Niebuhr Says Humans Can Never Be Entirely Happy, Outlines 'True Joy'

Reinhold Niebuhr lashed out at modern attempts to achieve complete human happiness in a serman at Memorial Church yesterday, and at the same time he presented a view of "true joy" that comes "on the other side of sorrow."

Speaking to a standing-room-only audience, the professor from New York's Union Theological Seminary said that psychologists' attempts to form a "perfect society," where people are conditioned so that there is absolutely no tension with each other, does not to justice to human nature.

"Every person has in himself a conflict between self-love and love for others," Niebuhr said. "Any society that attempts to give complete individual happiness is neglecting this dual motive."

In place of such simple happiness, Niebuhr described a state of joy that he said is more consistent with the dual motivation of human nature. "Such is the pleasure that springs from personal sacrifice . . . an example is the joy a mother gets through sitting up all night with her child."