Christian Realism is a
philosophical perspective developed by the
theologian and
public intellectual Reinhold Niebuhr in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Niebuhr argued that the
Kingdom of God cannot be realized on
earth because of the innately corrupt tendencies of society. Due to the injustices that arise on earth, a person is therefore forced to compromise the ideal of the kingdom of heaven on earth. Niebuhr argued that human perfectibility was an illusion, highlighting the sinfulness of humanity at a time when the world was confronted by the horrors of experiences such
World War II, the reigns of both
Adolf Hitler and
Joseph Stalin, and the
Holocaust. The movement was in part a reaction to the
Social Gospel movement. Numerous political figures have been influenced by Christian realism, such as
Martin Luther King Jr.,
Hillary Clinton,
Jimmy Carter,
Barack Obama,
Madeleine Albright, and
John McCain.