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.

This is the beginning of the “Serenity Prayer,” an oft-quoted prayer that appears on everything from pillows and mugs to Alcoholics Anonymous literature. It has long been thought that the prayer was composed in the 1940s by Reinhold Niebuhr (d. 1971), a Protestant preacher and popular Christian thinker.

But Fred R. Shapiro, a Yale law librarian, seeks to change this thought. According to the New York Times News Service, Shapiro has found newspaper clippings dating back to 1936 that quote the prayer, with those who quote it saying they don’t know where it came from – a poem, perhaps?

If Shapiro is right, then the prayer was around before Reinhold Niebuhr used it in a sermon and published it widely. Maybe he just used it from memory without realizing he hadn’t written it, Shapiro suggests.

When Shapiro’s article about his findings appears in Yale Alumni Magazine next month, Niebuhr’s own daughter Elisabeth Sifton will rebut.

Sifton says if the prayer was used in the 30s, it’s because Niebuhr’s ideas were spreading quickly and reached other people who didn’t know he had written it.

For more pieces on or by Niebuhr, click here.

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