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In the wake of the council of Vatican II, two Christian theologians helped revisit Christian History. The first one is a prominent Catholic: Marie-Dominique Chenu (1895-1990); the second one, who is not as well known within the European context, is the American Protestant theologian Helmut Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962), the brother of Reinhold Niebuhr. For M.-D. Chenu, there can be no theological goal outside auditus fidei, which he considers to be a founding principle along with “the law of incarnation”, the understanding of which needs to be clarified but which was effectively reintroduced during the latest Council.M.-D. Chenu’s idea of “signs of the times” could benefit from a comparison with H. R. Niebuhr’s critical reflection. His reference to History is the basis of the theological ethic he develops, i. e. taking Jesus-Christ as the ultimate ethical resource commands a universal responsibility to reconcile oneself with God and the World. Both Chenu’s and Niebuhr’s texts can be mutually adjusted in order to better affirm the legitimacy of an autonomous ethic connected to new perspectives in the interfaith dialogue.