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The Idea of Covenant and American Democracy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Richard Niebuhr
Richard Niebuhr
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

Every effort to deal with the history of ideas is beset by hazards. Semantic traps are strewn along the way of the inquirer; such words as democracy, liberty, justice, etc., point to different concepts or varying complexes of concepts as they are used in different periods of history and by different men. The unuttered and frequently unacknowledged presuppositions of those who employ them also vary; and since meaning largely depends on context the difficulties of understanding what is meant are increased by the difficulty of ascertaining what is at the back of the minds.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1954 , pp. 126 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1954

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References

* Read before the American Studies section of the American Historical Association, at Chicago, December 28, 1953.