Niebuhr, H. Richard

Niebuhr, H. (Helmut) Richard (1894–1962) Protestant theologian; born in Wright City, Mo. (brother of Reinhold Niebuhr). The son of a pastor, he graduated from Elmhurst College, Ill., in 1912, worked briefly for a newspaper, and held a pastorate in St. Louis before beginning a long academic career. As a professor of theology at Yale from 1931 on, he had an enormous influence on generations of students. His writings, which apply the insights of the social sciences to the problems of Christianity, include The Meaning of Revelation (1941) and Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960).