Socio-Political Ethics of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Realism

Abstract

Brynov, Vitaliy. “Socio-political Ethics of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Realism.” Thesis for the degree of candidate of philosophy – 09.00.14 (041 – Theology). The thesis is devoted to the complex analysis of social and political ethics in the Christian
realism of Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr’s Christian realism is considered a return to Christian evangelical values in the socio-political space and a demonstration of Christianity’s ability to answer the complex questions of the contemporary world. The main characteristics of Christian realism are practicality and pragmatism, orientation on biblical ethics, as well as honesty and openness in recognizing human limitations. In the Ukrainian academic space, there are no studies of the phenomenon of Christian realism, no studies of the works of the brothers Reinhold Niebuhr and Helmut Richard Niebuhr, and there are no works of these authors translated into Ukrainian. Therefore, the research aims to overcome this drawback, and it focuses on Reinhold Niebuhr’s activities, social and political concepts, and the practical usage of the Christian realism ideas in Ukrainian society in the early XXI century.