Ursula Mary Niebuhr was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 academic and theologian. She was the founder and longtime head of the Department of Religion at Barnard College

Barnard College

Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

 in New York City.

Although known as an American, she was born in Southampton

Southampton

Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

, England. After graduation from the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

 with double Firsts in history and theology, she became the first woman to win a fellowship to the Union Theological Seminary

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...

 in New York.

Marriage

In 1931, the former Ursula Mary Keppel-Compton, the younger daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Keppel-Compton of Woodhall Spa

Woodhall Spa

Woodhall Spa is a civil parish and village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England within a wooded area on the Southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, about south-west of Horncastle and about east-south-east of Lincoln...

 in Lincolnshire, England and Rapallo

Rapallo

Rapallo is a municipality in the province of Genoa, in Liguria, northern Italy. As of 2007 it counts approximately 34,000 inhabitants, it is part of the Tigullio Gulf and is located in between Portofino and Chiavari....

 in northern Italy, became the wife of Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...

 in Winchester, England. The couple made New York City their home during the majority of their 40 years together. The marriage, which lasted until his death in 1971, was said to have been marked by theological debates.

Career

As a lay minister in the 1930s, she was preaching in Anglican churches and raising questions about the role of women in the church

Women in Church history

Women in Church history were forbidden to occupy any significant ecclesiastical role and were confined to the status of wife, mother and daughter...

.

Beginning as a lecturer in 1940, she was a member of the Barnard College faculty for twenty years, retiring in the 1960s.

Selected works

• 1957 -- "A memorandum on certain reading and spelling difficulties for my academic colleagues, teachers, parents and anyone else." Westport, Connecticut: Orton Society. OCLC 1234375
• 1981 -- Remembering Niebuhr: letters of Reinhold and Ursula M. Niebuhr. San Francisco: Harper & Row. OCLC 246795572

External links

• Library of Congress: Reinhold Niebuhr Papers: Boxes 60-67 Professional File of Ursula Niebuhr, 1913-1994