Niebuhr is no economist in the narrow and more technical sense
of the term. He has sustained no specialized study in this area. But
insofar as economics is a branch of moral and political philosophy,
it has been very much in the center of his thought. His passion
for social justice first expressed itself in his concern for the des-
perate plight of the economically impoverished in the late 'twen-
ties and 'thirties and in a basic criticism of the economic structure
of society. Nor has the improvement in the lot of the worker
in recent years or the changes in his own economic and politi-
cal philosophy blunted his recognition of the immense signif-
icance of the realities of economic life for a just and functioning
society. His outlook has remained rigorously whole. Unlike many
of his contemporaries, the incredible wealth of post-war America
has not provided the occasion for him to retreat into a considera-
tion of Christian faith in an individualistic or exclusively personal
manner.

Niebuhr's present thought in this area can best be understood
if it is first seen in the light of his earlier struggle. That context is
the intellectual struggle in the days of the Great Depression to
find a vantage point from which to make an effective Christian
criticism whereby the economic and social realities of the day
could be livingly engaged, without falling into the inanities of
conventional religion on the one hand and without embracing the
illusions and dogmatism of Marxism on the other. It was an im-
mensely difficult task. His present position, however, is not to be
understood without some consideration of the insights won, and

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