Sunday, July 13, 2008
Who Wrote the Serenity Prayer?
So now the traditional attribution of Reinhold Niebuhr as author of the Alcoholics Anonymous Serenity Prayer -- "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change" etc. -- has been questioned, by a Yale Law librarian no less. But Niebuhr did say many other inspiring things, especially about religion and public life, so it's a good excuse to quote one (from The Irony of American History):
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite a virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own; therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2008/07/who-wrote-the-s.html