pp. 68-69
“

The movement of withdrawal and renunciation is a necessary element in every Christian life. ... It is an inevitable answer; but it is also inadequate. ... It is inadequate, for one thing, because it affirms in words what it denies in action; namely, the possibility of sole dependence on Jesus Christ to the exclusion of culture. Christ claims no man purely as a natural being, but always as one who has become human in a culture; who is not only in culture, but into whom culture has penetrated.

— H. Richard Niebuhr

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The movement of withdrawal and renunciation is a necessary element in every Christian life. ... It is an inevitable answer; but it is also inadequate. ... It is inadequate, for one thing, because it affirms in words what it denies in action; namely, the possibility of sole dependence on Jesus Christ to the exclusion of culture. Christ claims no man purely as a natural being, but always as one who has become human in a culture; who is not only in culture, but into whom culture has penetrated." in the context of "pp. 68-69" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "H. Richard Niebuhr" (Quotes, Christ and Culture (1951)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
H. Richard Niebuhr

About H. Richard Niebuhr

H. Richard Niebuhr (September 3, 1894 – July 5, 1962) was a Christian theological ethicist. He was the the younger brother of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.