Courage and Serenity Prayer news

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>
> Quoting Benjamin Zimmer:
>
>> On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 12:39 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 11:26 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The Intercollegian and Far Horizons, vol. 55 no. 2, November 1937,
>>>> "What Makes a Strong Student Christian Association?" by Paul E.
>>>> Pfwetze, pages
>>>> 35-36. Page 36 col. 1:
>>>> A strong Association evaluates its progress by these tests:
>>>> 1....
>>>> [col. 2:]
>>>> 10. Is it inspired by the prayer attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr:
>>>> "Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to
>>>> accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from
>>>> the other."
>>>> Reprinted from "Notes and Views" (Published by the Pacific Southwest Field
>>>> Council).
>>>
>>> A minor correction: that's "News and Views." Appears to be a YMCA
>>> publication.
>>
>> Another correction: the author's name is Pfuetze, not Pfwetze. He was
>> a student of Niebuhr.
>
> A student (later?) of H. Richard Niebuhr rather than of Reinhold Niebuhr?

Ah, you're right -- I got the Niebuhr brothers confused.

(Worldcat says Pfuetze was born in 1904, making him 33 in 1937. His
M.A. thesis at the Pacific School of Religion is dated 1940: _A
psychological approach to the Christian doctrine of grace and
personality_.)


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org