Reinhold Niebuhr as Woody Allen Character

In his journal entry dated June 10, 1971, the late historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. lamented the inattention paid to his chief intellectual influence, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. â??It is odd to me how little read Niebuhr seems these days,â? Schlesinger wrote. â??We are inundated by new forms of the old utopianism he exposed so effectively. ... But we are bound to go back to Niebuhr, because we cannot escape the dark heart of man and because we cannot permit an awareness of this darkness to inhibit action and abolish hope.â?