A remarkably powerful quote from Reinhold Niebuhr, one of President Obama’s favorite thinkers and theologians, on the necessarily incomplete and imperfect nature of all human action:
“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.”A long article from the New York Review of Books on Niebuhr’s work in international relations and on the dangers of nationalistic hubris can be read here.
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