By Schubert Ogden
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This question seems the more pertinent if one pays attention to some of the things he says about "grace" (without making or implying the second distinction). Thus, for example, he says, "\[b\]y 'grace' we must understand every force in life and history which persuades and beguiles self-centered man to forget himself and to realize himself by letting go of himself and seeking the good of his fellows" (71 f.). Or, again, he says, I/\[T\]he 'grace' of Go ... is on the one hand the providential working in history by which God makes the wrath of man to praise him and transmutes good out of evil. The other element in divine grace is the element of forgiveness" (206). This second statement is not as helpful as it might be because the "on the other hand" one naturally expects in the second sentence is apparently replaced by "the other element," which is similarly unhelpful because there's no indication in what precedes it of any "element" than which it is "the other"\! But it certainly looks as though Niebuhr's meaning in the second sentence could have been more adequately expressed had he written something like, "On the other hand, divine grace is forgiveness, which can be accepted only by repentance."
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