This study is about Reinhold Niebuhr's notions of meaning, mystery, method, and mystagogy. Niebuhr's understanding of myth is the binding thread through these notions, and it is to be found in issues dealing not only with protology (the idea of creation and the biblical accounts of the 'beginnings'), but also with eschatology (the biblical idea of the ends of time and history) and the relevance of this idea for Christian faith today. The first chapter highlights Niebuhr's basic premise regarding meaning, namely the conviction that mystery does not obstruct, but augments, the meaning of life, history, and human existence. The second chapter deals with the notion of God as mystery and symbol, and with Niebuhr's emphasis on the close correspondence, indeed profound unity, between ultimate meaning and ultimate mystery. The analysis of the text "Incoherence, Coherence, and the Christian Faith" in the last section of this chapter aims at deepening the relation between partial fulfillments, incomplete meanings, and the problem of truth as presented at the end of chapter one, thus paving the way for considerations concerning method. This is the issue of chapter three. After a critical examination of various attempts to characterize Niebuhr either as a liberal, a neoorthodox, a dialectical, or a biblical thinker, emphasis is put on Christian Realism as the guiding principle in Niebuhr's thought and action as a Social Gospel theologian both belonging to, and critical of, the Social Gospel movement. Niebuhr's Christian Realism, though, does not provide the final answer to the question pertaining to the center of his theological method. Niebuhr's preaching, writing, and teaching activities from the times of his appointment as pastor in Detroit up to his work at Union Theological Seminary in New York can all be summed up in the term 'mystagogy'. This approach is characterized and developed in chapter four. Niebuhr became increasingly involved in political movements of his day and concerned with what is commonly called the secularism of today's culture, which helped him to better situate Christian faith both as individual and social orientation toward what he called the Hidden Christ. This is similar to Karl Rahner's thought from the 1950s on which finds its inspiration in the notion of Anonymous Christianity. In this way, this study is an attempt to further develop Langdon Gilkey's comparison between Niebuhr and Rahner. By relying on past Niebuhrian research, this study aims at gaining insights into some challenges for the future of both Christian faith and culture.
