Abstract

Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Realism is reflective of a broader movement that may be called religious realism, visible in the thought of Martin Luther King Jr., B. R. Ambedkar, Mohandas Gandhi, and Rammohun Roy. All these religious thinkers and activists have indicated a primary concern with inequality, and making religion relevant to positive moral and political change. This work primarily explores the literature explicating the religious and political philosophy of these men. Hence the methodology is one of comparative religious ethics. The hypothesis to be evaluated is that Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Realism is: Extendable and amendable to a larger framework of religious realism shared by thinkers Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu; Makes religion of practical use in the struggle for justice such as equality by linking its relevance to moral and political problems. The religious realism here encountered is essentially a response to modernity, responding to the inequities of modern civilization, the critique of science, religion, and political philosophy that has made religion less plausible to some, and situates religious views in the context of religious pluralism