be sought and removed at the expense of almost any and every other
indication. If its presence be suspected it may be sought for, even
though a skiagram fail to reveal it. When the usefulness of the eye is
destroyed it will be advisable in such case to remove it in the progress
of this search.
Aside from the traumatic hematomas above mentioned
extravasation occurs, due to constitutional or vascular disease, as
atheroma, especially when coupled with violent straining efforts.
Subconjunctival effusion and exophthalmos, with limitation of motion,
will be unfailing expressions of such damage. Orbital aneurysms,
spontaneous or traumatic, are occasionally seen. They will cause a
more or less pulsating exophthalmos, while, in some instances, a bruit
may be detected with the stethoscope. Cases may be imagined where
it would be suitable to cut away the external wall of the orbit and
expose such a tumor. Ordinarily, however, ligature of the internal or
common carotid will be required. Angiomas occur also in the orbit,
producing exophthalmos, usually without pulsation. Such tumors will
prove compressible and the globe may be gently pressed backward
into the orbit to immediately protrude again when pressure is
removed. These lesions will prove very difficult, usually impossible of
treatment, and no general rule can be made therefor.
Orbital cellulitis, i. e., infection of the cellular and other tissues in
the orbit, may occur, either from without or from within, but usually in
connection with some traumatism. Sometimes this involves first the
cornea or the structures of the globe; at other times infection is by a
more direct method, through the conjunctival sac or the orbital
coverings. It varies in intensity between extreme limits. It may even
be bilateral. While cases occasionally undergo resolution it usually
terminates by formation of abscess. It is met with in the infectious
fevers, in facial erysipelas, by extension upward of infection from
diseased teeth, after primary infection of the ethmoidal or sphenoidal
sinuses, or by extension from external phlegmons. There will be
edema of the lids, usually with chemosis, fixation and protrusion of
the eyeball, commonly with divergence. In proportion to the severity
of the lesion there will be present septic symptoms, with deep-seated
pain and headache. Vision is disturbed in proportion to the pressure
upon the nerve and globe, as well as the involvement of the ocular
structures proper. When the disease is begun within the eye it will
usually terminate by a combination of panophthalmitis with orbital
abscess.
Treatment.—The application of the compound ichthyol or Credé’s
silver ointment, with ice, preceded perhaps by the use of leeches, will
be suitable local treatment unless the presence of pus be distinctly
made out or until tension threaten serious harm. In either of these
events, however, free incisions are required at points of greatest
tension, the knife being so directed as to avoid the globe. These
incisions should be free and sufficiently deep. Should there be
accompanying panophthalmitis the eyeball itself should be freely
incised through its anterior aspect and its contents completely
evacuated. Such emptying of the contents of the sclerotic is called
evisceration of the globe. While theoretically indicated, experience has
shown that it is a disastrous practice to enucleate the eye at such a
time; evisceration first and enucleation later, should it prove desirable.

TUMORS OF THE ORBIT.

The orbit is the site of many primary tumors which originate within
its proper tissues as well as those which encroach upon it from
neighboring cavities or from the face. Prognosis is better in the former
than in the latter, but unfavorable in all malignant cases.
Of the primary cystic tumors there may be nearly all the known
varieties, including those of parasitic origin. The pseudocysts of the
cranial cavity sometimes project into the orbit, forming orbital
encepholacele. Dermoid cysts are not at all uncommon. Around the
bursæ of the orbital muscles exudation cysts occur, while the
retention cysts, including the cholesteatomas, are not infrequent. The
true dermoid cysts may contain all the ordinary epithelial products,
just as in any other part of the body. Parasitic cysts include the
echinococcus and the cysticercus, the latter being rare, while the
former may extend into the frontal sinus or cranial cavity. It produces
almost constant ciliary neuralgia. Vascular tumors of all types are
found in the orbit and the various expressions of telangiectasia of the
lids and orbit are often seen. These are always of congenital origin. Of
the more simple types of mesoblastic tumors the osteomas are
perhaps as common as any. These assume all the types described in
the chapter on Tumors, and are of all degrees of hardness. Sarcoma
and osteosarcoma, originating within the orbit, are unfortunately too
common. Naturally they spread to and involve all the adjoining
structures. True endothelioma is rarely recognized as such until after
removal and microscopic examination. Epithelioma commencing upon
the surface of the eye, or about the skin and spreading inward, is also
quite common.
Exophthalmos is an expression of intra-orbital tension common to
all forms, while by the extent of protrusion and its direction the site of
the tumor may to some extent be determined. Other disturbances of
position, with limitation of motion and consequent diplopia, are
further expressions of pressure and dislocation. Ptosis, or drooping of
the upper lid, is a feature of tumors which proceed from the upper
part of the orbit. The vascular tumors, as already mentioned, produce
more or less pulsation. Ocular tension is usually increased, and when
circulation and enervation have been seriously affected necrosis and
even perforation of the cornea may occur. Pain is a variable feature,
but is sometimes pronounced. An exploring needle may be passed
into a tumor which seems to be cystic, but it should be done with
every precaution, both against infection and injury to the eye.
Tumors of the optic nerve proper originate more often in its sheath
than in its true neural tissue. They may occur at any point, but usually
within the orbit. These tumors are usually of the sarcomatous,
gliomatous, or endotheliomatous type. Cystic changes are not
infrequent; they occur usually in the young. All of these tumors will
involve the optic nerve in such a way as to produce signs easily
recognizable with the ophthalmoscope, such as optic neuritis and
nerve atrophy. Moreover, they affect or completely destroy vision.
They are not so painful as most of the other intra-orbital tumors, and,
while causing a direct forward protrusion of the eye, affect its motility
less than other forms. Nevertheless they grow with great rapidity and
evince destructive tendencies. In theory the treatment for all tumors
of the orbit is complete extirpation, while the malignant tumors
require emptying of the orbital contents. Benign tumors and cysts are
usually successfully treated by this method. Of most malignant tumors
it may be said that the prognosis is unfavorable. The lymphatic and
vascular connections are so free, and extension into surrounding
cavities so easy, that recurrence takes place in the larger proportion of
cases. Too often by the time a patient is willing to sacrifice the eye
and the orbital contents it is too late to effect a radical cure.

EXOPHTHALMOS.
The term exophthalmos simply implies protrusion of the eyeball
beneath and even between the lids. Usually it is in a downward and
outward direction. In some cases the displacement is accompanied by
an easily recognizable pulsation, and occasionally by a bruit or audible
sound. The latter instances are spoken of as pulsating exophthalmos.
They are connected in most cases with vascular tumors or intra-orbital
aneurysms, although sometimes the aneurysm may be primarily
intracranial. For instance, arteriovenous aneurysms, by communication
of the internal carotid artery with the cavernous sinus, will produce
pulsating exophthalmos. Whatever be its cause exophthalmos is an
expression of pressure from behind. This is true even of the ocular
symptoms accompanying Graves’ disease or exophthalmic goitre, only
here the protrusion is permitted by general fulness of the vessels and
undue vascularity of the orbital tissues.
In proportion to the amount of projection there will be swelling and
edema of the upper lid, the skin being more or less shiny and the
veins distended. In extreme cases the lids are everted and the
conjunctiva extremely chemotic, while by exposure of the cornea it
becomes vascular, infected, and often necrotic. Should it be possible
to replace the globe by pressure it will protrude so soon as pressure is
removed. In vascular cases a bruit may be heard and pulsation
detected with the finger. Audible sounds are lost by making firm
compression on the common carotid of the same side, and return
instantly when this pressure is removed. By the ophthalmoscope both
arterial and even venous pulsation may be perceived at the fundus.
Vision is only slightly affected by a well-marked protrusion, especially
when the latter has occurred slowly. The pulsating forms will
frequently give subjective symptoms of sound and sense, e. g.,
vertigo.
A history of injury, coupled with external evidences, may give a clue
to some of these cases as an indication of traumatic aneurysm or
communicating vascular tumor. Soft and vascular tumors, without
history of injury, are usually malignant, this being true also of multiple
growths.
Treatment.—The treatment of exophthalmos should depend
entirely on its nature. When due to arteriovenous aneurysms, or to
the consequences of injury alone, a ligation of the common or of the
internal carotid will give the best result. When compression of the
carotid gives temporary relief to at least some of the features of the
case its permanent ligation is indicated. Bilateral exophthalmos implies
a more serious condition, especially in Graves’ disease. When thyroid
symptoms are prominent a thyroidectomy is indicated. When the
thyroid participates but slightly such a case may be treated by
excision of the cervical sympathetic on both sides.

INTRA-OCULAR TUMORS.
These tumors may assume most of the known types and may
spring from practically all of the tissues of the eye.
From the iris there may develop cysts of traumatic or even of
congenital origin. In the former such a foreign body as an eyelash
may be found, having entered through an external wound of the
cornea. Vascular tumors are occasionally met with, many of which are
full of pigment, while melanomas, with a minimum of vascular
structure, are also observed. The actively malignant tumors of the iris
usually assume the sarcomatous or endotheliomatous type, and when
melanotic assume an exceedingly rapid and serious phase and course.
In the iris, also, tuberculous or syphilitic granulomas are occasionally
encountered.
In the choroid are seen expressions of tuberculosis, especially the
more acute, as a complication of tuberculous meningitis. The most
common malignant tumor here is sarcoma of the melanotic variety. Of
the retina, glioma is the most common as well as the most malignant
tumor, occurring usually in the young. All of these tumors when
malignant spread from their primary site to the adjoining tissues.
When extremely malignant they kill too quickly to show many
metastatic expressions. At other times they will appear in other parts
of the body.
All intra-ocular tumors tend to impair, and the malignant to quickly
destroy vision. Tension is increased and the natural contour of the
globe may be lost. Fixation to and involvement of the surrounding
orbital tissues depend in some measure on the rapidity of growth and
its location. They occur sooner or later in malignant cases.
A malignant growth of any part of the globe calls for enucleation of
the eye, as well as removal of the orbital contents. When the orbital
tissues are thus involved it is too late to secure more than temporary
benefit. If the eyelids are involved they should also be sacrificed and
the orbital opening covered by some plastic procedure.

PANOPHTHALMITIS.
The term panophthalmitis implies a phlegmonous process involving
the entire contents of the sclerotic, by which the eye is destroyed. It is
usually traumatic in origin, but may occur as an extension of infection
from ulcer and abscess of the cornea, or from thrombotic or
metastatic processes. Its course is usually rapidly destructive, while it
is accompanied by more or less orbital cellulitis. These signs,
therefore, are not confined to the orbit proper, for the lids become
edematous, the conjunctiva chemotic, and there is more or less
purulent discharge from the entire conjunctival sac, which will escape
beneath the lids. If the cornea is at first clear it rapidly becomes
cloudy, and to the signs of intra-orbital mischief are added all those
above described under the heading of intra-orbital cellulitis. The
sclerotic is an unyielding membrane; hence pain in these cases is
usually intense, while septic features are added according to the
nature of the cause. When the lesion has begun in the cornea it
usually ruptures early and the ocular contents may escape in this way.
Treatment.—Panophthalmitis is dangerous to life as well as to the
eye when not promptly treated. The same rule prevails here as well as
elsewhere in the presence of pus. Prompt evacuation offers the
greatest safety and relief. Evacuation of the entire contents of the eye
through a free incision and by means of a sharp spoon, with antiseptic
irrigation, affords the only safe measure in these cases.
As previously remarked, the general consensus of opinion among
oculists and surgeons is that, under these circumstances, enucleation
should never be done, the danger being that of a purulent meningitis
or thrombosis by extension backward along the sheath of the optic
nerve.

SYMPATHETIC OPHTHALMITIS.
This, too, is a matter of interest common to the eye specialist and
the general surgeon. The term refers to lesions of one eye which
follow sooner or later upon injuries or infections of the other. These
expressions of so-called sympathy occur in irritative or inflammatory
lesions. The former are more or less neurotic and include pain, often
referred to the region beyond the orbit, photophobia, blepharospasm,
too free lacrymation, and various subjective phenomena of impaired
vision. These features will be accompanied by more or less tenderness
of the globe, with ciliary neuralgia and injection. These may subside
under treatment, but will recur when the eye is again used.
Contrasted with these lesions is another form whose features are
most pronounced along the uveal tract, though the retina may also
suffer. Its subjective features are those of uveitis, to which are added
actual exudates in various parts of the globe, some of which may be
seen with the ophthalmoscope, with intra-ocular tension, which
reduces the anterior chamber, and with partial or complete loss of
sight that may end in total atrophy. In some instances these lesions
occur rapidly; in others the course of the disease is chronic.
The oculopathologists have striven hard to explain these
phenomena. Most of them believe in the continuity of the subdural or
subvaginal sheath of the nerve from one orbit around into the other,
and believe that the germs passed along this subway. Involvement of
the yet unaffected eye may follow the entrance of foreign bodies,
occurrence of traumatisms, punctures, existence of corneal lesions as
minute ulcers, constant irritation of the presence of an artificial eye
upon the stump, the performance of some of the common operations
upon the globe, and even the much less frequent conditions of
pathological changes in the choroid, the ciliary body, the optic nerve,
or the existence of intra-ocular tumors. A recognition of the
possibilities in these cases will lead to more radical treatment of the
lesions which may produce them. Even a minute foreign body should
be promptly removed and an ulcer of the cornea should not be
regarded as a trifling lesion. Under all circumstances the surgeon, as
well as the general practitioner, should be alert to the possibilities of
these lesions, quick to recognize the symptoms, and prompt in urging
the only satisfactory relief. It will be seen that the earliest suggestive
features are those of involvement of the uveal tract.
Treatment.—There is usually but one efficient method of
treatment for these cases, and this consists of removal of the injured
or diseased other eye, more particularly if it be more or less already
impaired by the consequences of the original lesion. The exceptions to
this statement occur in the event of well-marked sympathetic
inflammation, as it may be possible that there will be better vision in
the originally injured eye than in that secondarily infected; but so long
as it is a matter of simple sympathetic irritation enucleation is the
proper course. While this is extremely radical there is no satisfactory
substitute for it. The only excuse for delay should be threatening
phlegmonous processes by which communication posteriorly might be
afforded. Bull has laid down the following indications for enucleation
of the first eye before the outbreak of sympathetic inflammation in the
other eye:
1. When the wound is in the ciliary region, and so extensive as to
greatly damage or entirely destroy vision;
2. When the wound is in the ciliary region, and is already
accompanied by iritis and cyclitis;
3. When the eye contains a foreign body, and attempts at its
removal have proved futile;
4. When the eye is atrophied or shrunken and tender on pressure,
or is continually irritated.

ENUCLEATION OF THE GLOBE OF THE EYE.

The conditions which justify enucleation of the eye have been
pointed out. For the operation, which is usually done under general
anesthesia, the lids should be widely separated with the ordinary eye
speculum or by suitable retractors. A circular incision is then made
through the conjunctiva, around the margin of the cornea. This is
carried down to the sclerotic at a little distance from the corneal
margin, by which Ténon’s capsule is opened; then a strabismus hook
is inserted in each direction and the tendon of each muscle raised
upon it and divided close to its insertion. By pressure upon the
surrounding tissues the eye is now made to protrude. Should the
globe have been already collapsed it should be drawn forward with
forceps, one blade of which may be thrust within it. After thus firmly
withdrawing it a blunt-pointed, curved scissors is passed behind and
around it, the blades being made to open in such a way as when
closed to divide the optic nerve at a little distance from the globe.
After this enucleation by pressure is easy, and any further tissues
requiring division may be readily cut. The principal source of
hemorrhage is the artery extending through the nerve, but this is
readily controlled by pressure.
Should there have been any inflammatory or septic condition about
the orbit or the conjunctival sac the parts should be cleansed with
hydrogen peroxide or other antiseptic. Sutures are seldom required. A
compress should be applied outside the eyelids, removing it
sufficiently often to be certain there is no retention of fluid or blood.
Recovery is usually rapid. Granulation tissue sometimes forms at the
bottom of the conjunctival sac and becomes exuberant. In this case it
should be removed with scissors and cauterized, after which it rarely
recurs.

SYPHILITIC AFFECTIONS OF THE EYE AND THE ORBIT.

As already described, many expressions of the various stages of
syphilis pertain to the eye. Thus there may be chancre upon the eyelid
or conjunctiva, or ulceration of the same; syphilitic iritis as a
secondary expression; syphilitic retinitis, neuroretinitis, choroiditis, as
tertiary lesions; and the formation of gummas in the later stages of
the disease, and in almost any imaginable locality, especially the uveal
tract. Syphilitic tumors are seen upon the iris more often than
anywhere else within the eye. Outside of the globe and within the
orbit the ordinary expressions of syphilitic periostitis and of
gummatous tumors occur. These constitute also the more common
intra-orbital expressions of this disease.
The symptoms of syphilitic lesions in this location do not vary from
similar lesions elsewhere, save so far as they involve special tissues or
disturb the special sense of sight. The prognosis in nearly all of them
is relatively good if suitable and active treatment be promptly
instituted. It is, however, too much to expect that annular destruction
of areas of the retina or choroid can be completely repaired.

CATARACT.
Cataract is a subject of primary interest to the general surgeon only
so far as it pertains to the consequences of injury to the orbital
region. The term implies opacity of the lens or of its capsule, or both,
which may be partial or complete. Its pathognomonic feature is slow
and progressive failure of vision. Examination by direct as well as
bilateral illumination will show the opacity to be located behind the
iris. Everyone should be able to recognize it; its excision should be
relegated to the trained specialist, since it is one of the most delicate
special operations.

GLAUCOMA.
The term glaucoma implies a collection of more or less variable
pathological conditions within the eyeball which lead to increased
intra-ocular tension. Because of this increased pressure, with its
disturbance of circulation and the peculiar coloration often given to
the cornea or the pupil, the disease has received this name. Among its
symptoms are pupillary changes, including both size and mobility of
the iris; turbidity of the cornea, as well as the fluid humors of the eye;
pain, corneal anesthesia, impairment or final loss of vision,
engorgement of the visible vessels of the globe, and a peculiar
cupping or excavation of the optic disk. Unless checked by operative
intervention the course of the disease is steadily toward blindness. It
varies in acuteness, the favorable cases being the acute ones, in
which early operation can be practised. It admits of no other
treatment.
Treatment.—The operation almost universally practised by the
oculist is either iridectomy or sclerotomy. The condition is briefly
mentioned in this place for the double reason that the student may be
made aware that the condition may follow certain injuries to the
eyeball or the head, and that the more chronic forms have been
successfully treated by excision of the cervical sympathetic, on one
side or both, the operation being based upon anatomical and
physiological facts pertaining to the distribution and function of those
sympathetic fibers which pass to the orbit from the cervical trunk. The
operation is described in the section on the Cranial and Cervical
Nerves.

AFFECTIONS OF THE IRIS AND THE CILIARY BODY.

These lesions are frequently the result of blows and of penetrating
injuries, as well as of syphilis. Moreover, motility of the iris is so
essential to the normal function of the eye that where it may possibly
be effected the surgeon should protect against those adhesions
between the iris and the lens or cornea, which are very likely to occur,
by instillation of a sufficiently strong solution of atropine, a ¹⁄₂ to 1
per cent. solution being usually sufficient for this purpose. These
adhesions are referred to as synechiæ, and are anterior when the iris
becomes affixed to the cornea, or posterior when affixed to the lens.
They occur easily after minute punctures of the cornea, the result
being a limited mobility or a dislocation of the pupil, along with
opacity of the cornea, all of which work to the detriment of vision.
The iris is so visible that the mechanism of an exudate on or in it
can be observed almost from beginning to end when it occurs in the
form of iritis. Occasionally an exudate will merge into an actual
collection of pus which will gradually fill up the anterior chamber, and
which is then spoken of as hypopyon. Under the most favorable
circumstances a disappearance of this pus by absorption may be
noted. It may prove destructive or may necessitate evacuation.
The iris and the ciliary body are intimately connected, and
inflammation beginning in one point may easily spread to and involve
other tissues. These structures with the choroid constitute the so-
called uveal tract, and when they participate in inflammation it is
called uveitis.
The symptoms of iritis consist of pain, lacrymation, photophobia,
which is often intense; increasing turbidity of the aqueous humor, as
well as of the cornea, by which vision is impaired; visible
discoloration; irregularity and sluggishness in movements of the iris,
and circumcorneal injection. A congestion which assumes an annular
form about the cornea and does not involve the conjunctival sac
indicates trouble in the ciliary region, while a true conjunctivitis is
limited only by the extent of the membrane itself.
Iritis due to syphilis, whether assuming the plastic or the
gummatous form, requires the most active antisyphilitic medication, in
addition to local treatment. The non-specific and traumatic forms
need absolute rest in a dark room, with cold applications about the
eye and the free use of atropine, to completely dilate the pupil and
prevent the formation of synechiæ.
 THE CORNEA.
The cornea being the most exposed part of the eyeball will be
frequently subjected to minor or serious injury in connection with
violence to the orbital region. It is an exceedingly sensitive
membrane, whose reflex excitability is heightened by the presence of
a small foreign body, this accident being one of frequent occurrence.
It is a lesson in neurophysiology to watch the relatively local and
general disturbances which the presence of a minute speck of foreign
material embedded in the cornea may cause. Every extraneous body
should be removed at once, the procedure being now facilitated by
the local use of cocaine, for any abrasion or serious injury of the
cornea occurring in surgical cases offers a possible source of infection
to the deeper ocular structures. Careful attention should be given to
the use of antiseptics of suitable strength in the conjunctival sac,
whenever this region is involved. This statement cannot be made too
positive. There is danger both to the cornea and to the iris in
perforating ulcer or traumatism of the cornea, and there is as much
occasion for the use of atropine in these instances as in those
pertaining to the iris proper. To the protrusion of the cornea, which is
produced by weakening of its structure and tension from within, is
given the name staphyloma. It is frequently combined with adhesions
of the iris and dislocation of the pupil. It constitutes not only a
cosmetic disfigurement, but a serious impediment to vision.
 PLATE XLV

FIG. 1

Lacrymal Fistula on the Right Side; Ectasia of the

Lacrymal Sac on the Left; Bilateral Epicanthus.
(Haab.)
FIG. 2
 Dacrocystitis. (Haab.)

THE CONJUNCTIVAL SAC.

The mucous membrane lining the conjunctival sac is perhaps the
most exposed to irritation and even infection of all mucous surfaces.
It is not strange then that conjunctivitis is the most common of all eye
affections. Whether irritated by constant exposure to dust and dirt, or
raw and cold winds, or by the heat of a blast furnace, by the dazzling
brilliancy of electric lights, or contact with bacteria, it displays a
surprising degree of accommodation and resistance. It has peculiar
susceptibilities, particularly to the germs of gonorrhea and diphtheria.
To these it is peculiarly sensitive, and under their influence it may
quickly succumb. The harm done in either of these conditions is by no
means limited to the conjunctiva, but may extend in such a way as to
eventually cause loss of vision.
Nowhere else may the phenomenon of hyperemia be so easily
studied as by watching the ocular conjunctiva for a few moments after
the occurrence of irritation. The rapidity with which the vessels dilate
and become visible, the occurrence of the consequent redness and
swelling, and the reflex phenomena attending it become appreciable
within a short time. In the chronic conditions the tissues become
thickened and less mobile. A chronic conjunctivitis is the constant
condition in certain laborers whose eyes are exposed in their
occupation.
A peculiar granulomatous condition of the conjunctiva, especially
the palpebral, is that known as trachoma, which appears to be due to
a specific form of infection that leads to exudation, organization and
thickening, intensified in punctate areas, and giving the surface the
appearance of an ordinary granulation. This condition has assumed
such importance as to be sufficient for the exclusion of aliens and
immigrants.
The milder conditions of acute or subacute conjunctivitis subside
under cold applications and mild antiseptic and astringent eye-washes
or collyria. These should be frequently instilled, beneath the lid
whenever this area is involved as a complication of injuries to the
head or face. In acute cases of the infectious type, such as the
gonorrheal or diphtheritic, atropine should be used locally, so that the
iris may be drawn out of harm’s way and the pupil left free should
resolution and recovery ensue. Individuals suffering from either
gonorrhea or diphtheria should be cautioned and protected from
possibility of conjunctival infection. The eyes of the newborn are not
infrequently infected during the process of parturition. The parturient
canal of women suspected of having an infectious lesion of this kind
should be cleansed before the passage of the fetal head, and in all
suspicious cases instant and constant attention should be given to the
eyes of the newborn infant.

THE LACRYMAL TRACT.

The lacrymal gland, though situated in the anterior and upper part
of the orbit, and beneath the upper lid, where it is ordinarily well
protected, is nevertheless liable to both acute infections and chronic
irritations. When acutely inflamed it usually goes on to abscess
formation. We have then acute dacryo-adenitis, which will produce the
ordinary symptoms of phlegmon, with the added ocular features of
vascularity and chemosis of the conjunctiva and more or less edema
and immobility of the upper lid. Displacement of the eyeball may be
produced by great inflammatory swelling. These abscesses tend to
discharge either through the skin near the external angle or
sometimes through the conjunctiva. While in the former case a scar
results, it nevertheless is a preferable point either for spontaneous
opening or for incision. If the case be seen in time it will be advisable
to make this incision early and so limit destruction. (See Plate XLV,
Fig. 1.)
The lacrymal gland suffers occasionally in instances of constitutional
syphilis, undergoing chronic and obstinate enlargement. It may also
be the site of tumors either non-malignant, usually adenoma, or
cancerous, most instances of the latter being expressions of
extension.
 The tear passages proper are composed of the canaliculi, the
lacrymal sac, and the duct. These are altered, occasionally, in their
relations, or absent, as the result of congenital defects. The passages
proper frequently become obstructed, as the result of any chronic
irritation which produces thickening of the conjunctiva, and in many
laborers and others who are exposed to dust, dirt, or cold winds there
will be a more or less constant stillicidium or overflow of tears. In
some of these cases it is sufficient to slit up one or both canaliculi
with a fine probe-pointed bistoury.

DACRYOCYSTITIS.
The lacrymal sac proper is frequently the site of both acute and
chronic disease, known as dacryocystitis, which is the result of
infection spreading from the conjunctival sac, rarely from the nose, or
the exaggeration of conjunctival thickenings, like those mentioned
above. The first symptoms are overflow of tears, accompanied by
swelling or enlargement in the region of the sac. By pressure upon
this a mixture of water, mucus, and sometimes pus may be expressed.
As the disease goes on the fluid becomes purulent. If the sac, by
pressure, can be emptied into the nose the nasal duct may be
regarded as patulous and the treatment is simplified. If not there is
stricture, usually at the upper end of the duct, which requires division
and dilatation. The more chronic forms of trouble in this region are
frequently intensified into acute phlegmonous lesions which, if
neglected, will lead to spontaneous perforation and the formation of a
lacrymal fistula at a point below the inner angle of the eye. (See Plate
XLV, Fig. 2.)
Treatment.—The treatment should consist of exposure of the sac
by incision of the canaliculi and its irrigation by means
of a syringe and antiseptic fluid. Unless this fluid passes easily into the
nose the stricture should be divided and Bowman’s probes passed, the
principle of treatment being the same as that in treating urethral
stricture. This part of the treatment should be referred to an oculist.
In acute dacryocystitis with suppuration the sac along the natural
passages should be opened. When a diagnosis of an acute lesion of
this kind is made nothing but the most radical treatment is advisable.

THE LIDS.
Congenital deformities of mild degree are not infrequent about the
eyelids.

EPICANTHIS.
Epicanthis is a term implying folds of redundant skin extending from
the internal end of each eyebrow to the inner canthus and over the
lacrymal sac. It varies much in degree, is a more or less hereditary
feature in certain families, and is not infrequently associated with
other defects. The palpebral fissure varies in length in different
individuals, giving a longer or shorter window through which the eye
proper shall appear. Sometimes the fissure is much too short and
requires division or extension, which is easily made by incision at the
outer angle.

COLOBOMA.
Coloboma is a term applied to various lesions of the eyelid, the iris,
and the choroid, implying a defect in structure, which, in the eyelid,
leaves a V-shaped deficiency, corresponding to harelip, whose edges
may be brought together by a simple operation.

STYE; HORDEOLUM.
The eyelids are subject to certain painful or disfiguring lesions,
which frequently come under the notice of the general surgeon. Of
these the most common is stye, or hordeolum. This is a phlegmon of
one of the minute glands along the margin of the lid, which has
become infected and violently reacted. It forms a miniature furuncle,
often associated with conjunctivitis, and giving a disproportionate
reaction. So soon as the presence of pus can be detected a puncture
should be made and the contained drop of pus exvacuated.
Threatening suppuration may sometimes be aborted by local use of 1
or 2 per cent. mercurial (yellow) oxide ointment.

CHALAZION.
A somewhat similar but non-inflammatory cystic distention of one of
the Meibomian glands, which pursues a slow and painless course, is
called chalazion. It presents rather beneath the mucous surface, but is
often visible through the skin. Its contents are mucoid or dermoid.
When it attains troublesome dimensions it should be exposed through
a small incision, usually external, and thoroughly extirpated.

XANTHELASMA.
Small, elevated areas of dirty-yellow color are met with in the skin
about the eyelids, more often near the inner angle. Such a lesion is
called xanthelasma, the lesion being a fatty metamorphosis of a
portion of the skin structure. While harmless, it is amenable to
excision for cosmetic effect.
Any of the ordinary tumors which affect similar tissues elsewhere
may be seen about the eyelids. The more common are the vascular
tumors, especially small nevi. Epithelioma occasionally commences
along the palpebral margin, but is more often an extension from
neighboring tissues.

BLEPHARITIS.
The margins of the lids are frequently involved in a mildly infectious
inflammatory condition called blepharitis, in which nearly all the
structures participate; when the borders alone are involved it is
referred to as blepharitis marginalis. The condition is largely due to
dirt, and to irritation in which the Meibomian ducts seem to share. It
is accompanied by chronic conjunctivitis. The condition is seen more
often in the ill-nourished, the rickety, and the tuberculous. The best
local treatment consists in the use of an ointment of yellow oxide or
yellow sulphate of mercury. The former may be used in 2 per cent.
strength, and the latter not stronger than 1 per cent. This should be
applied along the lid margins at night, and thoroughly rubbed in. A
commencing phlegmon and stye may be aborted by one of these
preparations.

TRICHIASIS.
Another very annoying complication, and usually the sequel of the
condition already mentioned, is trichiasis, or turning inward of the
eyelashes. Chronic irritation and cicatricial contraction on the inner
aspect of the eyelids, or a chronic blepharospasm, which may be the
result of corneal infections, serve to draw the lids inward, especially
with the margins of the hair follicles, so that the eye-winkers grow
toward the ocular surfaces, which they constantly irritate. The result is
a vicious circle, each morbid condition intensifying the other. In time
there is produced a condition of entropion, which is to be remedied
only by operation. It is not sufficient to treat trichiasis by epilation, as
the hairs will grow again and continuously cause trouble. The cause
should be removed and the effect treated.

ENTROPION.
By this term is meant a condition of inversion of the margin of one
or both lids, by which the external surface is brought into actual
contact with the surface of the eyeball. It is a chronic condition
brought about through the action of several contributing causes. Any
condition of the cornea or deeper portion of the eye which leads to
photophobia and spasmodic closure of the eyelids will produce in time
hypertrophy of the orbicularis, with corresponding strengthening of
the muscle and exaggeration of its activity. Chronic blepharospasm
will thus in time lead to a mild degree of entropion, while any
affection of the inner palpebral surfaces which leads to cicatricial
contraction will still more intensify it. So soon as trichiasis or irritation
by the eyelashes is added to what has gone before, every feature is
exaggerated and the cornea is made to lie practically in contact with
the skin surface of the eyelid. A further consequence is corneal
disease, often with ulceration and opacity, with even worse structural
changes.
 The condition is really a serious one and is to be treated not alone
by operation upon the lid, but care should be given to all the
contributing features. So far as the lid condition alone is concerned, I
have found the operation suggested by Hotz the most satisfactory of
any, at least in average cases. An incision is made from one end of the
lid to the other, along the distal border of the tarsal cartilage, and
down to it. Through this a bundle of those orbicularis fibers which run
parallel with the incision is dissected away. In extreme cases the tarsal
cartilage, which is incurved as the result of the old condition, may be
either incised or a strip excised from its structure. Sutures are then
inserted which include not only the borders of the skin incision, but
the exposed border of the tarsus and the tarsoörbital fascia. By
applying the central suture first, and then one on either side, it will
usually be found that as the sutures are tightened the edge of the lid
is drawn outward and the desired effect obtained.
The large number of operative methods which have been suggested
for the cure of entropion bespeak the variety of causes which may
produce it and the many devices to which different ingenious
ophthalmic surgeons have resorted.

ECTROPION.
This condition is the reverse of entropion, and implies eversion of
the margin, or of a considerable portion of a lid, with consequent
exposure of its conjunctival surface, which undergoes changes in
consequence of which it becomes thickened, contracted, and irritated.
Ectropion may possibly be produced by violent orbicular spasm,
especially in children, the lids being so tightly shut as to be everted.
Ordinarily it is the result of external lesions which produce cicatricial
contraction, like burns, or of chronic ulcerative lesions along the
palpebral border, such as are met with in tuberculous and syphilitic
disease. The lower lid is much more frequently involved than the
upper.
For the relief of ectropion plastic operations are practised, usually
on the lower lid. The milder cases require a V-shaped incision, its apex
downward, with free dissection of the integument up or near to the
margin of the lid, by Fig. 390
which it is released
from the scar tissue
which has bound it
down. Fig. 390
illustrates the general
principle of such an
operation. The lower
portion of the V-shaped
defect is then brought
together with sutures,
the triangular flap
being fastened in a
position much higher
than that in which it
originally rested.
All of these
operations upon the
eyelids are included Arlt’s operation for ectropion. (Arlt.)
under the term
blepharoplasty, of which the above is the most simple. When
necessary new flaps may be raised from the temporal region, from the
forehead or from the cheek, as may be required, and turned into
place, their pedicles being so planned as to carry a sufficient blood
supply for nourishment of the same. If this supply be properly
provided these operations are practically always successful. It is
necessary only to make the transplanted flap at least one-third larger
than appears to be necessary, judging from mere size of the defect,
for experience shows the necessity of allowing at least one-third for
primary and cicatricial shrinkage. A heteroplastic operation is
occasionally performed for this purpose, by which the flap of skin is
detached from an entirely different part of the body, or from the body
of another individual. Skin thus transplanted should be prepared by
removal of all of the fat upon its raw surfaces, skin alone being
desired and not other tissue. Figs. 391, 392, 393 and 394 illustrate
blepharoplastic operations of various types, which may be modified or
made more extensive. These are but a few of the various plastic
devices, and are intended to serve merely as suggestions or examples
rather than methods to which one is limited.

Fig. 391

Richet’s operation for ectropion. (Arlt.)

Fig. 392

Fricke’s method of blepharoplasty. (Arlt.)

 Fig. 393 Fig. 394

Dieffenbach’s method of blepharoplasty. Arlt’s method when a portion of the

(Arlt.) eyelid is to be sacrificed. (Arlt.)

INJURIES OF THE EYEBALL AND ADNEXA IN GENERAL.

This topic has already been considered. It seems advisable,
however, to summarize some of the results of such injuries in order to
call attention to their dangers and methods of treatment. Burns of the
orbital regions, for instance, are liable to cause not only opacity of the
cornea following ulceration, but adhesions between the conjunctival
surfaces and the palpebral margins. The term symblepharon is applied
to those lesions where the lids are more or less fixed upon the globe
and their motility partly or completely impaired. When the edges
alone of the lids have grown together the condition is known as
ankyloblepharon. Both of these conditions are the result of adhesion
of granulating surfaces and of cicatricial contraction, and should be
avoided.
 By a concussion of the orbital region, and especially of the eyeball,
all sorts of injuries may be inflicted, from those involving the cornea
to deep lesions which leave little or no superficial evidences, but
cause partial or complete blindness. Detachment of the retina, for
instance, is one of the possibilities of such conditions. Intra-ocular
hemorrhages or dislocation of the lens, with traumatic cataract, may
also occur.
The sclerotic may be ruptured with or without the presence of a
foreign body, in which case the contents of the eye may have partially
or completely escaped. An eye which has collapsed from these causes
offers an almost hopeless field for the general or special surgeon, and
little can be done, save possibly for cosmetic purposes. There is
danger of sympathetic ophthalmia, and it may be a question whether
evisceration, i. e., completion of the evacuation, may not be the wiser
course.
Perforating wounds, even when inflicted by minute bodies, have
dangers of their own, including the possibilities of infection. The
interior mechanism of the eye is so easily disturbed, and its
transparent media so easily clouded, by the results of accident or
hemorrhage, that even apparently trivial injuries may be followed by
disturbances of vision.
Treatment.—The general principles of treatment of all such
injuries should include, first, the removal of every
detectable foreign body, followed by the application of cold, and the
use of antiseptic eye-washes, which, however, must not be used too
strong lest they irritate. Saturated boric-acid solution is perhaps as
strong as anything which is permitted, while even this may
occasionally require dilution. In addition to this the use of atropine
solution is always indicated. It has the double effect of soothing and
allaying pain and of dilating the iris into a narrow ring. With such
measures as these it may be possible to save vision; at all events it
will limit reaction and prevent harm.

DISTURBANCES OF INNERVATION.
 The nerves which supply the eye and its adnexa may undergo
injury, either within the orbit or within the cranium, or in their course
from one to the other. The paralyses may be caused by syphilis, by
intracranial tumors, or by injury. A careful study of the areas and
nerves involved will sometimes lend considerable help in diagnosis,
both in traumatic and pathological cases. Thus diplopia, or double
vision, may be caused by paralysis of the external rectus on one side,
by which its antagonistic internal rectus is permitted to swerve the
eye too much to the inner side and away from the normal axis of
vision required for single sight. When there is complete paralysis of
the third nerve there may be drooping of the eyelid, called ptosis, with
impaired motion of the eye, upward, inward, or downward. The eye
will roll outward because the external rectus is supplied by the sixth
nerve. There will also be dilatation of the pupil, with loss of
accommodation. When the upper lid is raised there is also double
vision. This third-nerve paralysis, however, is not always complete,
and diplopia may result only when the eye is directed in a certain way.
When the sixth nerve is paralyzed the eye is rolled inward, and again
there is diplopia. When the fourth nerve is paralyzed the eye is but
slightly displaced upward and inward. When the sympathetic nerve is
involved there will be protrusion of the globe with dilatation of the
pupil. This will be accompanied by flushing of the face.

MUSCULAR AND ACCOMMODATIVE DEFECTS.

Detection of errors of accommodation is practically a specialty
within a specialty, while the various forms of strabismus, or deviation
of the eyes from their normal axes, depend largely upon regulation of
accommodative errors.

REGION OF THE EXTERNAL AND MIDDLE EAR.

The region of the ear is subject to congenital malformations,
deviations, and defects, which include anomalous shapes of the
auricle, malpositions of the organ, defects in the cartilaginous
structure with resulting deformity, and congenital excesses or
redundancies by which there are made to appear supernumerary
auricles or portions thereof. These latter have been described by
Sutton and treated in his work on Comparative Pathology. They bear
relation as well to the branchial clefts, and are of great interest from a
phylogenetic point of view. Some of these defects result from absolute
arrest or excess of development, others from injury during intra-
uterine life; some are accentuated by lack of care during the early
months of infancy. The most common deformity of the ear is that by
which it is made unduly prominent and deflected outward or forward,
the cartilage being thick and abnormally curved. Such overlapping or
overprominent ears can be made to assume their proper position on
the side of the head by the excision of an elliptical piece, either of skin
or of skin and cartilage, at the point of junction of the ear and the
scalp. The amount to be removed should be proportionate to the
desired effect. The parts may be brought together by sutures, and the
auricle should then be bound upon the head.
Fig. 395 illustrates a common form of defect, inherently of the
cartilage and of the overlying skin. This is but one illustration of many,
two cases being rarely found exactly alike. Not infrequently these
arrests of development include the structures of the middle ear as
well. The auditory meatus may be entirely covered and concealed, or
may be absent, having failed to develop.
 Fig. 395

Developmental defect of external ear. (Broome.)

Supernumerary auricles are usually found as small tags of skin and

cartilage in front of or below the ear. They are easily removed and
leave no disfiguring scar.
 The external ear is also exposed to injury, which it frequently
receives in the way of contusions and lacerations. It is occasionally
detached. The ordinary wounds of these parts require only the
conventional treatment, while it may be possible, by replacement and
approximation of a completely detached portion, to see it re-adhere.
This happened to the writer after his horse had completely bitten a
piece out of the ear of his groom. Here, as with detached finger-tips,
cleanliness is necessary, and the parts must be kept warm and
protected after dressing. The cartilage of the ear is covered by a
perichondrium which corresponds to the periosteum. Beneath it, or
beneath the skin alone, blood may be extravasated as the result of
contusions. When such collections fail to promptly resorb they should
be incised and the contained blood released. Such lesions are referred
to as traumatic othematomas.
A peculiar lesion of this general character occurs occasionally in the
insane. If due to injury the latter is but trifling. It makes a
conspicuous tumor, involving usually the lower end of the auricle, and
is known as the othematoma of the insane. It is scarcely amenable to
surgery, nor does it often need it, but it constitutes a disfigurement
which is not only easily apparent, but diagnostic as to the cerebral or
mental condition.
The ear is the site of many neoplasms, both innocent and
malignant. Small papillomas are common, while fibrous tumors are
likely to develop, especially about the fibrocartilaginous lower end of
the auricle, where the ear has been pierced for ear-rings. Keloid
tumors, of still more conspicuously fibrous nature, are common about
the ear, especially among negroes. All innocent tumors may be
excised, through incisions which should be so planned as to leave a
minimum of disfigurement. (See Fig. 397.)
Of the malignant tumors epithelioma is perhaps the most frequent.
It pursues a course here similar to that which characterizes it
elsewhere, save that the dense structures of the cartilaginous ear
yield but slowly to its encroachment. The form known as “rodent
ulcer” is slower here than elsewhere. Fig. 396 illustrates a case under
the writer’s care, showing complete destruction of the external ear by
a growth of this kind, which had attained a degree and extent that did
not permit of successful treatment, and which eventually proved fatal.
When growths of this character have not progressed too far they
should be radically removed, the question of cosmetic effect being
secondary to that of their eradication. By a well-planned plastic
operation much can be done to atone for disfigurement resulting from
radical operation.

Fig. 396 Fig. 397

Complete destruction of auricle by rodent Congenital lymphangioma of ear. (Lexer.)

ulcer. (Buffalo Clinic.)

FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EAR.

All sorts and descriptions of foreign bodies may enter the ear. Young
children have a tendency to introduce all kinds of bodies into the ear,
as into the nose, and sometimes intrude them to such a distance that
their removal is made difficult. Living insects make their way into the
meatus auditorius and even deposit their larvæ, which may
subsequently go through their developmental phases and fill the
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