""Dread or anxiety," he explained, "is the psychological condition which precedes sin, comes as near as possible to it, and is as provocative as possible of dread, but without explaining sin, which breaks forth first in the qualitative leap." Kierkegaard saw this "sickness unto death" as an inherent factor in human existence, and he taught that a "synthesis" was needed, by which he meant a vital relationship of man with God by which man may resolve his inner conflicts and live at peace with himself. Influenced by these thoughts of Kierkegaard, Reinhold Niebuhr has developed the thesis that man is a creature of two dimensions: "He stands at the juncture of nature and spirit." As finite, man is a part of nature, subject to its laws and its vicissitudes; but as self-conscious, man transcends himself, being capable of viewing himself as object, and thus is a creature of spirit. As part of nature he is determined; as spirit he is above nature and free. It is natural to man, therefore, to be in tension between the two; that tension is his anxiety, which is not sin but tempts to sin."
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Academics from the United StatesNon-fiction authors from the United StatesProtestants from the United StatesChristian existentialistsTheologians from Missouri
Original Language: English
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Robert H. Bonthius, in Christian Paths to Self-acceptance (1948), p. 8
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr
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Reinhold Niebuhr
1892 – 1971
US-amerikanischer Theologe, Philosoph und Politologe
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