![]() But the Serenity and Footprints controversies raise the issue of whether we could or should apply a different standard to similar questions if they involve religious texts? Neither of them had renounced her own claim on the poem at the time of the article.īoth these cases the page-one treatment in the paper of record and the lawsuit are very much a piece with an environment where the web and data banks make it ever easier to compare texts and we generally take a fairly hard line on plagiarism in journalism and the publishing industry. He asserted that the women had each received more than a million dollars in royalties for its use. The RNS recorded that the son of a woman named Mary Stevenson brought suit in May against two women he claimed were inappropriately claiming authorship of the poem, which he said his mother had written in the 1930s and copyrighted in 1984. In May the Religion News Services ran a similar article about the devotional poem "Footprints" ("One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord."). The Serenity frenzy, if one may call it that, is not unique. It's our answer to the second question should we care that will establish us very much as creatures of our own era and its mind-set. ![]() I honestly do believe I wrote it myself." You decide. Quizzed on its origins in his lifetime, the theologian said, " "Of course, it may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. The Yale Alumni article's writer, Fred Shapiro, told the Times he felt Niebuhr might have unconsciously lifted it. Sifton, Niehbuhr's daughter, says that her father preached around the country in the 1930s and could have introduced the prayer in his travels, prior to '43. ![]() The first question seems not immediately answerable. So who wrote the iconic prayer and should we care? But the Times reports that an article in the Yale Alumni Magazine by a law librarian and quotation expert there will present his discovery of versions of the prayer unattributed to Niehbuhr from as early as 1936. So certain is his daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, of its provenance, that she put out a book in 2003 about its connections with her father's views on peace and war. He wrote it, according to most accounts, for a sermon he gave in the summer of 1943. For decades, it has been routinely attributed to the great Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. On Friday, the New York Times broke a story about the famous "Serenity Prayer," part of which is cited above. and, while You're at it, enable my heirs to serenely withstand claims that I didn't write this prayer which, it should be remembered by all, was not composed with a byline in mind. But He did send Jesus, and those who accept His sacrifice are the only ones who have a real hope of being “reasonably happy” in this life and supremely happy in the next.Follow grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change courage to change the things I can. If that were true, He would not have sent His Son to die for sin and reconcile the sinful world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). At the same time, the serenity prayer says God takes the sinful world as it is. Fretting and worrying our way through life indicates a lack of faith in our God and an unwillingness to surrender to His will and trust that He has all things under control. The serenity prayer speaks of a life lived in calm, courageous faith in God, reminiscent of Paul’s admonition to “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6). It has been part of Alcoholics Anonymous ever since and has also been used in other twelve-step programs.īiblically speaking, there are some excellent thoughts expressed in this prayer and may very well be something Christians can pray and meditate on. The co-founder of AA, William Griffith Wilson, and his staff liked the serenity prayer and had it printed out in modified form and handed around. The first two lines are most familiar because of their association with Alcoholics Anonymous. That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change Ĭourage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.Īccepting hardships as the pathway to peace The text of the entire serenity prayer is as follows: Niebuhr himself did not publish the serenity prayer until 1951, in one of his magazine columns, although it had previously appeared under his name in 1944, when it was included in a Federal Council of Churches book for army chaplains and servicemen. ![]() There are various versions of the serenity prayer floating around with minor alterations. The serenity prayer is attributed to a Protestant theologian named Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971).
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