Introduction

From 1935 to roughly 1943, Paul Ramsey was a theological idealist who essentialized the Christian Gospel into agape, and then sought to apply that essence for the complete transformation of society. By 1950, Ramsey came to endorse war for the sake of one’s neighbor “by the most effective means possible.” From his dissertation to Nine ModernMoralists, he worked with a version of philosophical idealism, incorporating it with his Niebuhrian realism. Ramsey’s reclamation of casuistry for Protestant social ethics represents an alternative movement with the dominant traditon of 20th century thought. The space Ramsey’s well-honed casuistry secures for the practice of the Christian moral life is always limited by the constraints of political responsibility within a structure that assumed tragedy. Ramsey did not leave his theological liberalism behind him without struggle. As a student under H. Richard Niebuhr, he was critical of Reinhold Niebuhr’s work, particularly Niebuhr’s early support of the allied cause in World War II.