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Correspondence with Biographer June Bingham
Union Theological Seminary
Broadway at 120th Street
New York 27, N.Y.
June 14, 1954
Dear June,
Thank you so much for sending me Press' letter,
which I hereby return. Comparing me with Harnack, who
was an outstanding theologian of the 19th century, is
rather extravagant on the part of my old friend, Dr. Press.
That embarrasses me about as much as you thinking it worth-
while to write a biography.
I missed the real part of your previous question,
which I want to answer now. I think you are quite right,
if parents are not convinced atheists, if they have what
most modern parents have, a kind of vague faith and a vague
willingness to have more faith, they ought to expose their
children to religion as you suggest. Arnold Bennett's
example was not a good one because he was loutish as well
as unbelieving.
Your letter reminds me of people like Ellen and
Jim. They fit perfectly into the category of the parents
you mention.
In regard to my "doubting Thomas'" experiences -
there were years in my early ministry where I did not have
specific experiences of doubt but a rather general exper-
ience pervading everything, which I expressed Scripturally in
the words "I believe Lord, help Thou my unbelief". I did
not find any rest for this condition in which all the young
people in my generation found themselves, until it became
clear to me that by the nature of the human and the divine
self there cannot be "rational" validations of religious
experience. Religious faith must remain to the end on the
one hand in Pascal's phrase "a great gamble, while it is on
the other hand a certainty based on an accumulation of ex-
perience". Pascal, living in a rationalistic century
dominated by Descartes, was incidentally my best guide, as he
has been the guide for many in our generation.
The Oral History man is coming for another séance
this afternoon.
Affectionately,
Reinie N.
Dr. Niebuhr is not coming back to the office today so I'm
sending this along. He's seeing the Oral History man in his apt. Nola
Reinhold Niebuhr Papers: Library of Congress, Manuscript Reading Room
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