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Frantic Orthodoxy Is Never Rooted In Faith But In Doubt. It Is When We Are Unsure That We Are Doubly Sure.
-Reinhold Niebuhr
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Frantic Orthodoxy Is Never

Reinhold Niebuhr
...
Frantic Orthodoxy Is Never Rooted In Faith But In Doubt. It Is When We Are Unsure That We Are Doubly Sure.

Understanding the Quote: "frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. it is..."

This quote by Reinhold Niebuhr reflects deeply on the theme of wisdom. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Wisdom, Doubt, Orthodoxy, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Reinhold Niebuhr interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr is celebrated for insightful thoughts on wisdom and doubt. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Wisdom
Doubt
Orthodoxy
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Ideas
Income
I'm Not Afraid Of Too Many Things, And I Got That Invincible Kind Of Attitude From My Father.
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Father
Kind
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Power
Goodness
Our Age Knows Nothing But Reaction, And Leaps From One Extreme To Another.
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Leaps And Bounds
Reactions
When A Church Reaches Up Beyond Its Group And Tries To Enforce Its Standards Upon A Society That Doesn't Accept These Standards, And Perhaps For Good Reason, Perhaps For Bad Reason, But Anyway This Is The Problem We Face In Pluralistic Society, That Not Necessarily Every Standard That Every Church Tries To Enforce Upon The Society Is From The Society's Standpoint A Good Standard.
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Trying
Groups
Man Is Always Worse Than Most People Suspect, But Also Generally Better Than Most People Dream.
Dream
Men
People
Man Is Both Strong And Weak, Both Free And Bound, Both Blind And Far-seeing. He Stands At The Juncture Of Nature And Spirit; And Is Involved In Both Freedom And Necessity.
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Men
Spirit
God, Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change, The Courage To Change The Things I Can, And The Wisdom To Know The Difference. Grant Me The Patience With Changes That Take Time, Appreciation Of All That I Have, Tolerance Of Those With Different Struggles, And The Strength To Get Up And Try Again, One Day At A Time.
Appreciation
Struggle
Differences
The Will-to-live Becomes The Will-to-power.
Will Power
Will To Live
Whether The Man Is An Atheist Or A Christian, I Would Judge Him By His Fruits, And I Have Therefore Many Agnostic Friends.
Christian
Atheist
Men
The More Complex The World Situation Becomes, The More Scientific And Rational Analysis You Have To Have, The Less You Can Do With Simple Good Will And Sentiment.
Simple
Analysis
World
Love Is The Motive, But Justice Is The Instrument.
Love Is
Justice
Instruments
Life Has No Meaning Except In Terms Of Responsibility.
Life
Responsibility
Term
The Separation Of Church And State Is Necessary Partly Because If Religion Is Good Then The State Shouldn't Interfere With The Religious Vision Or With The Religious Prophet.
Religious
Vision
Church
My Personal Attitude Toward Atheists Is The Same Attitude That I Have Toward Christians, And Would Be Governed By A Very Orthodox Text: "by Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them."
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Atheist
Attitude
Since Inequalities Of Privilege Are Greater Than Could Possibly Be Defended Rationally, The Intelligence Of Privileged Groups Is Usually Applied To The Task Of Inventing Specious Proofs For The Theory That Universal Values Spring From, And That General Interests Are Served By, The Special Privileges Which They Hold.
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Special
Groups
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Giving
Answers
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Happiness
Laughter
Prayer
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Ordinary
Needs
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Teamwork
Men
Self
There Is No Cure For The Pride Of A Virtuous Nation But Pure Religion.
Pride
Religion
Cures
In The Old Testament, The God Of The Prophets Never Was Completely On Israel's Side. There Was A Primitive National Religion, But It Was Always A Transcendent God Who Had Judgment First In The House Of God. This Is The True Religion. It Has A Sense Of A Transcendent Majesty And A Transcendent Meaning So That That Puts Myself And The Foe Under The Same Judgment.
Israel
House
Majesty
All Social Cooperation On A Larger Scale Than The Most Intimate Social Group Requires A Measure Of Coercion.
Groups
Coercion
Cooperation
Nothing That Is Worth Doing Can Be Achieved In A Lifetime; Therefore We Must Be Saved By Hope.
Success
Accomplishment
Lifetime
Better Not Read Books In Which You Make Acquaintance Of The Devil.
Book
Devil
Acquaintance
God Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change, The Courage To Change The Things I Can, And The Wisdom To Know The Difference.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
The Nuclear Age Has Refuted The Idea Of Progress And Marxism Has Been Refuted By Stalinism. Therefore People Have Returned To The Historic Religion.
Ideas
People
Age
For Man As An Historical Creature Has Desires Of Indeterminate Dimensions.
Men
Historical
Desire
I Don't Know Whether Any Religious Leader Would Say That We Must Ultimately Win, Because We're On God's Side. If They Do Say That, It's Bad Religion.
Religious
Winning
Leader
Change What Cannot Be Accepted And Accept What Cannot Be Changed.
Accepted
Accepting
Changed
We Misjudge Anybody Who's Different From Us And The Jews Diverge From Our Type, Ethnically And Religiously. That's Their Chief Offense, But There Are Particular Causes.
Causes
Different
Type
It's Always Wise To Seek The Truth In Our Opponents' Error, And The Error In Our Own Truth.
Wise
Errors
Opponents
I Think There Ought To Be A Club In Which Preachers And Journalists Could Come Together And Have The Sentimentalism Of The One Matched With The Cynicism Of The Other. That Ought To Bring Them Pretty Close To The Truth.
Thinking
Together
Clubs
The Scientific Observer Of The Realm Of Nature Is In A Sense Naturally And Inevitably Disinterested. At Least, Nothing In The Natural Scene Can Arouse His Bias. Furthermore, He Stands Completely Outside Of The Natural So That His Mind, Whatever His Limitations, Approximates Pure Mind. The Observer Of The Realm Of History Cannot Be Disinterested In The Same Way, For Two Reasons: First, He Must Look At History From Some Locus In History; Secondly, He Is To A Certain Degree Engaged In Its Ideological Conflicts.
Science
Two
History
The Fanatic Is Dangerous.
Dangerous
Fanatics
Ultimately Freedom Is Necessary For A Society, Because Every Despotic Society - For Instance, The Russian Society - Lives On The Basis Of A Rather Implausible Dogma - The Marxist Dogma Of World Redemption Through Communism.
Redemption
World
Dogma
We Ought To Really At Least Recognize The Common Predicament Of Communists And Democrats - Or Americans, Whatever.
Common
Communist
Predicaments
You Might Get Rid Of The Bishop And Get To The Local Ku Klux Klan Leader. That, On The Whole, Has Been The Fate Of Certain Types Of Protestantism. They Get Under The Control Of A White Citizens Council While The Catholic Church Has An Authoritarian System, Yes, In Which The Bishop Expresses The Conscience Of The Whole Christian Community And They Say There Are Some Things That You Can't Do On This Matter.
Christian
Fate
Ku Klux Klan
There Was A Time When I Had All The Answers. My Real Growth Began When I Discovered That The Questions To Which I Had The Answers Were Not The Important Questions.
Real
Growth
Important
I Know That The Communists Are Atheistic And Godless, But I Don't Think That That's What's Primarily The Matter With Them. What's Primarily The Matter With Them Is That They Worship A False God. That's Much More Dangerous Than When People Don't Believe Anything; They May Be Confused, They May Not Have A Sense Of The Meaning Of Life, But They're Not Dangerous.
Confused
Believe
Thinking
History Is A Realm In Which Human Freedom And Natural Necessity Are Curiously Intermingled.
Natural
Realms
Humans
History May Defeat The Christ But It Nevertheless Points To Him As The Law Of Life.
Law
History
May
In The 17th And 18th Centuries There Was A Kind Of Protestantism That Said, "if You Could Only Get Rid Of The Bishop, Then You'd Be A True Christian".
Christian
Bishops
Kind
The Fence And The Boundary Line Are The Symbols Of The Spirit Of Justice. They Set The Limits Upon Each Man's Interest To Prevent One From Taking Advantage Of The Other.
Men
Justice
Lines
All Men Are Naturally Included To Obscure The Morally Ambiguous Element In Their Political Cause By Investing It With Religious Sanctity.
Religious
Men
Political
Nothing We Do, However Virtuous, Can Be Accomplished Alone; Therefore We Are Saved By Love.
Love
Accomplishment
Accomplished
As Racial, Economic And National Groups, They Take For Themselves, Whatever Their Power Can Command.
Groups
Economic
Command
Marxism Was The Social Creed And The Social Cry Of Those Classes Who Knew By Their Miseries That The Creed Of The Liberal Optimists Was S Snare And A Delusion... Liberalism And Marxism Share A Common Illusion Of The "children Of Light." Neither Understands Property As A Form Of Power Which Can Be Used In Either Its Individual Or Its Social Form As An Instrument Of Particular Interest Against The General Interest.
Wisdom
Children
Light
The Essence Of Man Is His Freedom. Sin Is Committed In That Freedom. Sin Can Therefore Not Be Attributed To A Defect In His Essence. It Can Only Be Understood As A Self-contradiction, Made Possible By The Fact Of His Freedom But Not Following Necessarily From It.
Men
Self
Essence
Perhaps The Most Significant Moral Characteristic Of A Nation Is Its Hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy
Politics
Moral
Not Only In America But In Germany, In France Since The War, In Germany After The First World War, The Germany Of Adenauer, These Are The Creative Relationships Of Catholicism To A Free Society That The Average American Doesn't Fully Appreciate.
War
Average
America
Reason Is Not The Sole Basis Of Moral Virtue In Man. His Social Impulses Are More Deeply Rooted Than His Rational Life.
Men
Moral
Virtue
Family Life Is Too Intimate To Be Preserved By The Spirit Of Justice. It Can Be Sustained By A Spirit Of Love Which Goes Beyond Justice.
Family
Justice
Spirit
One Of The Fundamental Points About Religious Humility Is You Say You Don't Know About The Ultimate Judgment. It's Beyond Your Judgment. And If You Equate God's Judgment With Your Judgment, You Have A Wrong Religion.
Religious
Humility
Fundamentals
Civilization Depends Upon The Vigorous Pursuit Of The Highest Values By People Who Are Intelligent Enough To Know That Their Values Are Qualified By Their Interests And Corrupted By Their Prejudices.
Intelligent
Civilization
People
Family Life Is Too Intimate To Be Preserved By The Spirit Of Justice. It Can Only Be Sustained By A Spirit Of Love Which Goes Beyond Justice. Justice Requires That We Carefully Weigh Rights And Privileges And Assure That Each Member Of A Community Receives His Due Share. Love Does Not Weigh Rights And Privileges Too Carefully Because It Prompts Each To Bear The Burden Of The Other.
Life
Rights
Justice
The Cross Symbolizes A Cosmic As Well As Historic Truth. Love Conquers The World, But Its Victory Is Not An Easy One.
Conquer The World
Victory
Historic
We Have Had To Learn That History Is Neither A God Nor A Redeemer.
History
Redeemer
Aim For The Stars And Maybe You'll Reach The Sky.
Stars
Government
Sky
All Known Existence Points Beyond Itself.
Existence
Known
The Churches That Are Most Obviously Democratic Are Most Obviously Given To Race Prejudice. I Mean The Churches That Have Absolute Congregational Control.
Mean
Race
Church
The Mastery Of Nature Is Vainly Believed To Be An Adequate Substitute For Self Mastery.
Nature
Self
Environmental
We Have To Risk A Nuclear War In Order To Escape Capitulation To Communism. For All I Know, We May Stumble Into This Terrible War.
War
Order
Risk
Original Sin Is That Thing About Man Which Makes Him Capable Of Conceiving Of His Own Perfection And Incapable Of Achieving It.
Men
Perfection
Sin
If We Survive Danger It Steels Our Courage More Than Anything Else.
Courage
Survival
Steel
Rationalism Belongs To The Cool Observer. But Because Of The Stupidity Of The Average Person, They Follow Not Reason, But Faith. This Naïve Faith, Requires Necessary Illusions And Emotionally Potent Oversimplifications, Which Are Provided By The Myth Maker To Keep The Ordinary Person On Course.
Average
Stupidity
Politics
I Thank Heaven I Have Often Had It In My Power To Give Help And Relief, And This Is Still My Greatest Pleasure. If I Could Choose My Sphere Of Action Now, It Would Be That Of The Most Simple And Direct Efforts Of This Kind.
Simple
Giving
Effort
There Must Be A Realm Of Truth Beyond Political Competence, That's Why There Must Be A Separation Of Churches, But If Religion Is Bad And A Bad Religion Is One That Gives An Ultimate Sanctity To Some Particular Cause.
Giving
Political
Church
Certainly, Anybody Who Says, "in The Eyes Of God," Is Pretentious.
Eye
Pretentious
Man's Capacity For Justice Makes Democracy Possible, But Man's Inclination To Injustice Makes Democracy Necessary.
Freedom
Integrity
Adversity
The Dimension Of Depth In The Consciousness Of Religion Creates The Tension Between What Is And What Ought To Be. It Bends The Bow From Which Every Arrow Of Moral Action Flies.
Arrows
Religion
Depth
Human Beings Are Endowed By Nature With Both Selfish And Unselfish Impulses.
Selfish
Impulse
Humans
We Have Previously Suggested That Philanthropy Combines Genuine Pity With The Display Of Power And That The Latter Element Explains Why The Powerful Are More Inclined To Be Generous Than To Grant Social Justice.
Powerful
Justice
Elements
Frantic Orthodoxy Is Never Rooted In Faith But In Doubt. It Is When We Are Unsure That We Are Doubly Sure.
Wisdom
Doubt
Orthodoxy
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