The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War

Author Elisabeth Sifton is the daughter of noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Neibuhr wrote the now-famous "serenity prayer", which has been used for decades by various 12-step and other self-help programs. I had not known before reading this book that the prayer itself was originally written in the first-person plural case, giving strength of purpose to a Christian community which had been pummeled by decades of war: God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Sifton's book covers the first 45 years of the 20th century, when the world was shaken by two world wars and a great depression. Faith was a different animal back then -- intimately tied to community and social conscience. The world of faith she discusses is a far cry from the "name it and claim it" spiritual narcissism of the 21st century. It bears no resemblance to the prostitution of the gospel for political power which has come to define "American Christianity" in the last couple of decades. Filled with stories about Niebuhr's contemporaries, such as Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this book is a wonderful "insider's look" at a period that was rich with Christian thought, forged in a crucible of courage and difficulty. As a Buddhist, I really came away from this book with a renewed respect for American Christianity.

This magnificent book not only highlights the history of the Serenity Prayrer, but is also a thorough depiction of the politcs during the 30's-50's and the effects on the Christian community. So much is relevant to our present time that I wish all those great thinkers were here today to address the problems we face with the right-wing Christians. I wish I could meet Elisabeth Siftin in person and let her know how grateful I am that voices like hers are speaking out in this year---2005. Her father would be proud of her!

Easy reading is damn hard writing. The name of the writer who made that observation escapes me but he could easily have been talking about Elisabeth Sifton's THE SERENITY PRAYER, the author's moving, tender memoir of her father theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. In this beautifully written book on the origin of her father's most well known (and widely circulated) words, Sifton provides us with a Rosetta Stone for deciphering some of the most important political and historical events of the twentieth century. Events that inspired men and women like her father to dedicate their lives to the fight against facsism and a world free of bigotry, prejudice, and injustice. Whether standing up to the anti-communist hysteria of McCarthy era America, the oppressive, totalitarian government of the Soviet Union or the insane nuclear weapons programs of both countries, Niebuhr and the circle of activists and intellectuals who were drawn to his side were people who put principles above personalities. As a consequence, Sifton's father found allies in every nook and cranny of the American (and global) political and cultural landscape. Christians, Jews, East, West, Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, Southerners, Northerners, black, white, wealthy, poor, Niebuhr's followers and supporters cut across traditional class, color, gender and religious lines. Unlike other chronicles of this era in American history that use important battles, summits, documents, elections, trials, discoveries, etc. to launch their stories from, Sifton utilizes a nondescript prayer her father delivered at the Heath Church in a quiet town of the same name in Western Massachusetts as the back drop for her narrative. This beucolic New England village where the Niebuhr's spent their summers is the canvas upon which Sifton paints her vivid images and memories of childhood, her father, and the causes he, and, in fact, their entire family, devoted their lives to. A colleague in attendance at the sermon and deeply moved by the prayer asked him the origins of the words and where he might find them. Niebuhr said they were his and responded to this request by simply handing his friend his notes with the prayer written down on them. Eventually the prayer made its way to a (then) fledgling group called Alcoholics Anonymous. AA asked Niebuhr's permission to use his words as a staple of their spiritual "fellowship." Not believing anyone can "own" the words of a prayer anymore than one can own the sea or the air, the great theologian said yes again; and the rest is, as we say, "history". What Sifton gives us in THE SERENITY PRAYER is an intimate biography of a man who was, arguably, the greatest theologian of his generation, but what she gifts us is a spiritual topography of our nations soul. She accomplishes this by artfully weaving the story of the Serenity Prayer, her father's rich intellectual life and community and world history into a single riveting narrative. This literary device, if you wan