2023-12-10 - Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the preeminent theologians of the 20th century, is best remembered for describing the ethics of Jesus as an “impossible possibility.” Apparent impossibilities really are possible, he maintained, “and lead to new actualities in given moments of history,” but each new actuality is only “an approximation of the ideal.” We long for a fairer world, the good society, a cooperative commonwealth – whatever we may call it – but that world always seems beyond our reach. So it’s easy to succumb to despair and give up, but if we embrace the idea of impossible possibilities, we might learn to accept that the ideal is always coming into being, even if it never quite arrives as we imagined it.