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Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) was a very infuential American theologian. He wrote what came to be known as the Serenity Prayer for a sermon, and used it in a variety of forms, including a longer-form poem. Below is the best-known version of it. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can ...
The Serenity Prayer God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference.
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that one could almost believe that the prayer originated in the A.A. experience itself. Bill made this very point years ago, in thanking an A.A. friend for the plaque upon which the prayer was inscribed: "In creating A.A., the Serenity Prayer has been a most valuable building block-indeed a corner-stone."
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. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world As it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He ...
- History and Text
- Precursors
- Allusions to The Prayer
- References
- External Links
Original version by Reinhold Niebuhr
Niebuhr seems to have written the prayer for use in a sermon, perhaps as early as 1934 (the date given in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edn., ed. Justin Kaplan, 1992, p. 684), perhaps in the early 1940s. Elisabeth Sifton's book The Serenity Prayer(2003) quotes this version as the authentic original: 1. 1.1. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference. Reinhold Niebuhr recalled that his pr...
Adaptations and expansions
The prayer is reliably reported to have been in use in Alcoholics Anonymous since the early 1940s. It has also been used in Narcotics Anonymous and other Twelve-step programs; such as, Serenity Groups. Niebuhr's original text, from in Elisabeth Sifton's book The Serenity Prayer appears near the top of this page. The slightly edited Alcoholics Anonymousversion below omits the word "grace" from the first line, shortens some of the remainder, and sets out the prayer in the form of verses: 1. God...
The philosopher W.W. Bartley juxtaposes Niebuhr's prayer with a Mother Gooserhyme expressing a similar sentiment, but without comment: 1. For every ailment under the sun 2. There is a remedy, or there is none; 3. If there be one, try to find it; 4. If there be none, never mind it.
The back cover of the Neil Young album Re-ac-tor has the prayer in Latin: 'Deus, dona mihi serenitatem accipere res quae non possum mutare, fortitudinem mutare res quae possum, atque sapientiam dif...On the back cover of Whitney Houston's self-titled debut album.In the song, "Higher Power", by Boston.In the song, "Feel so different" (1990), by Sinéad O'Connor.Elisabeth Sifton, The Serenity Prayer(2003)L.G. Parkhurst, Jr., Prayer Steps to Serenity the Twelve Steps Journey: New Serenity Prayer Edition (Agion Press 2006) PrayerSteps.orgThe Serenity Prayer origin at Alcoholics Anonymous; same text also at The Origin of our Serenity Prayer at Alcoholics AnonymousAvailable at: https://licoda.org/Images/Serenity_Prayer_(long).pdf Codependents Anonymous www.CoDA.org Serenity Prayer (long version)1 God, Grant me the Serenity to ...
Niebuhr, Reinhold. Niebuhr, Reinhold, 1892–1971, American religious and social thinker; b. Wright City, Mo. He taught (1928–60) at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, and became interested in social problems. In the early 1930s he shed his liberal Protestant hopes for the church's moral rule of society and became a political activist ...
