The Paradox of Church and World

Book excerpt: Ultimately, wrote H. Richard Niebuhr in 1929, the problem of church and world involves us in a paradox; unless the church accommodates itself to the world it becomes sterile inwardly and outwardly; unless it transcends the world it becomes indistinguishable from the world and loses its effectiveness no less surely. Niebuhrs thought on the paradox of church and world is an essential piece of twentieth-century theology. Jon Diefenthaler collects over forty of Niebuhrs writings on the topic and makes a case for their enduring value in a post-church religious environment.