The Essential Reinholo Niebuhr -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction by Robert McAfee Brown -- PART I PESSIMISTIC OPTIMISM -- 1 Optimism, Pessimism, and Religious Faith -- PART II GOD'S JUSTICE AND MERCY -- 2 The Power and Weakness of God -- 3 Two SermonsThe Providence of God -- The Wheat and the Tares -- 4 Humour and Faith -- 5 The Assurance of Grace -- 6 Prayers -- PART III THE CHURCH AND THE MODERN WORLD -- 7 The Christian Church in a Secular Age -- 8 The Christian Witness in the Social and National Order -- 9 Why the Christian Church Is Not Pacifist -- PART IV THEOLOGICAL ETHICS: RESOURCES FOR ENGAGEMENT -- 10 Augustine's Political Realism -- 11 Love and Law in Protestantism and Catholicism -- 12 The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness -- 13 The Relations of Christians and Jews in Western Civilization -- PART V THE POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF OUR KNOWING -- 14 Ideology and the Scientific Method -- 15 Coherence, Incoherence, and Christian Faith -- 16 Mystery and Meaning -- Epilogue: A View of Life from the Sidelines -- Index of Persons -- Index of Scriptural References -- Index of Subjects.