Abstract
This paper deals with the meaning of grace according to Reinhold Niebuhr's description about it in his famous book, The Nature and Destiny of Man. As the concept of grace in Christianity is difficult to understand for non-Christian people, it may be useful to show how Niebuhr interprets grace. Niebuhr says that the concept of complete man had been accepted in Christianity, while it had become prevalent religiously and socially in the ancient Roman Empire and later Middle Ages in Europe. According to Niebuhr, Augustine, influenced by Hellenistic thought, conceived sin as a defect of the will, or as a lack of power to do good. The admixture of Hellenistic thought in Augustine's doctrine of sin contained the roots of his error in the doctrine of grace. Based on Augustine's idea, the Catholic synthesis was formed. As the Catholic synthesis blunted the original sin of man as well as the completeness of man , it was to be challenged by the Reformation and the Renaissance.
