Moral Man and Immoral Society

{{Short description|1932 book by Reinhold Niebuhr}}

{{Infobox book

| italic title =

| name = Moral Man and Immoral Society

| image = Moral Man and Immoral Society.jpg

| image_size =

| alt = The words "MORAL MAN AND IMMORAL SOCIETY" in alternating red and blue above the words "A Study in Ethics and Politics" in blue above the words "by Reinhold Niebuhr" in red

| caption = First edition cover

| author = Reinhold Niebuhr

| audio_read_by =

| title_orig =

| orig_lang_code =

| title_working =

| translator =

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = United States

| language = English

| series =

| release_number =

| subjects = {{hlist | Liberalism | sin | pacifism}}

| set_in =

| published = 1932 (Charles Scribner's Sons)

| publisher =

| publisher2 =

| pub_date =

| english_pub_date =

| media_type = Print

| pages =

| awards =

| isbn =

| isbn_note =

| oclc =

| dewey =

| congress =

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

| native_wikisource =

| wikisource =

| notes =

| exclude_cover =

| website =

}}

Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics is a 1932 book by Reinhold Niebuhr, an American Protestant theologian.{{cite book |author= Niebuhr, Reinhold |author-link = Reinhold Niebuhr |title= Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics |place= New York |publisher= Charles Scribner's Sons |year= 1932 |url= https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.275372/page/n1/mode/2up?view=theater |via = Internet Archive}}{{sfn|Pianko|2010|p=117}} The thesis of the book is that people are more likely to sin as members of groups than as individuals.{{sfn|Crouter|2010|p=48}}{{Cite journal |last=Ellwood |first=Charles A. |date=1933 |title=Review of Moral Man and Immoral Society. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2766759 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=271–272 |doi=10.1086/216398 |jstor=2766759 |issn=0002-9602}}{{Cite journal |last=Davis |first=Jerome |date=1933 |title=Review of Moral Man and Immoral Society |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1018842 |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=166 |pages=231 |doi=10.1177/000271623316600165 |jstor=1018842 |issn=0002-7162}}{{Cite journal |last=Ben-Horin |first=Meir |date=1962 |title=Review of Moral Man and Immoral Society |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4465905 |journal=Jewish Social Studies |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=57–58 |jstor=4465905 |issn=0021-6704}}{{Cite journal |last=Pape |first=L. M. |date=1933 |title=Review of Moral Man and Immoral Society |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1947749 |journal=The American Political Science Review |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=296–297 |doi=10.2307/1947749 |jstor=1947749 |issn=0003-0554}} The book attacks liberalism, both secular and religious, and is particularly critical of John Dewey{{sfn|Rice|1993|p=17}} and the Social Gospel.{{sfn|Stumme|2006|p=100}}

Niebuhr wrote the book in a single summer.{{sfn|Rasmussen|1981|p=10}} He drew the book's contents from his experiences as a pastor in Detroit, Michigan prior to his professorship at Union Theological Seminary.{{sfn|Gill|2006|p=143}} Moral Man and Immoral Society generated much controversy and raised Niebuhr's public profile significantly.{{sfn|Brown|1987|p=xv}} Initial reception of the book by liberal Christian critics was negative, but its reputation soon improved as the rise of fascism throughout the 1930s was seen as having been predicted in the book.{{sfn|Dorrien|2003|p=459}} Soon after the book's publication, Paul Lehmann gave a copy to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who read it and was impressed by the book's thesis but disliked the book's critique of pacifism.{{sfn|Bethge|1999|p=268}} The book eventually gained significant readership among American Jews because, after a period of considerable anti-theological sentiment among Jews in the United States, many Jews began to return to the study of theology and, having no Jewish works of theology to read, turned to Protestant theological works.{{sfn|Goldy|1990|p=53}}