As a child, I memorized without understanding a short prayer on a plaque in my grandparents’ guest bedroom. I loved the curlicued lettering and somber tone. Later, I learned that the “Serenity ...

I’m not sure when I first encountered the Serenity Prayer, or when it first occurred to me to ask who wrote it. For much of ...

Most of us have heard The Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. As a lifelong ...

In the early ’30s in the popular summer getaway of Heath, Mass., one of the seasonal residents was preparing a guest sermon for a local church. The sermon was too short, so the resident &#821… ...

The prayer appeals for grace, courage and wisdom. It has become a mantra of Alcoholics Anonymous, but has appealed to, and been quoted by, many people all over the world. Niebuhr wrote it in 1943.

The Serenity Prayer — perhaps the most famous prayer to originate in modern times — has long been ascribed to noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr ’14 GRD ’15. For over 60 years, the prayer has served as ...

The 1932 partial Serenity Prayer is the data point that clinches the argument for “R.N.” (Reinhold Niebuhr) as Wygal’s source for the prayer and as its originator.

The Serenity Prayer in all of its forms rests on Niebuhr’s hard-won sense of history’s tragic dimension, borne of his experience of two world wars and a global depression.