Brynov V. Socio-political ethics of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Realism

Thesis is devoted to the complex analysis of social and political ethics in Christian realism of Reinhold Niebuhr. The phenomenon of Christian realism is considered as a theological and philosophical concept, developed by Reinhold Niebuhr, and it made a significant impact on US society in 1940-1950. Reinhold Niebuhr began to develop his ideas by acknowledging the inconsistency of theology and practical church service to the problems and challenges of his time, and the result of these reflections was that Niebuhr’s influence on society was greater than on the church. Niebuhr’s Christian realism is considered as a return to Christian evangelical values in the socio-political space, and as a demonstration of Christianity’s ability to answer the complex questions of 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. We should note that 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. Moreover, some Protestant theologians do not make distinction between the works of the Niebuhr brothers and consider R. Niebuhr as one person, thus misleading the audience and assuming incorrect conclusions in their studies of socio-political theology. Therefore, goal of the research is overcoming this drawback, and it focuses on the Reinhold Niebuhr’s activities, his social and political concepts and the practical usage of the Christian realism ideas in Ukrainian society in the early XXI century.