News
Amid Boston Overdose Crisis, a Pair of Harvard Students Are Bringing Narcan to the Red Line
News
At First Cambridge City Council Election Forum, Candidates Clash Over Building Emissions
News
Harvard’s Updated Sustainability Plan Garners Optimistic Responses from Student Climate Activists
News
‘Sunroof’ Singer Nicky Youre Lights Up Harvard Yard at Crimson Jam
News
‘The Architect of the Whole Plan’: Harvard Law Graduate Ken Chesebro’s Path to Jan. 6
In Cambridge for a weekend 'rest", theologian Reinhold Niebuhr yesterday conducted Sunday morning services at the College and later told a packed audience in the First Congregational Church that "Christianity extends beyond both law and relativism."
Niebuhr, a professor at New York's Union Technological Seminary, was a guest to Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, '38, associate professor of History.
"No law can define the ultimate goodness of man," Niebuhr told his Congregational Church listeners. He cited one preacher whose wife brought a tape measure to church to test whether girls' skirts were within moral limits.
People still like to be legalistic in their religion, Niebuhr said. "If you can define what is good and then do it, you can supposedly set your conscience at ease."
"Law can never compel a man to do good," he concluded.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.