The democratic thought of Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and its insight for Hong Kong

Date:  7 May 2015

Time:  1:00am – 2:30pm

Venue:  D2-LP-08, Tai Po Campus

The most interesting thing for studying Reinhold Niebuhr’s political theology nowadays, in Prof. Lo Ping Cheung’s opinion, is that people can bypass the human rights and equal rights terms to discuss such popular issues.

Niebuhr’s main idea is that man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary in order to achieve separation of power and balance of control. Because irresponsible and uncontrolled power is the greatest source of injustice.

According to Prof. Lo, Niebuhr’s political views are best revealed in his own words: “It is the highest achievement of democratic societies that they embody the principle of resistance to government within the principle of government itself. The citizen is thus armed with constitutional power to resist the unjust exaction of government. He can do this without creating anarchy within the community, if government has been so conceived that criticism of the rules becomes an instrument of better government and not a threat to government itself.”

Prof. Lo Ping Cheung concluded that if the government’s political-reform package is overruled, it becomes a good demonstration on power balance.